Philip I of Castile passed away on 25 September 1506. Despite being known in history by the title of Castile, he was a pure-blooded Habsburg, son of Emperor Maximilian I. His connection with the kingdom came only jure uxoris — by right of his wife, Joanna, the daughter of Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragon. By 1500, the deaths of some of Joanna’s relatives had made the couple, then residing in Brussels, the heirs presumptive of Castile.
Curiously, Philip showed little enthusiasm for leaving Burgundy for Spain. Even after Queen Isabel’s death in 1504, when he became King of Castile alongside Joanna, more than a year passed before he finally set foot on Castilian soil. Once there, Philip faced his father-in-law Fernando, who had himself ruled Castile jure uxoris during his marriage to Isabel and was unwilling to relinquish control over a kingdom far larger, richer, and more populous than his own Aragon.
The meeting between father-in-law and son-in-law unfolded in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust, false promises, bribery, sly manoeuvres, shams, and veiled military threats. Quite possibly, this dysfunctional family reunion would have escalated into open conflict had the 28-year-old Philip not died only weeks late r— suddenly and unexpectedly — after a brief, fever-like illness. His death left Fernando de facto ruler of Castile in Joanna’s name for the next decade, until his own death.
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