A Brief History of Spain (Part Three)

1492 was a banner year for Spain.  In January  the armies of Fernando and Isabel (Ferdinand and Isabella) took the city of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors, bringing an end to more than seven centuries of Moslem occupation.   In the same year, Isabella financed the expedition of Christopher Columbus.  The goal was to find a new trade route to the Far East.  Instead his voyages laid the groundwork for a vast Spanish empire in the New World which was to bring Spain immense riches of gold and silver... far greater wealth than the lucrative trade in spices and silks would have brought.

Fernando and Isabel were probably the greatest monarchs in Spain's history.  Isabel, in particular, was a well-educated, astute and hard working ruler.  And she did not take a back seat to her husband.  Their motto was "Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando" which very loosely translated means that Isabel was just as important as Fernando.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of blemishes on Isabel's legacy.  The third important event of 1492 was the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.  As the Christians gained dominance in the peninsula, the fragile religious tolerance which has existed during much of the Middle Ages unraveled.  Anti-Semitism grew, and there were pogroms in which hundreds of Jews were killed and synagogues were destroyed.  The edict of 1492 forced all Jews to either convert or leave the country.  Since the Jews represented a sizeable portion of the professional classes and were important in banking and finance, this action was to the detriment of Spain's economic development.

Previous to this, in 1478, Isabel and Fernando had established the Inquisition in Spain, a church tribunal, under the authority of the crown, to root out, try and punish all heretics. Those Jews who converted to Catholicism were suspected of secretly continuing their Jewish faith (in fact, many were), and they were hunted down by the Inquisition.  Later, when Moslems were also forced to convert or leave the country, and when Protestantism spread throughout much of Europe, those groups were also targets of the Inquisition.  Torture was frequently used to gain confessions from the accused.  Those who repented of their heresy were punished with imprisonment, or service as oarsmen in the royal galleys.  Those who were unrepentant were condemned to be burned alive as a part of a public ceremony known as an "auto de fe".  Whether the prisoner was repentant or not, all property belonging to those found guilty was confiscated and went to the crown. (So there was definitely a monetary as well as a religious motive behind the rooting out of heresy!) It is estimated that during the more than three centuries of the Inquisition's existence in Spain, there were 150,000 cases brought before the court, and between 3,000 and 5,000 executions.

(image from the web)

An "auto de fe" on the main plaza of Madrid in 1683

Spain's enemies, primarily the Protestant countries of England and the Netherlands, spread a propaganda campaign vilifying Spain and its Inquisition.  This is known as the "Leyenda Negra" (Black Legend).  While the Inquisition is most definitely a blot on Spain's history and stifled religious and intellectual freedom, one should keep in mind that this was an era of religious intolerance throughout most of Europe.  Pogroms against Jews were  common across the continent.  The Inquisition existed in other Catholic countries besides Spain, and in many Protestant countries Catholics were persecuted and executed.  The total number of deaths from the Spanish Inquisition is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of deaths in the great religious conflict of the Thirty Years' War.  And torture was the usual means of extracting confessions in many countries at that time... it was not something invented by the Inquisition.

As I mentioned in a previous post, although Isabel and Fernando were married, their respective kingdoms of Castilla and Aragón remained separate. Isabel died in 1504, and the crown of Castilla passed to her daughter Juana.  Juana's father, Fernando, continued to rule his kingdom of Aragón.  Upon his death in 1516, the crown of Aragón also went to Juana, and she was the first ruler of a united Spain.

(image from the web)

Queen Juana

Unfortunately, Juana was mentally unstable, a condition that she might have inherited from her maternal grandmother.  She married a Hapsburg duke, Felipe el Hermoso (Philip the Fair), and they had several children.  In 1506 her husband died, and her mental state worsened.  In 1517 her son Carlos gained authorization to rule as King of Spain. Juana was confined to a convent where she remained until her death in 1555.  She is known in Spanish history as "Juana la Loca" (Joanna the Mad).

With Carlos in control, Spain was about to enter its "Golden Age".