JOANNA I AND CHARLES

Following the death of Ferdinand II, Prince Charles staged a coup in the Netherlands and proclaimed himself King of Castile and Aragon alongside his mother Joanna, issuing Castilian coins in both their names. This caused turmoil in the Hispanic kingdoms, prompting the new monarch to negotiate his recognition upon arriving in Spain by convening he Cortes and swearing to uphold the Fueros. Despite this, he faced numerous obstacles in the Crown of Aragon, where many refused to recognise Queen Juana due to doubts about her mental capacity to swear to the Fueros. In this context, Charles managed to gain recognition as king in all Hispanic territories. However, to emphasise that his power derived dynastically from his mother, he minted several gold coins in Aragon and Barcelona featuring both their busts. Many of these coins are undated, but there are also double principats of Barcelona known with dates from 1521, 1531, 1532 and 1536, mainly differing in the heraldic arrangement of the reverse shield. On these coins, the facing busts are depicted with the sceptre of power between them and beneath the link of the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece. Additionally, the queen's name precedes the king's, reflecting the mother-son hierarchy, contrary to matrimonial coins where the husband's name comes first. These coins also bear Aragonese and Barcelonese titles and the reverse shield displays a tierced per pale with the dynastic pales and the emblems of the kingdoms of Naples (only with the Jerusalem cross, without the fess of Hungary) and Aragon-Sicily.