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Portrait of Joan the Beltraneja.

Juana of Castile, known also as the Beltraneja (1462 – 1530) was a princess of Castile.

Her birth caused a scandal in the Castilian court. Her mother was Joana, princess of Portugal, the consort queen of king Henry IV of Castile. The king had no other children from this or the previous marriages and rumour said he was impotent. Because of this and the fact that Joana of Portugal was having a notorious affair with Beltrán de La Cueva, a Castilian noble, Juana was never considered legitimate. Moreover, she was nicknamed the Beltraneja (a mocking reference to her assumed real father) from the cradle. Her mother was banished to Bishop Fonseca's castle where she fell in love with Fonseca's nephew and became pregnant. Henry divorced her.

Legitimate or not, Joanna remained the only child that could be remotely attributed to Henry IV of Castile. He even made the nobles of Castile swear alliance to her and promise that they would support her as queen. After a few unsettled arrangements, that included French and Burgundian princes, Joanna was promised in marriage to her uncle, King Afonso V of Portugal, who swore to defend her (and his own) rights to the crown of Castile. But when Henry died in 1474, nobody took Juana's cause seriously and the crown went to Isabella I of Castile, her aunt, initiating a four-year War of the Castilian Succession.

Castilian and Leonese royalty
House of Trastámara

Henry II (I of Leon) Children include    Prince John (future John I)    Eleanor, Queen of Navarre John I Children include    Henry, Prince of Asturias (future Henry III of Castile and II of Leon)    Ferdinand I of Aragon, Valencia and Sicily Henry III (II of Leon) Children include    John, Prince of Asturias (future John II)    Maria, Queen of Aragon, Valencia, Sicily and Naples John II Children include    Henry, Prince of Asturias (future Henry IV of Castile and III of Leon)    Infanta Isabella (future Isabella I)    Alfonso, Prince of Asturias Henry IV (III of Leon) Children    Joan, Queen of Portugal Isabella I with Ferdinand IV (V of Leon) Children    Isabella, Queen of Portugal    Juan, Prince of Asturias    Joan, Princess of Asturias (future Joan I)    Maria, Queen of Portugal    Catherine, Queen of England Grandchildren include    Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal and Spain Joan with Philip I Children    Eleanor, Queen of Portugal and France    Charles, Prince of Asturias (future Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire)    Isabella, Queen of Denmark and Norway    Ferdinand I of the Holy Roman Empire    Mary, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia    Catherine, Queen of Portugal

On 30 May 1475, Afonso V married Joan in Plasencia and prepared for the fighting. In 1476 he invaded Castile, but was defeated in the battle of Toro by Ferdinand II of Aragon, Isabella of Castile's husband. After this, Afonso V tried to procure, without success, an alliance with Louis XI of France. In 1479, the king of Portugal gave up on the pretension and signed a treaty with the Catholic kings. Meanwhile their marriage had been annulled by Pope Sixtus IV on account of their family relation. Juana signed her letters until the day she died, "La Reina" meaning the queen. She thought that she had been cheated out of her inheritance and her aunt sent her to a convent. She died in Lisbon.

A drama entitled "Juana la Beltraneja" has been published in Liceus El Portal de las Humanidades by the author Santiago Sevilla. Here the role of Juan Pacheco and Beltrán de la Cueva shows the pernicious influence of certain members of the nobility towards princess Juana.