THE SITUATION OF SPANISH JEWRY

THE EXPULSION of the Jews of Spain after a millennium and a half of settlement in that country is connected to the names and domestic policies of Ferdinand and Isabella. Their marriage in 1469 fulfilled the desire to unite the two branches of the Trastámara dynasty, which had been divided in the early fifteenth century: part of it continued to rule in Castile, and the other part went north to occupy the throne of Aragon. King Juan II of Castile (1406–54), a minor, whose mother, Queen Catherine of Lancaster, ruled in his name, inherited a kingdom with a difficult communal and social problem from both the Christian and Jewish point of view. It contained a marginal community of conversos who had been removed from the Jewish community by forced conversion but had not integrated into the general Spanish community. Martín of Aragon (1395–1410) died without heirs, and upon the advice and recommendation of Vincent Ferrer, Juan II's uncle Ferdinand of Antequera was placed on that throne, reigning from 1412 to 1416. At that time a Jewish–Christian disputation took place in Tortosa (1413–14), dealing a heavy blow to the Jews of Spain. With the death of Enrique IV (1454–74), Ferdinand and Isabella began to reign in Castile, and upon the death of Juan II, king of Aragon in 1479, the monarchies of Castile and Aragon were, practically speaking, united. However, from the Jewish perspective, a new page was opened in the history of Castilian Jewry as early as 1474, when the first intimations are found of the calamity that was to befall all the Jews of Spain.

One wonders whether, as early as then, Ferdinand and Isabella had a clear plan regarding the Jewish and Muslim minorities in their kingdom, and, if so, in what way that plan was expressed in its preliminary stages. Examination of their relation to the minorities will reveal how this programme was constructed from the start until its final expression: the conquest of Muslim Granada and the expulsion of the Jews from all of Spain. These two actions were the high point in the life of the newly united kingdom.