Massacre of 1391

Massacre of 1391
Part of Antisemitism in Europe
Slaughter of Jews in Barcelona in 1391 (José Segrelles, c. 1910)
Location	Crown of Castile, Crown of Aragon
Date	1391
Target	Jews
Attack type	Pogrom
Motive	Antisemitism

The Massacre of 1391, also known as the pogroms of 1391, refers to a murderous wave of mass violence committed against the Jews of Spain by the Catholic populace in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, both in present-day Spain, in the year 1391. It was one of the most lethal outbreaks of violence against Jews in medieval European history. Anti-Jewish violence similar to Russian pogroms then continued throughout the "Reconquista", culminating in the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain.^[1] The first wave in 1391, however, marked the extreme of such violence.^[1]

After the massacres, Jews began to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism^[2] across the Iberian Peninsula, resulting in a substantial population^[3] of conversos known as Marranos. Catholics then began to accuse—with or without substantiation—the conversos of secretly maintaining Jewish practices,^[3] and thus undermining the newly united kingdom's nascent national identity, ultimately leading to their expulsion by royal decree of the "Catholic Monarchs" Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile and León in 1492.^[3]

The earliest archaeological evidence of a Jewish presence in Iberia consists of a 2nd-century CE^[when?] gravestone found in Mérida.^[4] Jews may have first arrived on the Peninsula much earlier as part of Phoenician trading colonies in Cádiz and elsewhere, or during the time of^[when?][5] Carthaginian rule. From the late 6th century onward, following the new Visigothic monarchs' conversion from Arianism to the Nicene Creed, conditions for Jews in Iberia considerably worsened.^{[6][why?][how?]}

After the Umayyad conquest of Hispania from the Visigothic Kingdom and Kingdom of Asturias in the early 8th century, Jews lived under the Dhimmi system and progressively Arabised.^[7] Jews in this "Moorish" state of Al-Andalus stood out particularly during the 10th and the 11th centuries, in the caliphal and first taifa periods.^[8] Scientific and philological study of the Hebrew Bible began, and secular poetry was written in Hebrew for the first time.^{[citation needed]} Some historians^[who?] identify a "Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain" during the European Middle Ages, when much of the Iberian Peninsula was a "Moorish" Umayyad state known in Arabic as "Al-Andalus" during which Jews were accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life flourished.^{[citation needed]}

The nature and length of this "Golden Age" has been debated, as there were at least three periods during which non-Muslims were oppressed.^{[citation needed]} Some scholars give the start of the Golden Age as 711–718, the Muslim conquest of Iberia; others date it from 912, during the rule of Abd al-Rahman III.^{[citation needed]} Its end is variously given as: 1031, when the Caliphate of Córdoba ended; the 1066 Granada massacre; 1090, when the Almoravids invaded; or the mid-12th century, when the Almohads invaded. ^{[citation needed]}

After the Almoravid and Almohad invasions, many Jews fled to Northern Africa and the Christian Iberian kingdoms.^[8][why?] Targets of antisemitic mob violence^[why?], Jews living in the Christian kingdoms faced persecution throughout the 14th century, and by 1391, any "golden age" had long-been eclipsed.

Al-Andalus existed on the Iberian Peninsula for seven centuries—710 CE to 1492—from the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Umayyad Caliphate to the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs and the Alhambra decree of 1492.^[9] Much of this long history was spent in conflict with kingdoms to its north, a period dubbed by the eventual Christian victors as the Reconquista, or reconquest.^[9] The Battle of Covadonga in 722 is traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Reconquista.^[10]

Under their Christian rulers, Jews in medieval Spain were burdened with higher taxes than their Catholic countrymen, and forced to provide payments in kind to the aristocracy and church.^[11] Furthermore, like their counterparts in the rest of Europe, they were restricted to "marginal" occupations including banking and finance, particularly as tax collectors and as moneylenders to the aristocracy and church elite, landowners, peasants, merchants, and artisans alike. Resentment against Jews coalesced into new tropes of economic antisemitism: usury and market manipulation among them.^[12] Attitudes were inflamed as much by an official Church antisemitism featuring accusations of Jewish deicide and blood libel as by any factors particular to medieval Spain.^[13] In 1311–12, the ecumenical Council of Vienne elected to negate those civil liberties for Jews of Muslim al-Andalus still in place.^[14][15]

Peter of Castile (30 August 1334 – 23 March 1369, known as 'Don Pedro' and 'Peter the Cruel' in some English-language histories) was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for his anti-clericalism.^[16]

While a rebel against the church, Peter gained a reputation as protector of the Jews, particularly in light of the policies of his half-brother, arch rival, and ultimate killer and usurper Henry of Trastámara (13 January 1334 – 29 May 1379; known as el Fratricida).^[13] As an avowed rebel and Peter's upstart rival, Henry had his forces murder over 1,200 Jews in 1355 in the province of Asturias alone. Additional massacres followed in 1360 and 1366.^[13]

Henry's accession to the throne in 1369 as Henry II of Castile meant that the much larger Jewish population of Castile had not only lost their de facto royal protection, but were also likely to become legally sanctioned targets for future violence.

As king, Henry was as hostile to the Jews as Peter had been friendly.^[17]

In order to pay mercenaries he employed in his long campaigns, Henry imposed a war contribution of twenty thousand gold doubloons on the already heavily oppressed Jewish community of Toledo. Henry then ordered the internment of all the Jews of Toledo, that they be denied food and water, and Confiscation of their property, to be sold at auction to benefit the Crown. Nonetheless, Henry's dire financial straits compelled him to take out loans to cover his expenses. This meant borrowing from Jewish financiers—and ordering his tax collectors—those same Jews—to collect ever more burdensome taxes from his Catholic subjects. He named the prominent Jew Don Joseph as his chief tax-collector (contador major), and appointed several Jews as "farmers of the taxes".^[18] Don Joseph would later be murdered by rival co-religionists.^[19]

Next, the Cortes municipal parliamentary bodies) in Toro and in Burgos issued new demands on the Jews, in 1369, 1374, and 1377 respectively. Those measured harmonized perfectly with Henry's inclinations toward persecution. He ordered Jews to wear a yellow badge and forbade them to use Christian names. He further ordered that for short-term loans, Christian debtors were repay only two-thirds of the principal, thus impoverishing lenders even more. Shortly before his death in 1379 Henry declared that Jews would no longer be permitted to hold public office.^[18]

Ferrand Martinez (fl. 14th century) was a Spanish cleric and archdeacon of Écija, Andalusia and most noted for being the agitator whom historians cite as the prime mover behind the Massacres of 1391, with violence beginning in the Andalusian capital of Seville.^[13]

Little is known of Martínez's early life. Before taking up the position at Écija, he was the confessor of the queen mother of the Crown of Aragón.^[13] He called for persecution of the Jews in his homilies and speeches,^[20] claiming that he was obeying God's commandment.^[13] Although John commanded him to cease his incitement, Martínez's ignored the royal order as well as commands from his superior, the primate of Spain Father Barroso. ^[21] For more than a decade Martínez continued his verbal attacking, telling Catholics to "expel the Jews...and to demolish their synagogues."^[21] Though put on trial in 1388, his activities were not checked by the king, though the latter stated that the Jews must not be maltreated.^[22][20]

The tipping point occurred when both Juan I and Barroso died in 1390, leaving his 11-year-old son Henry III to rule under the regency of his mother.^[21] Martínez continued his campaign against the Jews of Seville, calling on clergy and people to destroy synagogues and seize Jewish holy books and other precious items. These events led to another royal order that removed Martínez from his office and ordered damaged synagogues be repaired at Church expense.^[22] Martínez , declaring that neither the state nor the local church authorities had power over him, ignored the commands.^[22]

The first anti-Jewish riots began in Seville in March 1391; the first of the great massacres occurred on 6 June.

Archdeacon Martínez continued to stir up the people against Jews as he preached that they should be forced to convert to Catholicism.^[13] Violence finally erupted on 6 June in Seville when Catholic mobs murdered some 4,000 Jews and destroyed their houses.^[23] Those who escaped death were forced to accept baptism.^[13] Over the course of the year, the massacres would spread to all of Spain. These events inaugurated the beginning of the mass conversions, as fear gripped the Jewish communities of Spain.^[21]

This pattern of violence continued through over 70 other cities and towns within three months,^[23] as city after city followed the example set in Seville and Jews faced either conversion and baptism or death, their homes were attacked, and the authorities did nothing to stop or prevent the violence and pillaging of the Jewish people.^[13] As this fanaticism and persecution spread throughout the rest of the kingdom of Castile, there was no accountability held for the murders and sacking of the Jewish houses, and estimations claim that there were 50,000 victims (though it is likely this number was exaggerated).^[13]

This religious mob spread to Aragon, as the authorities could do nothing to prevent the same pattern of plunder, murder, and fanaticism (although it did not go completely unpunished).^[13]

About 100,000 Jews in Aragon converted rather than face death or attempt to flee.^[13]

The violence next spread to Valencia, in the Crown of Aragon.^[23] On 28 June, Queen Violant of Bar ordered city officials to be especially protective of Jews.^[23][24] However, the situation continued to escalate and in July, Prince Martin (King John I's brother) was placed in charge of protecting Jews against persecution.^[23] Martin had gallows set up outside the Jewish area as a threat to those who would be inclined to attack Jews, extra surveillance for security, and criers proclaimed that Jews were under the crown's protection; on 6 July the Crown ordered the criers to cease.^[23]

Catholic mobs began to act on 9 July,^[23] commencing with crowds throwing stones at royal guards and, against Martin's explicit demands, began attacking Jews with improvised weapons.^[23] The mob then began to commit murder, mass rape, and looting.^[23] Prince Martin recorded that the mob murdered some 2,300 Jews out of a community of 2,500, and forced the approximately 200 Jews who survived the massacre to convert.^[25]

Archdeacon Martin declared the violence was as a judgment from God against the Jews; King John was present at the attack trying to prevent it.^[23] King John criticized his brother's minimal punishments for such brazen disobedience to the crown, and said that he would have had three to four hundred people killed, but now they must put the law on hold and serve punishment on their own.^[23]

Overall, around 11,000 Jews in Valencia converted rather than face death or expulsion.^[13]

Prior to the Massacre of 1391, only isolated instances of voluntary Jewish conversion to Catholicism had occurred in the Iberian Peninsula. Some Jewish converts gained notoriety as Christian polemicists, however such cases were exceptional. The overall number of conversions remained insignificant and had little effect on Catholic-Jewish relationship.^[26]

After the Massacre of 1391, many more Jews began to convert to Catholicism, giving rise to a substantial Marrano population. Strong Jewish cultural, familial, and ideological ties persisted among the conversos. Rabbinic authorities, categorizing conversos as anusim or "forced ones", affirmed their continued Jewish identity despite the conversion.^[26] The prevalence of crypto-Judaism among conversos further complicated Catholic perceptions, fueling distrust and jealousy towards this group.^[26] Spaniards from traditionally Catholic families called themselves "Old Catholics", further singling out conversos. The ensuing decades witnessed a crescendo of anti-converso measures and violent outbursts,^[26] culminating in the wholesale expulsion of Jews from Spain 100 years after the massacre, in 1492.

The term "Sephardic Jews" or "Sephardim" is the Jewish ethnonym for the Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism or face expulsion from Spain after the Alhambra Decree. The name "Sephardic" comes from the Hebrew word for Spain: Sefarad.^[27] The vast majority of conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, and their descendants, who number in the millions, live in both of these countries.^{[citation needed]} 100,000-300,000 Jews did leave Spain after 1492 (estimates vary) and settled in different parts of Europe and the Maghreb, while some migrated as far as the Indian subcontinent, the majority of whom reverted.^{[citation needed]} Many settled in parts of the Ottoman Empire, including the Maghreb (where the community was known as Megorashim) and the Levant at the behest of Sultan Bayezid II. Factors both internal and external to the Sephardim culture resulted in a continuity of tradition and the presence of a substantial Sephardic population around the globe in the 21st century, including in the United States. Sephardic Jews are one of the major Jewish ethnic divisions, alongside their Ashkenazi and Mizrahi counterparts.

Historian Yoel Marciano has argued that the forced conversions contributed to the resurgence of Kabbalah studies among the Sephardim population of Spain in the early 15th century and in the diaspora following expulsion.^[28]

"Sephardic Bnei Anusim" is a modern term for the contemporary descendants of the original conversos.

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• Nirenberg, David (2014). Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226169095.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-226-16909-5. OCLC 1014217260.
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