Born Charlotte of Belgium, she was the daughter of King Leopold I and the first cousin of Queen Victoria. It would be hard to imagine a stranger life than the one led by Carlota, the first and only Habsburg empress of Mexico.

A group of rebels freed Joanna in 1520 and pronounced her sane and fit to rule-but changed their minds after she refused to support them instead of her son and sometime tormentor Charles. When he was concerned that she might try to flee during a plague outbreak, Charles arranged for fake funeral processions to pass by her lodgings, convincing her to stay put. From then on it was Charles who kept his mother imprisoned, creating a fictional world to keep her in isolation. After Ferdinand’s death in 1516, Joanna and her teenage son Charles were made co-monarchs. After Philip’s death in 1506, Joanna’s confinement continued for another decade of her father’s regency. When a series of deaths made her heir apparent to Isabella’s throne, her husband kept her confined after her mother’s death in an attempt to press his claim (over Ferdinand’s) for the Castilian throne. Born fourth in line to the throne of her parents Ferdinand and Isabella, Joanna was married off to Philip “the Handsome” of Burgundy at age 16.

Few queens’ stories are sadder than that of “Juana la Loca,” whose family and rivals colluded to keep her confined in asylums.

Rashalga the mad queen