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8 zyxwvutsrqpo Expulsions of the Jews The title of this chapter is not an error, for there was not just one expulsion of the Jews in Spain but three. Up to this point, we have seen that a considerable amount of mythology surrounds the topics with which we have been concerned: the conversos, their relationship to Jews, the Inquisition, etc. It should not therefore be surprising that myth has also distorted the understanding of the Expulsion (for now, we shall confine the discussion to the general order expelling all Jews from the Spanish kingdoms in 1492). Challenging that myth, particularly as it relates to the "anti-Jewish" character of Fernando and Isabel, may be the most difficult task faced in this book. A proper understanding of the issue requires a knowledge of the history of the reign of Isabel's brother, Enrique IV, and even back to the beginning of the Trastamara dynasty. Some of that has already been presented here, though only in the context of the struggle against the conversos. My complete description of the details of the relationships between Jews and Christians during those reigns will have to await my future work. Nor is there room for a detailed analysis of the situation of the Jews even in the reign of the Monarchs. Important discoveries no doubt remain to be made, and therefore much of what is stated here will have to be fleshed out and even to some extent, perhaps, revised in the future. "They are the first years of the incipient Spanish nationalism . . . the unity of faith was an integral part of the new political unity. . . . How would it have been possible to tolerate that the unity would not be complete for the fault of a small group of inhabitants of Spain?"1 So writes an authority on thezyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Visigothic period and its persecution of the Jews, and the "final solution " (conversion or exile) at the hands of a tyrannical ruler, Recared. Yet the words could equally apply to the situation in Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and the national spirit of unification following the conquest of Muslim Granada. 271 272 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Expulsions of the Jews Otherwise, however, the situation of the Jews in Visigothic Spain was hardly analogous to that in the later medieval period. Centuries of harmonious relations, the much-discussedzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLK convivencia, had intervened. Even the fanatic preaching of Vicente Ferrer, resulting in the voluntary conversion of thousands of Jews, did not lead to any strain in relations between Christians and Jews on the "normal" level of ordinary citizens. Who, then, deserves the "blame" for the change in that situation which took place at the end of the century, and for the drastic decision to expel the Jews? Many think they obviously know the answer to that question, but the real answer may come as something of a surprise. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXW The Character of Fernando and Isabel One of the most damaging results of careless scholarship, particularly by Jewish authors, has been the blackening of the reputation of the Monarchs, in total disregard of the sources. Baer, particularly, unleashed pages of invective and rhetoric against them, usually denouncing both rulers equally. Only occasionally did he single out Isabel as "the fanatical queen." Later, he refers to fifteenth-century "slanderers and rumor-mongerers" who unfairly sought to distinguish between the "proud and bigoted" queen and the "kindly Ferdinand, who was said to have Jewish blood in his veins."2 The remark about "blood" aside, it is a fact that Fernando was of Jewish descent, as we have seen. Unknown to Baer was the fact that a Jewish chronicler, Elijah Capsali, had written this, and that he also had placed the blame on Isabel alone, who supposedly "forced" Fernando against his will to persecute the conversos (for which there is not the slightest evidence).3 Most recently, in a book unfortunately marred on nearly every page by errors, Jose Faur stated that the very title "Catholic Monarchs" was claimed by the rulers as a symbol of their animosity to Islam and Judaism; this in spite of the fact (unknown to Faur) that the title was conferred upon them by Pope Alexander VI only in 1496, long after the Expulsion. Netanyahu, too, blamed the entire anti-Jewish policy on one of the rulers only, but this time it was the king. Fernando saw the "Jewish situation" as not only a problem, but an "opportunity" for his own "self-aggrandizement ;" he was a "master at...

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