A Brief History of the Jews in Renaissance Spain
The Jews, who settled in Spain between the 1st and 4th centuries, flourished there and contributed to Spanish society and culture. The Christians, Jews, and Muslims got along better with each other in Spain than they did elsewhere in Europe. While Jews were being expelled from other European countries, they found a safe haven in Spain. That is not to say that they were always secure. There were periodic uprisings against and massacres of the Jews in different parts of Spain and repressive laws enacted against them. But mostly the Jews would quietly wait until the furor of a monk's tirades against them died down and then resume their lives. The worst laws against the Jews were usually not enforced. The Jews' crime was their refusal to convert and to accept Christianity as the true religion and Jesus as their God.
Christian Spain was divided into two large kingdoms, Aragon and Castile. In the 1300s King Pedro the Cruel of Castile had a Jewish royal treasurer, Samuel Abulafia. Pedro's half-brother, Henry of Trastamara, led a revolt against the king. Being loyal citizens, the Jews fought on Pedro's side. When the king was defeated, Henry ascended to the throne and began to persecute the Jews who had fought against him. Monks were encouraged to preach against the Jews and provoked mobs to riot and destroy Jewish homes and property. The Jews were forced to wear yellow badges as they were required to in the rest of Europe. Jews were given a choice: conversion or death. Many chose to convert. These New Christians, called conversos or Marranos (pigs), were never accepted into society. In 1391 there was a great massacre of Spanish Jews.
The Old Christians hated the New Christians (Marranos) because they were a threat to them. The Marranos were not barred from occupations that were not open to Jews, and other laws restricting Jews no long applied to them. They thus became a greater enemy than the Jews. The Old Christians felt that the Marranos were not true believers. That was often true; many Marranos secretly continued to practice Judaism.
In1469 Princess Isabella of Castile married Prince Ferdinand of Aragon, and their two kingdoms were united. When they became queen and king of Spain in 1479, the Christians, Jews, and Muslims still coexisted somewhat peacefully. The king and queen had nothing against the Jews at first and offered protection to them. The Jews provided a substantial tax base and were wealthy contributors to the nation. After a few years, though, convinced by their Old Christian advisors, Ferdinand and Isabella decided that they must keep Catholicism pure and Spain a Christian nation. For this reason, Isabella established the Inquisition in 1480 with Tomas de Torquemada as its Grand Inquisitor. At the same time that they were trying to eliminate the Jews, the Spanish were fighting the Moors in Granada, trying to rid the country of all Muslims.
The Inquisition was a court or tribunal set up to eradicate the Marranos, to judge whether they were truly Christian or secretly practicing Jews. Torquemada wrote Constitutions to guide the inquisitors on methods of torture and how to acquire the Marranos' property. Old Christians and Jews were encouraged to spy on Marranos. Anyone suspected of following Jewish rituals was arrested and tried before the Inquisition. The New Christian was tortured until a confession was obtained. His property was confiscated, and the prisoner was given the choice of "repentance" or burning at the stake. King Ferdinand was eager to acquire the property and possessions of the Jews to increase the kingdom's wealth.
The king and queen blamed the Jews for the New Christians' lapses to their old Jewish ways. The only solution was to eliminate the Jews entirely from Spain by conversion or expulsion. In the spring of 1492, despite the protests of and offers of large sums of money by the monarchs' Jewish advisors, the king and queen issued the order of expulsion: the Jews had three months to convert or to leave Spain. They were not allowed to take their silver, gold and jewels with them; they had to trade their property and possessions for food and clothing for their travel from Spain. The Moors had just been driven out of Spain, and now the Jews were to be eliminated.
There were several reasons for the expulsion: the greed of King Ferdinand; nationalism and the "purity" of Christian Spain; the religious zeal of the church, the queen, and the people. The official reason, though, was that the Jews encouraged the Marranos to follow Jewish practices so that they could not become good Christians.
It is not know exactly how many Jews left Spain in 1492, but it is estimated to be around 200,000. Most of them suffered terribly when they left, especially the poor. They were enslaved, tortured, starved, and many died. There were few places where they could seek refuge: France and England had already expelled the Jews; Germany did not want them. Many went to Portugal until they were expelled in 1497. Others went to Turkey, Italy, Holland, and North Africa. Some, in desperation, returned to Spain and converted.
The day after the expulsion, August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail on his historic journey to the New World. Much of the voyage was financed by wealthy Marranos who had hoped to overturn the order of expulsion. Many of Columbus's maps were drawn by Jews, and some of the crew members were Marranos.
1492 is important not only for Columbus's discoveries, but also because it marked the extinction of the largest and most enlightened Jewish community in Europe.
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