Royal Chapel of Granada

In fifteen twenty-five, Philip the Handsome's coffin was brought into the crypt of the Royal Chapel of Granada. Philip was the deceased husband of Joanna I of Castile. It was taken secretly from Tordesillas at night. Their son Charles, the future Emperor Charles V, ordered this because he feared that his mother would object.

Philip had died nineteen years earlier. At first, Joanna herself intended to take his body to Granada, as her husband's will stipulated. Later, she left the coffin in the Church of Santa Clara in Tordesillas, beside the palace, and for years demanded that requiem Masses be said there, spending money on candles and prayers.

Joanna became known by the epithet the Mad. Historians still debate her mental state. One thing is certain: her father Ferdinand II of Aragon removed his daughter from government, citing illness, and Charles continued to keep his mother in custody. Joanna nevertheless remained the lawful queen. Charles had to put her name beside his own in state documents.

That is precisely why he needed this place. Joanna's parents, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, established a family mausoleum here in fifteen oh four. Granada marked the end of their ten-year war with the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, and the couple chose the conquered city for their burial. They appointed priests, provided them with an income, and ordered them to say three Masses every day for deceased members of the family. The chapel's name was literal: it was the monarchs' burial church, with its own permanent staff.

In fifteen eighteen, Charles commissioned a double marble tomb for Philip and Joanna for this chapel. His father was already dead, while his mother was alive and still wore the crown. The commission was not discussed with her. On the stone monument, the son placed the living queen among her deceased ancestors in advance, and then took her husband's coffin from her and sent it here.

For Joanna, the transfer meant losing the last object whose fate she could still determine. She remained in Tordesillas and died there in fifteen fifty-five, almost thirty years after Philip was secretly taken away. Her grandson Philip II later ordered his grandmother's body moved to Granada.

The marble parts of their tomb arrived from Italy in crates, remained unassembled in storage for decades, and took their present place only in sixteen oh three. Beneath them lies a cramped crypt with the actual coffins. Philip and Joanna stand there side by side in plain lead boxes; only the initials of their names were left on the lids.