, 1551.
Early years Born in
Madrid, Joanna was the daughter of
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who was the first king of united Spain, officially
King of Aragon and
King of Castile and his wife,
Isabella of Portugal. Therefore, her paternal grandparents were
Philip of Castile and
Joanna of Castile, and her maternal grandparents were
Manuel I of Portugal and
Maria of Aragon. She was the sister of King
Philip II of Spain and
Maria of Austria. Among others, Joanna held the titles of
Archduchess of Austria,
Infanta of Castile and of Aragon, and
princess of Burgundy. Named for the saint's day of her birth (24 June is the
Nativity of St. John the Baptist) and in honour of her paternal grandmother,
Queen Joanna of Castile, Joanna of Austria was motherless at the age of four and was entrusted to Doña
Leonor de Mascareñas. By age eight she could understand
Latin and could play several musical instruments.
Princess of Portugal On 11 January 1552, at the age of sixteen, Joanna married her double first cousin, the fourteen-year-old crown prince of Portugal,
John Manuel of Portugal, by
proxy in
Toro. She arrived at the Portuguese court in November 1552. The marriage was cut short when John Manuel died of
tuberculosis at age sixteen on 2 January 1554. However, Joanna was pregnant by that time, and the future Portuguese king
Sebastián I was born on 20 January 1554. of Joanna, 1566 Joanna returned to Spain in May 1554 at the request of her father, leaving her newborn son with her mother-in-law, the Portuguese Queen
Catherine of Austria, who was Charles V's youngest sister.
Regent of Spain Shortly after Sebastian's birth, Joanna was called back to Madrid by her brother Philip to act as regent during his absence in England from 1554. She filled this role with intelligence and efficiency. Joanna never remarried and never returned to Portugal. She never saw her son Sebastian again, although she sent him letters and had portraits of him painted at various ages so she could see what he looked like. In 1557, Joanna founded the Convent of Our Lady of Consolation (
Nuestra Señora de la Consolación) for the nuns of the order of
Poor Clares, also known as
Discalced Clarisses (in Spanish, ) because they did not wear covered shoes, and only walked either barefoot or in sandals, now known as the
Convent of Las Descalzas Reales, or convent of the
royal barefoot females, partly due to her affiliation and that the convent continued to attract aristocratic women as nuns. This convent is now a national monument and holds an art collection. It was founded in the royal palace where Joanna was born and where Charles V had lived when in Madrid. Joanna repeatedly intervened in favour of the new order of the
Jesuits, founded by
Ignatius of Loyola. In 1555, she is reputed to have been admitted surreptitiously to the male-only Jesuit order under the name of a pseudonym, Mateo Sánchez. She corresponded with both Ignatius and
Francis Borgia. == Arms ==