The Expulsion of the Jews That Resulted in Mass Murder
How the refusal to accept religious freedom led to the loss of thousands of innocent lives
In 1492, the Reyes Católicos (Catholic Kings) of Spain, Fernando II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile — you may know them as the famous parents of Catalina de Aragón y Castilla, or Catherine of Aragon, first wife to King Henry VIII of England — broke away from a tradition of religious tolerance in the kingdoms of León and Castile. In an edit of 31st March of the same year, the Jews in their kingdoms were forced to either convert to Catholicism or being forced to leave their homes. They had four months to do so.
The Iberian Kingdoms and the Jews
When talking about the history of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula is important to remember a few things. First, in the Middle Ages, there weren’t just two kingdoms in the peninsula. In 1492 we find ourselves at the end of the Reconquista (718–1492), a war waged by the Christian Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula against the Muslim kingdoms (starting with the Umayyad Caliphate to the Emirate of Granada). At the time we are discussing, the most relevant players in the battlefield against the “Moors” were the Spanish Kingdoms of León and Castille and of Aragon, united under the Catholic…
