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, during the regency period between the reigns of John I of Castile and his successor, Henry III of Castile. 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. The first wave in 1391, however, marked the extreme of such violence.

After the massacres, Jews began to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism across the Iberian Peninsula, resulting in a substantial population of conversos known as Marranos. Catholics then began to accuse—with or without substantiation—the conversos of secretly maintaining Jewish practices, 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.

History of the Jews in Spain to 1391

Main articles: History of the Jews in Spain, History of the Jews in Carthage, Hispania, History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, and Visigothic Kingdom

The earliest archaeological evidence of a Jewish presence in Iberia consists of a 2nd-century CE gravestone found in Mérida. 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 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.

Main articles: Al-Andalus, Dhimmi, Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, and Moors

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. 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. Scientific and philological study of the Hebrew Bible began, and secular poetry was written in Hebrew for the first time. Some historians 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.

The nature and length of this "Golden Age" has been debated, as there were at least three periods during which non-Muslims were oppressed. 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. 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.

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

Reconquista

Main article: Reconquista

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. 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. The Battle of Covadonga in 722 is traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Reconquista.

Situation of the Jews in medieval Spain

Main article: Medieval antisemitism

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. 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. 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. In 1311–12, the ecumenical Council of Vienne elected to negate those civil liberties for Jews of Muslim al-Andalus still in place.

Background to violence: 1350-1390

Peter the Cruel and the Fratricide

Main articles: Peter of Castile and Henry II of Castile

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.

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). 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. Henry was also an effective propagandist, and through influential supporters—Archdeacon Ferrand Martínez in particular (see below)—he publicly accused that Peter of empowering Jews and Muslims to oppress Christians.

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 indeed began enacting persecutions of Jews as a matter of policy early in his reign.

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". Don Joseph would later be murdered by rival co-religionists.

Next, the Cortes municipal parliamentary bodies) in Toro and in Burgos issued new demands on the Jews, in 1369, 1374, and 1377 respectively. Those measures 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 to 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. Henry was succeeded by his son John I of Castile (r. 1379-1390). John's son, the heir apparent, was 11 in 1390, and only assumed power as Henry III of Castile (1379-1406) in 1393 at the age of 13. A regency ruled in place of Henry III in 1391; very little information on the composition and nature of the regency is available.

Archdeacon Martínez

Main articles: Ferrand Martínez and Medieval antisemitism

Ferrand Martínez (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. The mob violence began in the Andalusian capital of Seville.

Martínez called for persecution of the Jews in his homilies and speeches, claiming that in doing so he was obeying God's commandment. Although John directed him to cease his incitement, Martínez's ignored the royal order as well as commands from his superior, the primate of Spain Father Barroso. For more than a decade Martínez continued his verbal attacks, telling Catholics to "expel the Jews...and to demolish their synagogues." 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.

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. 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. Martínez, declaring that neither the state nor the local church authorities had power over him, ignored the commands and continued to make inflammatory speeches.

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

Violence in 1391

Violence in Seville and Castile

Archdeacon Martínez continued to stir up the people against Jews as he preached that they should be forced to convert to Catholicism. Violence finally erupted on 6 June in Seville when Catholic mobs murdered some 4,000 Jews and destroyed their houses. Those who escaped death were forced to accept baptism. 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.

This pattern of violence continued through over 70 other cities and towns within three months, 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. 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).

Violence in Valencia and Aragon

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). About 100,000 Jews in Aragon converted rather than face death or attempt to flee.

The violence next spread to Valencia, in the Crown of Aragon. On 28 June, Queen Violant of Bar ordered city officials to be especially protective of Jews. 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. 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.

Catholic mobs began to act on 9 July, commencing with crowds throwing stones at royal guards and, against Martin's explicit demands, began attacking Jews with improvised weapons. The mob then began to commit murder, mass rape, and looting. 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.

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. 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.

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

Aftermath

Main articles: Conversos, Crypto-judaism, History of the Jews in Spain § 1391–1492, Marranos, and Sephardic Jews

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.

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. The prevalence of crypto-Judaism among conversos further complicated Catholic perceptions, fueling distrust and jealousy towards this group. 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, culminating in the wholesale expulsion of Jews from Spain 100 years after the massacre, in 1492.

Sephardic Jews

Main article: Sephardic Jews

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. The vast majority of conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, and their descendants, who number in the millions, live in both of these countries. 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. 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.

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

Selected sources

• Fotheringham, James Gainsborough (1889). "Felton, William (d.1367)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 311.
• Freund, Scarlett; Ruiz (1994). "Jews, Conversos, and the Inquisition in Spain, 1391–1492: The Ambiguities of History". In Perry, Marvin; Schweitzer, Frederick M. (eds.). Jewish-Christian Encounters Over the Centuries: Symbiosis, Prejudice, Holocaust, Dialogue. P. Lang. pp. 169–195. ISBN 978-0-8204-2082-0.
• Gampel, Benjamin R. (2016). Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 271–314. ISBN 978-1-107-16451-2.
• Illescas Nájera, Francisco (2003). "De la convivencia al fracaso de la conversión: algunos aspectos que promovieron el racismo antijudío en la España de la Reconquista" (PDF). Revista de Humanidades: Tecnológico de Monterrey (14). Monterrey: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey: 243. ISSN 1405-4167.
• Lea, Henry Charles (1896). "Ferrand Martinez and the Massacres of 1391". The American Historical Review. 1 (2): 209–219. doi:10.1086/ahr/1.2.209. JSTOR 1833647.
• Marciano, Yoel (2019). Sages of Spain in the Eye of the Storm: Jewish Scholars of Late Medieval Spain (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik. p. 243. ISBN 978-965-536-266-4.
• Meyerson, Mark D. (2004). A Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. xx + 272. ISBN 0-691-11749-7.
• Miguel-Prendes, Sol; Sofier Irish, Maya; Wacks, David A. (2020-09-10), Ferrán Martínez's speech at the Tribunal del Alcázar in Seville, 19 February, 1388 (English version), Humanities Commons, doi:10.17613/a5e1-cj38
• 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.
• Pérez, Joseph; Hochroth, Lysa (2007). History of a tragedy: the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Hispanisms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03141-0. OCLC 74916076.
• Poliakov, Léon (2003-10-05). The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 2: From Mohammed to the Marranos. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 156–57. ISBN 978-0-8122-1864-0.
• Prados García, Celia (2011). "La expulsión de los judíos y el retorno de los sefardíes como nacionales españoles. Un análisis histórico-jurídico". Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional sobre Migraciones en Andalucía. Nina Kressova. pp. 2119–2126. ISBN 978-84-921390-3-3.
• Ray, Jonathan Stewart (2013). After expulsion: 1492 and the making of Sephardic Jewry. New York: New York University Press. pp. 18–22. ISBN 978-0-8147-2911-3.
• Storer, Edward (1911). Peter the Cruel, the life of the notorious Don Pedro of Castile, together with an account of his relations with the famous Maria de Padlla. London: John Lane. pp. 64–86.

Further reading

• Alexy, Trudi. The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Oral Histories Exploring Five Hundred Years in the Paradoxical Relationship of Spain and the Jews, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 978-0-671-77816-3, hardcover; ISBN 978-0-06-060340-3, paperback reprint.
• Álvarez Chillida, Gonzalo (2011). "Presencia e imagen judía en la España contemporánea. Herencia castiza y modernidad". In Schammah Gesser, Silvina; Rein, Raanan (eds.). El otro en la España contemporánea / Prácticas, discursos y representaciones (PDF). Seville: Fundación Tres Culturas del Mediterráneo. pp. 123–160. ISBN 978-84-937041-8-6.
• Ashtor, Eliyahu. The Jews of Moslem Spain, Vol. 2, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979.
• Assis, Yom Tov. The Jews of Spain: From Settlement to Expulsion, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988.
• Bartlett, John R. Jews in the Hellenistic World: Josephus, Aristeas, The Sibylline Oracles, Eupolemus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
• Bowers, W. P. "Jewish Communities in Spain in the Time of Paul the Apostle" Journal of Theological Studies Vol. 26 Part 2, October 1975, pp. 395–402.
• Dan, Joseph. "The Epic of a Millennium: Judeo-Spanish Culture's Confrontation" in Judaism Vol. 41, No. 2, Spring 1992.
• Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Ltd., 1971.
• Flesler, Daniela, and Adrián Pérez Melgosa. The Memory Work of Jewish Spain (Indiana University Press, 2020) online book review
• Gampel, Benjamin R. "Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Iberia: Convivencia through the Eyes of Sephardic Jews", in Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain, ed. Vivian B. Mann, Thomas F. Glick, and Jerrilynn D. Dodds, New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1992.
• Graetz, Professor H. History of the Jews, Vol. III Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1894.
• Halkin, Abraham. "The Medieval Jewish Attitude toward Hebrew", in Biblical and Other Studies, ed. Alexander Altman, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1963.
• Kamen, Henry (1998). The Spanish Inquisition: a Historical Revision. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07522-9.
• Katz, Solomon. Monographs of the Mediaeval Academy of America No. 12: The Jews in the Visigothic and Frankish Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mediaeval Society of America, 1937.
• Hinojosa Montalvo, José (2000). "Los judíos en la España medieval: de la tolerancia a la expulsión". Los marginados en el mundo medieval y moderno (PDF). p. 26. ISBN 84-8108-206-6.
• Lacy, W. K. and Wilson, B. W. J. G., trans. Res Publica: Roman Politics and Society according to Cicero, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
• Laeuchli, Samuel Power and Sexuality: The Emergence of Canon Law at the Synod of Elvira, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1972.
• Leon, Harry J., The Jews of Ancient Rome Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1960.
• Lewis, Bernard, Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery, US: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Mann, Jacob, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature I Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1931.
• Markman, Sidney David, Jewish Remnants in Spain: Wanderings in a Lost World, Mesa, Arizona, Scribe Publishers, 2003.
• (in Spanish) Arias, Leopoldo Meruéndano. Los Judíos de Ribadavia y orígen de las cuatro parroquias.
• Raphael, Chaim. The Sephardi Story: A Celebration of Jewish History London: Valentine Mitchell & Co. Ltd., 1991.
• Ray, Jonathan. The Jew in Medieval Iberia (Boston Academic Studies Press, 2012) 441 pp.
• Sarna, Nahum M., "Hebrew and Bible Studies in Medieval Spain" in Sephardi Heritage, Vol. 1 ed. R. D. Barnett, New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1971.
• Sassoon, Solomon David, "The Spiritual Heritage of the Sephardim", in The Sephardi Heritage, Vol. 1 ed. R. D. Barnett, New York: Ktav Publishing House Inc., 1971.
• Scherman, Rabbi Nosson and Zlotowitz, Rabbi Meir eds., History of the Jewish People: The Second Temple Era, Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1982.
• Stillman, Norman, "Aspects of Jewish Life in Islamic Spain" in Aspects of Jewish Culture in the Middle Ages, ed. Paul E. Szarmach, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1979.
• Whiston, A. M., trans., The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 19??.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Spain". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.