1895.] Insanity in Royal Families. 119 
acter as that of his descendant in Windsor Castle two hundred 
years later. Itis written of the “ good Duke William” of Celle 
that when“ in old age he was deprived of both sight and reason, 
he had occasional glimpses of mental light, when he would bid 
his musicians play the psalm tunes which he loved.” 
In this article I will speak chiefly of the Spanish and Aus- 
trian branches of the house of Hapsburg; and of the Russian 
house of Romanoff. 
The Spanish Hapsburgs. In the year 1496 Joanna, second 
daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon, and Isabella of Castile, was 
married to Philip the Handsome, Son of Maximilian, Empe- 
ror of Germany, and Mary of Burgundy, daughter and heiress 
of Charles the Bold. It is to be doubted if any marriage in 
the whole course of history has been attended with more di- 
rect consequences than this, since Mary of Burgundy brought 
with her the fairest provinces of the Netherlands as her dow- 
er, which were thus exposed to the diabolical cruelty and bi- 
gotry of Spanish rule. 
In 1506 Philip the Handsome died, as lately discovered 
historical documents appear to prove, from poison adminis- 
tered by his wife. Joanna, who had always been weak-minded, 
was possessed by an insane jealously of her husband, and after 
his death she became completely mad. Fits of fury alternated 
with melancholy, and the sad life of this ancestress of long 
lines of kings ended in complete dementia. Joanna’s jealously 
of her husband did not cease with his death, but for years she 
persisted in carrying his body about with her, and violent ac- 
cesses of fury occurred if any woman approached the corpse. 
It is not likely that the insanity in the royal family of Spain 
began with Joanna, and it would be peculiarly interesting in 
this and other cases to trace the taint from its very beginning. 
Joanna’s sister Catherine was the mother of the “ Bloody” 
Queen May of English History, who showed the characteristic 
moral insanity and ferocious bigotry of so many of the Spanish 
Hapsburgs. A granddaughter of Joanna’s married to Duke 
William V. of Juliers and Cleves, went mad, and her husband 
shared the same fate. Her son, who was demented, died, and 
