October 19: Ferdinand and Isabella

King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile married on this date in 1469, leading to the unification of their lands into the nation of Spain. Jews on the Iberian Peninsula had converted en masse following anti-Semitic massacres in 1391, and many aristocratic and wealthy families had “Jewish blood” in their ancestry — including Ferdinand. (A 2008 study in the American Journal of Human Genetics estimated that about 20 percent of Spaniards today have Jews as ancestors.) Ferdinand and Isabella invited the Inquisition into Spain in 1480, under the leadership of Tomas Torquemada — also a descendant of Jews — in order to “purify the blood” of Spanish nobility, and then expelled all remaining Jews in 1492, following the completed reconquest of southern Spain from Muslim forces. Between 1480 and 1530, the Spanish Inquisition (which was not officially dissolved until 1834) would murder thousands of conversos and confiscate millions in wealth for the crown. “The Inquisition, in order to set a trap for the unhappy victims, issued a dispensation and called upon all Marranos guilty of observing Jewish customs to appear voluntarily before the court, promising the repentants absolution and enjoyment of their life and property. Many appeared, but they did not obtain absolution, until, under the seal of secrecy and under oath, they had betrayed the name, occupation, dwelling, and mode of life of each of the persons they knew to be Judaizers, or had heard described as such. A large number of unfortunates were thus entrapped by the Inquisition. On the lapse of this decree all those who had been betrayed were summoned to appear before the tribunal within three days. Those that did not attend voluntarily were dragged from their houses to the prisons of the Inquisition. Then a law was issued, indicating in thirty-seven articles the signs by which backsliding Maranos might be recognized.” —Richard Gottheil and Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia