Juana Manuel of Castile

Juana Manuel of Castile (1339 – 27 March 1381) was from 1369 the Queen consort of Castile. She also was the heiress of Escalon, Villena, Penafiel and Lara as well as the sovereign lady ("senora soberana") of Biscay (the Basque country).

She was the daughter of the Infante Juan Manuel of Castile (1282-1349) and his second wife Blanca Núñez de Lara de La Cerda. Her mother Blanca (d. 1347) was a descendant of the sovereign Lords of Vizcaya (the Basque country) and of Lara and of Alfonso X's eldest son (Fernando de La Cerda).

Her elder half-sister Constance of Penafiel (who died in 1345 when Juana was just about five years old) was queen consort of Portugal.

On 27 July, 1350 she married don Enrique (1333-79), eldest of the illegitimate sons of Alfonso XI of Castile, who in 1369 became King Henry II of Castile, after he deposed his half-brother to take the throne. They had the following children:

*King John I of Castile (1358–1390)
*Eleanor, Infanta of Castile (died 1416)
*Juana, Infanta of Castile

In 1361 (at the death of her teenage niece BlancaFact|date=April 2007, daughter of her full brother Fernando who himself had died in c 1350 without other children) she inherited Villena, Escalona and Penafiel. From her cousin, she also inherited Lara and Vizcaya (Basque country). In 1369, she became queen of Castile and Leon.

When she in 1381 died and left her inheritance to her son, Vizcaya finally was united to Castile, and ultimately to Spain. The Basque people remember her for that.