In the autumn of 1611 Spain was in the throes of a massive population upheaval. In April 1609 the king, Philip III, had announced the expulsion of all remaining descendants of Spain's Moorish population, now known as Moriscos. The expulsions began in Valencia, in September 1609, and continued region by region for the next four years; the last group to be expelled, in November 1613, were the Mudéjares of Murcia, who lived mainly in the Valle de Ricote and, in the opinion of all commentators, were completely assimilated. Before them, the also largely assimilated Moriscos of Castile had suffered expulsion, and it was they who in the autumn of 1611 were thronging the roads of Spain between the interior and the coast.

Until quite recently, the general view of the expulsions was that they were inevitable (the Moriscos had failed to assimilate to the majority, Catholic-Castilian culture) and successful (almost all were expelled to North Africa, France, or Italy). A famous series of paintings done to commemorate the expulsions underscores this latter aspect: all the pictures show the Moriscos being embarked on boats for North Africa or arriving at their destinations.

However, this example of supreme intolerance, of what might justly be called Europe's first case of ethnic cleansing, was not as straightforward as historians have long believed.