Trudy Gold
Abravanel: Italy and the Medicis, Part 1
Trudy Gold - Abravanel: Italy and the Medicis, Part 1
- Good afternoon, good evening, everyone or good morning wherever you are. And welcome. Today the title of my talk is Abravanel, Italy and the Medici. And the reason there is a link with the Medici is in fact it is Abravanel’s niece and also his daughter-in-law that she’s going to become the tutor and be the very, very close confidant and friend of the wife of Cosimo de’ Medici. So that’s what it’s all about. And Judy, if you don’t mind, could we have a picture of Abravanel himself on the screen, right. Now, Abravanel is one of the most fascinating characters in the Jewish history and he’s perhaps doubly fascinating because one of the main books on him, it’s called, “Don Isaac Abravanel, Statesman and Philosopher” and it’s actually written by Benzion Netanyahu, who of course is the professor father of the extraordinary Netanyahu boys. And I’m actually going to, today I’m going to concentrate on the world Abravanel came from. There are many spellings of the word Abravanel. I’ve chosen the one that is most in use. So his dates are 1437 to 1508. And one of the reasons I want to concentrate on him, because he was involved in some of the most momentous events in Jewish history, of course the expulsion from Spain. He is the only man in history that I know of to be finance minister to four separate kingdoms. Now, he wasn’t just one of the richest men in the world. He wasn’t just finance minister to four kingdoms. He was actually a statesman, he was a diplomat and he was a philosopher. And he was incredibly involved in the history of his people. And not only that, he cared passionately for them and he saw himself as a true Jew.
And it’s fascinating that Benzion Netanyahu because not only was he the father of Prime Minister and of course Yonatan the hero of Entebbe. He was the secretary to Vladimir Jabotinsky when he was a very young man when Jabotinsky was in New York. And when he writes about this period of history, it’s important to know where he comes from politically. And I was trying to get inside the skin of Abravanel because he is such a fascinating character. And as I’ve said too many times before, when I teach modern history, I’ve got too many sources. When you teach this period of history, we don’t have enough sources. There are still gaps even today to be filled in. So what I want to do today, I’m going to give you a quote now from Benjamin Netanyahu and then I am going to look at the world he came from, which means of course, going back to the Iberian Peninsula because he was actually the financial advisor to King Ferdinand of Aragon when Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain. And it was an incredibly momentous event in Jewish history and it’s something that completely traumatised the Jewish community. It was really the worst thing that had happened since the diaspora was created. And it led to all sorts of messianic fervour. It also, of course led to the community, the real community in Italy that I’ve already referred to.
It’s going to lead to a big community in the Muslim world, in the world of the Ottoman Turks that I’m going to talk about. And ironically, those who are going to leave Spain, they’re going to be very important in Holland, important in England. So they’re an incredibly important community. But some of the questions that Abravanel, the Pius Jew is going to face is why on earth did the Jews have to suffer so much? And what was their destiny? And remember, as finance minister to the king and one of the richest men in the world and his statesman, how was it that he wasn’t able to stop the expulsion working with his friend and the other important advisor, Senior? So these two incredibly influential people, they didn’t in the end have the power to stop the expulsion of the Jews. And it’s going to lead also to all sorts of strange messianic movements. How on earth do you deal with the end of days? The same thing happened of course around the time of the destruction of the second temple. It’s going to eventually explode into Christianity. Although the Christian notion of messiahship is so very different from the Jewish, It’s also going to explode into Messianic figures like David Reubeni, who I’m going to talk about in my next session, because he becomes very important to the conversos living in Spain, including Abravanel’s niece and daughter-in-law, Ben Vida. And it’s later, of course with the expulsion, with the terrible calamity of the Ashkenazi Jews in 1656. What happens at the end of days, will the Messiah come? Now see this through the eyes of a brilliant scholar who wrote much about this period, who of course was a totally committed Zionist.
So I’m now going to read what Benzion Netanyahu had to say in his book on Abravanel. “Don Isaac is the outstanding historical figure amongst the Jews in the closing period of the Middle Ages. Statesman, diplomat, courtier, financier of international renowned. He was also an encyclopaedic scholar, a philosopher, a thinker and a brilliant writer, a rare phenomenon at any time. In fact in him there met and ended two long lines of tradition, the line of mediaeval Jewish statesman and the line of mediaeval Jewish philosophers.” Now I’m going to read a little more from him because I think it’s so very, very important. “Born in Lisbon in 1437, into a family which ranked high amongst the Jews of Portugal and the whole Liberian peninsula. They were distinguished by their political achievements as well as their financial position. Abravanel’s father, Don Judah, was financier to Prince Pedro’s son of the king of Portugal, John I. His grandfather had been a power in the court of three successive Castilian kings and in the days of the third of them had reached the highest position in Castile’s financial administration.” Those of you who haven’t studied Spanish history, it’s important to know that this time Spain was made up. It was the kingdom of Portugal, but Spain was made up of various different principalities. And it’s going to be united in the marriage of Ferdinand, of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469. So I’m referring to an earlier time where there’s independent Aragon, independent Castile, et cetera, et cetera. “His great grandfather had been the treasurer of Ferdinand IV of Seville so from his ancestors,” this is Netanyahu, “he acquired his financial acumen, his skill in managing state finances and the diplomatic ability, which goes with it.
To this tradition of wealth and power and privilege was added the fame of a long and noble lineage, which it may be assumed, contributed considerably to the family’s prestige. He was regarded really as the king of the Jews. They were certain and proud of the nobility of their origin. They claimed dissent from the Davidic dynasty and the settlement in Spain in pre Roman times. All the Abravanel ancestors were prominent Jewish leaders. Also, they had strong moral and intellectual interests. Their hometown was in Seville.” And he goes on to talk about there is a blot on their family. Their grandfather, Don Samuel Abravanel had actually converted to Christianity in a time of huge persecution. None of the rest of the family did. And there is no discussion amongst any of Abravanel’s papers, but it was something that the family felt very, very, very, very bad about. But what I’m going to do now is actually take us back into the world of Spain with the picture of Abravanel for us to look at. Okay. Now, the Iberian Peninsula. There was a sizable Jewish community living there since Roman times when it was after the Roman Empire collapsed, it is conquered by the Visigoths and when they Christianized, of course the period of persecution. One of the things that Abravanel’s biography by Netanyahu really illustrates is of course the uncertainness of Jewish existence in the diaspora.
And bearing in mind where he is politically, be careful because this might well cloud one’s judgement . Later on Benzion Netanyahu, the question he asked, was there anything Abravanel or any of these important rich financiers could have done to save their own people? Now, in 711, the third of the great monotheistic religions, Islam conquered the Iberian Peninsula. They crossed over from North Africa in 711 and under Islam, the Jewish community becomes the most sizable and important community outside Babylon. They spread throughout Spain. In fact, when the Muslims invaded, they trusted the Jews far more than the Christians. I’ve said this to you many times. You’ve got to see this all against the backdrop of the continuous war between the two great proselytising, monotheistic religions, Christianity and Islam, which was not really settled until the forces of the Turkish empire were finally defeated at the gates of Vienna in 1683, mainly because a Jewish financier called Oppenheimer actually saved the fortunes of the Habsburgs. But that’s another story for another time. But I think, I find what I call this inside-out history. You look at the great events, why were the Jews, how did the Jews maintain this precarious existence? Because even in times of trouble and there’s not going to be a thousand year war, there are battles, there’s always tension.
And later on you’re going to see the Crusades. But what there is there, there are people who are pushed out of normal occupation patterns, who become traders, who can link with every other community, every other Jewish community. You find Jews running the silk group to China. You find Jews in India. And of course later on with the growth of mercantilism, that’s one of the reasons they were so attractive to the Medici. So basically, they live this precarious situation between warring empires and in the main, they keep within their own tradition. Now it was a fascinating time and those of you who’ve been with us over a year will remember that there were lectures on the Golden Age of Spain and perhaps at some time we will repeat some of these lectures because this is referred to this period from the conquest by Islam up until about the 1100s, it was a period of relative calm for the Jewish community. And it was a time where Jews had far greater occupation patterns, where Jews worked in Arabic, you have great poetry coming out of Spain, you have great art coming out of Muslim Spain. Jews were the armies of Grenada for three successive generations, had Jewish generals.
And of course there were great Jewish philosophers. We know that Khazar, that fascinating kingdom in the Crimea, which converted to Judaism, actually sent to Spain for rabbinic decisions. So it was a period for 400 years of relative peace and prosperity under Islam. And the greatest of the Caliphates was actually that of Abd al-Rahman III, 912 to 961. And Al-Hakam, the II, 961 to 972. Those of you who have had the good fortune to go to Cordoba will know the incredible mosque that was created there, which tragically after the fall of Cordoba to the Christians, was turned into a church. Even Charles V thought it was an abomination because it’s one of the great wonders of the world. But the Jewish area is very much around the court of what would’ve been the . And it’s also the period of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut. He was the court physician, he was advisor, he was also head of the Jewish community. Quite often the court Jew was the head of the community. And in his case, he was also an incredibly learned Jew. If you were a lay person at that period, if you were the lay representative of the Jewish community, you usually were also a rabbi. So it’s a very, very special time. There were many Jews also and this is a very interesting period of enlightenment in Islam.
It was a period when Islam felt itself to be secure. So Jews and Muslims studying together in the great academies, Jews would’ve used Arabic. We know the poetry was in Arabic, they would’ve studied mathematics. And please don’t forget, the Arabs were far advanced in medicine than were the Christians. And that’s why so many of the Christian courts were going to have Jewish doctors. They’re not going to have Muslim doctors because they’re at war with Islam. So basically you have this situation where it’s a very, very good period for the Jews. Of course, revisionist history looks at it and said, well, was it really that good? But the point is, in the diaspora, the more and more I study diaspora history, I think of it as where can the Jews be safe for a certain amount of time? And certainly between the seventh and the 11th century in Spain, you’ve got to say that it was probably the highlight of the Jewish existence of that period. If you look at what’s happening in Europe, which is still, pretty barbaric, although not as dark as the Dark Ages suggest, this again is revisionist history. And if you think about, I know a lot of you are South African, so your families would’ve come from Lithuania. I mean, if you think of that part of the world, Lithuania, Poland, 11th, 12th century, they’re still pagan. It’s still tribes, it’s still primitive. So the Jews are really trying to survive. And as I said, it was in the Golden Age, it’s still called Golden Age that they had an easier time. However, of course again, this is the Zionist view of history. The outside world acts, all the rest of the world can do is react.
And in the 1100s, the dynasty gradually, you see, the problem is also in history dynasties become flabby. It comes to an end and that’s when extremism comes to the fore. So what happens is you have all these warring Caliphates, often at war with each other, but they’re all employing Jewish advisors. I mean, the most famous of that generation was Samuel ibn Naghrillah of Grenada 996 to 1056. And he was fascinating. Those of you who are interested in this period and I know some of you would’ve already studied it, his synthesis of the secular and the religious is absolutely fascinating. And he was known as Samuel HaNagid. And if you look at the kind of world he worked in, he understood, he was brilliant at mathematics, philosophy. He wrote poetry in both Arabic and Hebrew. And he was the grand vizier of Grenada and led its armies into the battlefield. It’s only in this kind of situation can you create this kind of, this to me, these are creatures that I would easily give the title. We’re talking a lot about the Renaissance man or woman at this period. These people are people who walk the world large. His ideal was a very refined taste in both secular and religious poetry. But he believed passionately in fidelity to rabbinic Judaism. He had an interest in theology and philosophy. But this remarkable fit period comes to an end. Why? Because the Christians are beginning to reconquer and that meant that a fanatical group of Muslims, the Almohadis, they came in from North Africa, they were in fact a Berber dynasty from Morocco. They were uncompromising in their persecution and it takes them a half, at least half a century to lose their power to Christianity at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. And that’s when Christians take control of much of Spain.
So, and it also meant that a lot of Jews were moving north. And unfortunately it’s going to coincide with a period of very strong, how can I put it, zeal within the Christian world. And what was that all about? Well, you’ve got to think about what’s happening at this period of history. The Crusades, the First Crusade of 1095, 1096, heresy. Heresy was breaking out throughout the Christian world. Heresy, you have the Cathars, the Albigensians in southwest France, I’ve already mentioned that to you. You also have all sorts of challenges to the power of Catholicism. And it led very much to the church fighting back. Now when you fight back, what do you have to do? When you fight back, you have to tighten belief systems. Because if you are flexible, think about the southwest of France, that beautiful area of the country, the borderland between Islam and Christianity. Think about the free thinking around the areas of Carcassonne, Albi. There were Jews who lived there. In fact, there is the story back in the 600s of a semi-autonomous Jewish kingdom called Septimania. It’s the Mediterranean, it’s the crosslands, it’s ports, it’s people who think and any strict closed ideology like the Catholic Church, like fundamentalist Islam and I’m going to add to this fundamentalist Judaism, I have to, you cannot brook opposition. The point about Judaism, of course it didn’t have power, but certainly, let’s go look at the Fourth Lateran Council. Innocent III, one of the strongest, most zealous popes, he decides he’s going to tighten up. And what he does is he’s going to make the papacy absolutely supreme. He’d already insisted on a campaign, a crusade against the Cathars, crusade is against heresy. I mentioned this the other day when I was talking about the Armada.
It was a crusade. Philip II went on a crusade against the heretic, Elizabeth. So he is the Pope who convenes the Fourth Lateran Council. Already the papacy are using crusades against the heathen, against heresy. And the Fourth Lateran Council was his way of really tightening up the church. He wanted to be assured of the primacy of the papacy, because who rules in any land? Is it the Pope or is it the king? And the Pope demanded supremacy over his kings and the way he did it, if you think about this period of history, I mean go back to the reign of Henry II for example. Henry II was a king who really believed in the power of England. And he tried to break the church courts. If you think about King John, the whole of England is placed, is excommunicated. And if you are excommunicated by the church, then a baby born can never enter heaven. This is Christian dogma. And this is a period where people lived in a religious worldview. Three, I can’t say to you what happened in people’s heads, but what I can say to you is this, that outwardly you would’ve gone to church, you would’ve gone to synagogue, you would’ve gone to the mosque. You would not have openly professed views that were unacceptable because that would’ve led to excommunication or even death. So he wants to assert the primacy of the papacy, the doctrine of transubstantiation, which is very anti-Cathar. That when you actually, when when you take the Eucharist, when Christian take the Eucharist, the wine and the bread actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus.
Later on Martin Luther, who I alluded to the other day, he believed in consubstantiation. It is representative, that is the Protestant view. Catholicism takes a much stronger view. He also thought that the only way he’s going to clear up the church, he’s going to improve the clergy. He’s going to stop the wantonness. Remember, this is a couple of hundred years before the Medici popes and before the Borgia popes. He wants to stop drunkenness. He wants to clean up the church. He wants his officials to be far more religious and zealous for the Almighty. And he wanted to make sure that no prince could usurp the rights of churches. And he said that excommunication can never be lifted or imposed by payment. Let’s wipe out corruption. Now what about the Jews? Of course, in any period of threat, if the church is tightening up, you have to be careful with your Muslims and with your Jews. So Jews and Muslims, this is the first time it’s introduced. Jews and Muslims should wear special attire to distinguish them from Christians. Now, it was far more frightening for the Jews because of course the Muslims had their own lands. But from now on, Jews in certain countries have to wear the badge. And in fact, it was England in the reign of Henry III. He was the first one in 1222 at the Council of Oxford to use the Jew badge. There was to be no intermarriage with Christians, which shows us that there must have been social relations between Jews and Christians.
People are people. You have the church view, the rabbis also didn’t like inter marriage anymore did the imams, but that’s not the point. People are people and relationships are struck. Jews were to never to hold public office and measures were taken to prevent any converted Jew returning to Judaism. This is how it was described by a Swiss theologian who’s a very good writer, Hans King and from 1995, this chap was president of the Foundation for Global Ethics. Very much affected by the Shoah. It was not the riots in connection with the First Crusade in 1096, but this council, which fundamentally changed the situation of the Jews, both legally and theologically. Because Jews were servants of sin, it was concluded they should now be servants of Christian princes. A special form of dress would isolate them. And they were also forbidden to go out during Holy week. And had a compulsory tax imposed on them to be paid for by the local clergy. And this is also the time of course, when the various orders are created like the Teutonic Knights, et cetera, the Knights Templars they are created because one of the other things the Pope wants to do is to take back the land of Israel, what they call the holy land from of course from the heretics, the Muslims. And this is really the height of the power of the papacy. And it’s also the period where two very revolutionary church orders are created.
The Franciscans in the model of St. Francis of Assisi in 1209 and the Dominicans in 1216 created by a Spanish priest, Dominic. And if they are approved by the Pope, they took Domini canes, those of you who know Latin, the hounds of God, they are going to be the vanguard in the movement to Christianize Europe. They are those of you who live in England, You will know Blackfrairs, you will know Whitefrairs, you will know Grayfriers. Blackfrairs was the territory of the Dominicans. They held that land because church land was very, the church held an incredible amount of land in England, in France, in Spain. They were the other power. And many monarchs who still had their Jewish advisors, had really problems with them. And the Inquisition had already been established in 1184, as I said, to fight Cathars and Pope Innocent III’s papal legate was the man responsible for the crusade against the Albigensians.
And in 1229, the Inquisition was permanently established at the Council of Toulouse and it was to be run mainly by the Dominicans and occasionally by the Franciscans. In 1252, a papal bull authorised the use of torture and it granted absolution against any inquisitor who used torture. They were to suffer not for it, because they were doing it in the name of the Almighty. And the Inquisition was formally assigned to the Dominicans and the Franciscans in 1241. And this continues, the Inquisition survived right up until the 19th century. And this is from the director of the Inquisition of 1578 into our time zone, “For punishment does not take place primarily for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public order, in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they might commit.” Okay? In fact, the Inquisition is later going to follow the conversos to the new world. Okay, now let’s go on. Of course, so what happens is that there’s an incredible upswing in church further, although it was not welcomed by the various rulers in Spain. In the main, the rulers tried to get the situation under control. Why? Because they actually needed the Jews and didn’t really see the problem. But the church is becoming more and more powerful and is really taking power.
And let’s now turn to Castile because in 1340, king John I of Castile died. And he was survived by his infant son, Henry III. And his very religious mother, Eleanor was Regent. Her confessor was a man called Ferdinand Martinez. He was a great power in the state. And for the 12 years previously, he had completely fulminated against the Jews. And beginning at Easter time, terrible riots spread and pogroms spread throughout Spain. They went to Cordoba, to Seville. Those of you who have visited Seville will know the Three Crosses square and that’s where 4,000 Jews were murdered. The mob just went on the rampages Easter time, Cordova, Carmona, Toledo, Valencia, not a single Jew left alive in Valencia. The Balearic Islands, it spreads. There’s a massacre in Palma. In the end it’s been, and there’s a problem with figures. Cecil Roth makes the figure very high. Henry Carmen, who is also a very good scholar, he’s saying the numbers were not so high because it was such a terrible thing. Nevertheless, it was a terrible thing that completely affected the Jewish population. Now the outbreaks were completely, by this time the Christian Reconquest and Granada, in Granada, which was still Muslim. It was the last Muslim outpost. There were no pogroms or in Portugal because the kings of Portugal actually protected the Jews. But most of the Spanish areas, Christian Spanish areas, the most appalling devastation. And it led to a huge number of conversions. Most of these conversions of course, were not religious. It was to save yourself. There were some religious, but Cecil Roth puts the figure as high as 200,000 conversions. It’s pretty unlikely. I mean, but the Jews themselves did make up something like a fifth of the Iberian Peninsula. So what we need to say is a huge number of Jews converted.
Some of them were religious conversions, but many of them were not religious. So let me give you a couple of sincere ones. Rabbi Solomon ha-Levi became Pablo de Santa Maria. And but many of the others, they baptised, which meant they would have to go to church. It would meant that they would follow all Christian religious ceremonies. But they were known as the converso. The pejorative word is Marrano, which of course means swine. We also know that they baptised their children in church and then they washed them off at home. They usually, the converso usually intermarried amongst themselves. They tried to keep Shabbat and the festivals and we know that they still consulted with their co-religionists. They avoided eating pork. And some of them, I think, so we can say that many of them were Christian by name, but not in form. Now, as conversos, remember, most of the merchants in Christian Spain were Jewish. They were in all the branches of the professions. And now that they are the conversos, they have incredible social progress, whether it’s in the law, they sweep into the law. This has always fascinated me. Is a Talmud education a basis for becoming a lawyer? I’m just throwing it at you. They went into the army, they went into administration. Many of them went into the church itself. And of course, that is where the rumour about the Borgias started. Is it true? Isn’t it true? I’ve never found satisfactory explanations or evidence either way. And it’d be interesting if any of you know more than me about this. They also went into the universities, they were into financial administration and many of them married into the grand families of Spain.
A colleague of mine who sat on the task force with me, he went to Portugal because Portugal, I’m talking about 20 years ago, Portugal wanted to become a member of the ITF. Now IHRA, this is a body that teaches the Shoah throughout Europe to try and stop antisemitism, et cetera, et cetera. But anyway, he went to the university where he met the rector. And he was talking to the academics and they were saying, we believe that many of the population of Spain and Portugal have Jewish roots. And we do know that after the expulsion, this happened in the Balearic Islands, it happens in Spain itself and in Portugal. There are families to this day, they light the candles in their cellars. They don’t know why, well, now of course they do know what it’s about. But this was carried on in secret from generation to generation to generation. They’d lost all their Jewish knowledge. But this was a family tradition carried on in secret from generation and obviously they had once been Jews. In fact, what we can we say about these conversos who were known amongst Jews as anusim, the forced ones, they the new Christians, they really dominated the intellectual life of Spain. Many of them in fact marrying into the aristocracy. So, now obviously they’re going to do very well. They’ve lost all their social disabilities. And we also know there was a lot of contact between the anusim and the Jews. So it led to a lot of anger and prejudice from the existing merchants, doctors, Christians.
Why are these people doing so well? And can they ever be trusted? Are they really Christian? And there was a Council of Tortosa in 1429 and a lot of these anusim are now being threatened. And this is the opening for divine mercy state, the King of Aragon, the Barron’s Knights and Prelates and universities should protect the Jews from violence where they outward would have suffered so for the law and order in the state, they do not want violence against these people. And remember the church is really beset by schisms. Now we’ve already mentioned Abravanel. Abravanel by this period we’re now into the 1400s. His family, despite the problem with the anusim, the forced ones, despite that terrible, terrible pogrom of 1391, which had caused the Abravanel family to leave their home in Seville and to take flight to Portugal. They’re still a terrible problem. But nevertheless, the Abravanel family, they are very much courtiers. They are wealthy, they are states people, they’re important in the reign, but this is the background. Now, he’d been born in Lisbon and that is how he had managed to escape the massacre in Seville. He had been a student of the Rabbi of Lisbon, Joseph Heim.
The kings of Portugal at that time were much more stable. He was, as I said, extraordinary just as Netanyahu described him at the beginning. He’s first in rabbinic literature, also in the learning of his time. You see, that was what was special about Spain, going back to the tradition of Islam. They could be comfortable in humanistic knowledge, but they could also be comfortable in the world of the . And I remember having a very interesting discussion with Rabbi Dweck, who many of you will have heard on lockdown. And he said to me, “it’s absolutely fascinating”. And what is absolutely fascinating that the Jew, that many of the Jews of the Sephardi world saw the beauty of the world, the world itself was beautiful and God had created the world, so the world itself could be studied. And his analysis was that the world of the Ashkenazi in the main, the world of the Ashkenazi was far more restricted and that’s why even today, the Haredi are so terrified of the knowledge of the outside world. So by the time he’s 20, he’s already interested in philosophy and he’s written, a whole thesis on the religious question. His intellectual ability, his financial acumen brought him and remember one of the wealthiest, most powerful families in Spain, he becomes the treasurer of Alfonso V of Portugal. And he saw himself as the paterfamilias of the community and he uses his huge position, his high position, and his great wealth to aid his co-religionists.
After the death of Alfonso there’s a period of instability. So he manages to get his fortune over the border to Castile and he enters the service of the House of Castile with Don Abraham Seneor of Segovia. Now these are two Jews who are going to be the court advisors to the kings and queens of Spain. Now, I’m going to have to give you a bit more Spanish history. Can we please turn to yeah, king Ferdinand of Aragon. Okay, Ferdinand of Aragon was the king of Aragon. And he takes, he makes a brilliant marriage. Ferdinand of Aragon is going to marry the heiress of Castile, Isabella of Castile and bring together the two last warring dynasties in Spain. And together they are going to unite Spain. And together in 1492, they are going to move the last, they’re going to move the last Moorish stronghold. They’re going to defeat the Moors in Grenada and Christianize Spain. And Isaac Abravanel, well after the marriage is going to become one of the main advisors along with Seneor to the monarchs of Spain. So let’s go on to the next picture and look at Isabella. Isabella. There is Queen Saint Isabella of Castile. She was canonised. Canonization means you go straight to heaven. She remember was born into a period of great political instability. And it was her marriage to Ferdinand that in which brought stability. And eventually the unification of Spain. She had a struggle to actually claim the throne, She becomes incredibly popular. She’s a very strong monarch. And Ferdinand is a real wily character. They steep out crime, they pour the kingdom out of debt, mainly with the help with characters like Abravanel and eventually even make peace with Portugal. So her succession. She and Ferdinand had five children. She’s dynastically incredibly important. She’s terribly pious. She believes passionately in Catholicism.
For her, the move against the Muslims is going to be a move of divine judgement . It has to happen. Dynastically, she was incredibly ambitious and by unifying Spain, they make Spain into an incredibly important kingdom. And I’m going to give you what happened to her various children because it’s important that you understand this. I’ve already talked about the players in Europe at the time of the Medici. What I’m doing now is creating, if you like, another piece of the mosaic. Her son, she had one son, one he married the Arch Duchess Margaret of Austria, who is the Habsburg princess. Her second daughter Joanna, married Phillip of Burgundy, the brother of Margaret, the Habsburg heir. So this is an incredible dynastic marriage. Isabella, her elder daughter, married Manuel of Portugal. She died in 1498 and consequently another daughter married Manuel. So he had two of Catherine’s daughters as his consorts. And that’s what created good relations with Portugal. And of course her baby daughter, Catherine was engaged to Prince Arthur of England, the heir of Henry VII. Henry VII needs these alliances.
Arthur dies and she marries Henry, later Henry VIII. And the whole issue of Henry’s divorce, which I talked about last time was it in fact did Catherine consummate the marriage with Arthur. And that’s why he tried to get a divorce when he really wanted a divorce so he could marry Anne Boleyn. Catherine could only produce daughters. And so it’s important to remember their brilliant dynastic marriages, which really are going to dominate European history because in the end, and this is important and this we go into the realm of story. When the Jews are finally forced to leave Spain, the story is that a curses is put on them. And they were a cursed house because John, who marries Margaret of Austria, he dies young, the child produced dies as a baby, her elder daughter dies. The heir in the end becomes the son of Joanna and Philip of Burgundy. So their son, I mentioned him last time, is Charles V, who becomes the Holy Roman emperor, the scourge of Protestantism . Think of that year 1492. It’s the year that Ferdinand and Isabella finally feels strong enough to defeat the armies of Grenada, financed, it has to be said by their Jewish advisors, foreign minister to Ferdinand and Isabella, Isaac Abravanel. And it’s also the year that Christopher Columbus bumps into the new world.
And that means what the new world is going to be opened up to Spain and Portugal and following the new world is the Inquisition. In 1470, the very, very 78, I beg your pass, the very, very religious Isabella introduces the Inquisition into Spain. And can we see the next picture? Can we have a look at Thomas de Torquemada please, Judy. There you see him, the Grand Inquisitor, the Dominican, the hound of God, 1420 to 1495. He’s called, this is the Spanish chronicler, Sebastian Delmado, “the hammer of the heretics, the light of Spain, the saviour of his country, the honour of his order.” He had early service as a monk in the Dominican monastery. He was prior at a convent of Santa Cruz. He was advisor and he was Isabella’s confessor. And she appoints him the Inquisitor general in 1483. And he is the mind behind the expulsion of the Jews from Spain because what’s going on here? The anusim are far too powerful and are they backsliding? The Inquisition never had power over Jews. It only had power over heretics. But the anusim are heretics if they are practising Judaism in secret. And with the church’s blessing, the inquisitors now had the power to summon anyone accused of Judaism before them. And there were many, many terrible stories. Let’s say that you were practising Judaism in secret. What do you need? You need dominion.
So think Passover. Think Passover. It was always a time when the Inquisition was on the outlook, on the lookout. Think about a Shabbat service. If 10 men went into a house at one time, then there’s got to be something going on. What if you have a business rival you want to get rid of? He might be a Christian, he might really be a sincere Christian, but he’s a convert. Can he really be tested? So it becomes an incredible method of horror. Thousands of people are going to be burnt at the stake because it doesn’t matter, the autos-da-fe, the great seventh ceremonies with the white sheets, you still see those ceremonies part of pageants in Spain. I remember when I was in Seville, I was absolutely horrified by it. Again, inside out that’s history. So what you have with Torquemada, he now he’s zealous, he has Isabella behind him. And they both realise Ferdinand is much more wily. And they both realise that the Inquisition, the fact that the Inquisition, it’s never really going to be successful when you have Jews in Spain to backslide. Even though Abravanel, the wise courtier, finance minister, and there are stories that he tried to bribe Ferdinand. And there is a story never proven that he bribes Ferdinand with money, he’s one of the richest men in Spain remember. Ferdinand is wavering and Torquemada say, “Judas, 30 pieces of silver,” of course the story from the Christian Bible.
Now this is a letter from Ferdinand to the count of Aranda. “The holy office of the Inquisition seeing at how some Christians are in danger by contact and communication with the Jews has provided that Jews be expelled from all our realms and territories. And has persuaded us to give our support and agreement to this, which we now do because our debts and obligations to the office and we do so despite the great harm to ourselves seeking and preferring the salvation of souls above our own profit and that of individuals.” Finally on March, in March 1492, in the Alhambra Palace, that beautiful palace, they issue the decree of expulsion of the Jews of Spain. They’re going to have three months to get out. The usual story, the expulsion by Tisha B'Av. And I’m reading now from the expulsion, “Because of the communication of Jews with Christians in the Cortes was held in the city of Toledo in 1480, we ordered the separation of Jews in all the cities and towns about realm.” This is actually putting Jews in special areas. “Giving them separate places wherein to live, hoping with this separation the situation would improve. We also order an inquisition to be set up in these realms, which have been in operation now for 12 years. And many guilty have been punished by it.
But we are informed by the inquisitors of many other people, religious churchmen and layman of the great harm suffered by Christians from the contact, intercourse and communication which they have with the Jews or was attempted in various ways to seduce faithful Christians from our truth, holy Catholic place. And since we felt that the effective remedy was to separate Jews completely from Christians and expel them from our realms, we ordered them to leave the city’s towns and villages of Andalusia where it felt they were most harmful.” Already they are being swept out of the countryside. This has been happening for quite a few years. “For the others in the cities of our realm to cease their activities. But since we are reformed, neither that nor the justice done on some guilty Jews are enough for a full remedy, we with the advice of and great gentlemen of our realm and of other men of learning and conscience in our council, decree that all Jews, male and female depart our kingdom, never to return and that all this until the end of July this year to leave all our realms with their children and servants and relations, both old and young and dare not return.
And if they do not observe this and are found guilty of remaining in this realms or returning to them, then they will incur their death penalty and confiscation of all their goods and let nobody in our realms dare to receive shelter or defend publicly or secretly any Jew after the end of July on pain of loss of all goods, property or backsliding.” The main purpose of this expulsion was to stop the conversos. Now, as I said, Roth put it as high as a 200,000, which I think is, most historians think is much too high. But let’s say there’s a hundred thousand, many of them have married into the aristocracy of Spain. Whilst the Jews are around, they are going to backslide because the Jews still have the knowledge. Look, this has been going on for a hundred years now. Judaism is a religion of knowledge. If you are practising Christianity outwardly and Judaism in secret, you can’t have Jewish books in your house. You can’t, how are you going to know the rituals? So they believe if we throw the Jews out, and even Abravanel and I’m going to talk a lot more about him on the next session, on my next session with you, which is going to be the week after next. We’ve got a special week for you next week. But even Abravanel couldn’t prevent it. And it made him rethink all sorts of things.
He of course fled to Naples. And as you already know, Alexander Borgia took 10,000 into Rome. And what is absolutely fascinating is that the sultan of Turkey, actually according to Jewish sources, but not cross-referenced into Islamic sources, actually said, wrote that he be said beg your pardon that he thought that these kings were absolutely extraordinary expelling these incredibly hardworking citizens. And ironically, they expel the Jews just as the gold of the new world is going to come into Spain. The grand hidalgos, if you think of the grandees of Spain, they’re not going to bother themselves with trade. And that is why the Jews of Spain, who are going to flood throughout the whole of the Iberia, who are going to flood from the Iberian Peninsula to parts of Italy and into the Turkish Empire later on into Holland. Holland, part of the Habsburg Empire, later going to break away from Spain back to England. But also this is going to be the route of conversos. Many of the conversos fled to the trading routes of the Americas. Of course they did, but they tragically, the Inquisition is going to follow them there. In those of you who are interested in America, the first Jews to land in North America were a group of conversos who had finished up in Dutch Recife. When Recife was conquered by the Portuguese, they fled to the north to Peter Stuyvesant, who of course he had a colony in New Amsterdam, later New York. So basically these are the people who are going to have an incredible mark on Jewish history.
So Jews who had converted, the anusim, some of them remained Christian, but quite a large number of them kept up their secret Judaism. And they’re the ones who are going to go travelling the world and are going to be so important in Jewish history as it goes forward. People like Menasseh Ben Israel, who is going to be in charge of the readmission of Jews to England. His petition. So there’s an extraordinary story to tell on one level, a terrible tragedy, which led to a lot of soul searching on the part of Abravanel and also the whole notion of Messianism. Where was the Almighty? How did he allow so much Jewish so suffering? Remember he is a scholar and he’s going to go to the text, he’s going to go to the book of Daniel. Think of Daniel in exile in Babylon. He’s going to look at the Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Bible. He’s going to look at the prophecies in the prophets and what he’s going to try and do. And in of course in the Talmud, what he’s going to try and do is come up with some sort of solution for himself. And as I said, he goes on to be the financial advisor. He’s already been financial advisor in Lisbon, in Seville. He’s going to go on to be the financial advisor in Naples. And he’s going to finish up in Venice where he negotiates an incredibly important treaty with his son with the Portuguese. But he’s also going to have time for great scholarship. And it’s his son, his youngest son, who is going to become very close to Cosimo de’ Medici and as I said, Samuel, and I’ll put the family tree up again. Samuel’s wife Ben Vida, also his first cousin, the daughter of Abravanel’s, Isaac Abravanel’s brother. He’s going to be the very close friend and tutor to Cosimo, the first wife. So I think I will start, I think I’ll stop there. I’ve given a lot of facts. I know a lot of you know a lot about this period. I find it an absolutely fascinating period.
And rereading, of course Don Isaac Abravanel by Netanyahu and looking at the various layers. I remember going to a lecture of Antonio Fraser’s on the Gunpowder Plot and of course she married Harold Pinter. And I remember, and it was interesting, I was teaching some very dark history at the time and a close friend of mine said, “Look, let’s go. It’s the Gunpowder Plot. Jews aren’t involved in it. Let’s go.” And I remember she said in the lecture, the attitude of the Catholics in England at the time of the Gunpowder Plot was very similar to that of the Jews at the time before the time of the expulsion. And I thought, where on earth did that come from? So I’m just throwing that into the mix now. Okay, Judy, I’m going to look at questions.
Q&A and Comments:
This is a question for you Judy from Wilma. Can we see the exhibit on our computer? It will be available once the website’s up.
This is from Rose. Abravanel was an aerodynamics scholar. Yes, of course he was.
Shani is saying, my late father wrote his MA on Abravanel. My dad received his MA from Manchester University four years after he arrived in the UK as a refugee from . That is fascinating, Shani.
Q: You often say that Jews had influence rather than power. Yeah, will this apply to Abravanel?
A: Yes, of course. You see these guys, they really thought they walked the world. They were wealthy, they were brilliant statesmen. They were brilliant political figures. Look, he had the ear of the king and the queen, and he was the one who actually negotiated the dowry. I’ll be talking about that when I go into more depth into his biography next time. But yes, that’s influence. It isn’t power.
Yes, Valerie, of course Maimonides lived in Spain in the 12th century. That’s the time when the fanatics came back and he had to leave. You’ve been to Cordoba and seen that incredible mosque. It’s absolutely amazing, isn’t it Valerie?
Valerie, I thought the Jews were dhimmis living under Muslims and had to pay a tax. Yes, they were considered dhimmis. It’s interesting you have to pay a tax. But a rule of thumb under Islam and this is a huge topic that basically when Islam felt itself to be secure, as long as you don’t rule over, you can’t rule over, but you can be a grand vizier, but you can never be the sultan. And that’s one of the issues when you’re dealing with the Middle East, actually. But I don’t want to go down that road.
Phil is asking me to slow down. I hope.
Q: Why did so many Jews in South Africa come from Lithuania?
A: I will be answering that when we finally get to South African Jewry. Suffice to say the Union-Castle line was advertising for immigrants.
Abravanel’s is excellent, says Eleanor. My ancestors in Spain were a Don Yakia family who were related to Abravanel. Oh that’s extraordinary. How do I pronounce that? Yachia, I think Elizabeth didn’t kill a Catholic queen. Catherine of Aragon was divorced and lived out her life. I’m not talking about her.
I’m talking, Valerie, I’m talking about Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. Now of course she didn’t, but Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII was not considered by Catholics to be the true queen of England because she was a heretic. And her parents’ marriage was invalid because Catherine was the real queen of England. So the Catholic hopes after that centred on Mary Queen of Scots who was the daughter of Henry’s sister.
Yes, Anita’s answered that.
Q: Where are the Medici?
A: The Medici, as I explained Dennis, I have to give you the background. The Medici are going to come into the Abravanel story next time because of the relationship between Cosimo and Abravanel’s son and between his wife, both the wives, they were very close and they’re very important in making sure that Jews are safer in certain parts of Italy.
Have I been speaking too fast today? Oh dear, sorry, I get excited. Ronnie’s saying the great Muslim period in Andalusia was because the Muslims were a minority and so gained freedom .
Q: So was this an advanced period?
A: No, they weren’t the minority actually, but they did believe in coexistence.
Q: Is this an advanced period in pre-Renaissance Europe?
A: Yes, I think it is. It’s Humanistic period.
Q: In what year was different attire for Jews introduced? A: It was announced in 1215. The first country to take it on was England in 1222, Council of Oxford.
Do we know what happened to Jews who passed from Sephardi Islam control to Ashkenazi Christian control while living in, I don’t understand that question.
Q: What you mean Ashkenazi Christian control?
A: They were Sephardi Jews. They came, Sepharad is the Hebrew for Spain. They came under Christian control while living in Spain. And depending on the rulers. Esther, now the Sephardi Jews are invited back to Spain to receive their citizenship and to Portugal.
I’ll tell you a funny story. I went to Seville and Granada with my mother and my elder daughter and I’m going back about 10 years now, I guess 15 maybe. And I’ll never forget the guide said, do you know the Jews want to come back to take away our houses? And I thought . The Jewish community in France, there are still synagogues in Carcassonne, Concarneau and so Toulouse, yes, of course. That’s an incredible area. There are wonderful synagogues. T
his is from Esther, being a rabbi’s daughter. The study of Torah helped me later study philosophy. Yes. This is from Minna. I know a Catholic boy from Mexico that had a grandmother that lit candles every Friday night, not knowing why till he married a Jewish girl in Toronto and attended the family Sabbath dinner. That is lovely. David Abravanel equals Abraham. Thank you. This is from Jackie. Christian servants of Jewish converso families were encouraged to spy on them and report anything that could be considered suspicious. As far as food is concerned, that resulted in food being cooked in white wine, not red, which could be interpreted as using blood. This practise went across the Atlantic to the Inquisition in Brazil. That’s fascinating Jackie.
There’s so much interesting information about food. It’s not my field of expertise. I really must find someone who could do this because I think it would be absolutely extraordinary. And you see, of course, if you wanted to take over people’s property, all you had to do is denounce them to the Inquisition. And when the Jews were expelled, they were given three months to get out. Just think what happened to all their possessions and property. It’s a buyer’s market and so much was destroyed. The really wealthy characters like Abravanel managed to get most of his fortune out. In fact, Ferdinand helped him in that way, which is also rather strange. And once of course you are into the age of discovery, many converso got their fortunes out of the Iberian Peninsula. And for example, later on in the course when I start talking about Dona Gracia, she used her ships to transport conversos.
Yes, Abravanel did write commentaries on the . No, no, I didn’t mention Maimomides. I was not talking about the Golden Age. I was talking politics. It’s a whole separate area Valerie that we have actually looked at. And perhaps it’s something we should revisit. Yes, of course you had to.
This is when the extremist in Muslims are in power. Yes.
Q: Can you talk on Thomas de Torquemada who I believe was converso?
A: He wasn’t a converso, but it is believed he had a certain, he did have a certain amount of Jewish blood. It’s possible that his great grandmother was Jewish. And honestly one of the problems, Martin, that many of the greatest enemies of the Jews are people who do have a smattering of Jewish blood. Now I don’t think you have to be a great psychologist to go through this route. He’s no longer got any of the beauty of what it means to be a Jew. The religiosity, the community, et cetera and everything that goes with it. And this has happened through history.
What happens to a people who, when part of that people lose their knowledge, they turn against the people who are causing them to have problems. It’s a very important issue and a very, very painful issue. And there are still Jews today who I personally think suffer from Jewish self-hatred. But I’m often screamed up when I mentioned that in certain situations. So I’m not going there. I read the reason he married her. He was afraid she would murder him and have a murder. Look, I don’t believe that’s true. Look, it was not a love match on the part of Ferdinand. He was a pragmatist. She was in love with him it would appear. He wanted a pragmatic marriage and he united Spain.
No Valerie, the Armando was not because England became because the Spanish queen was killed. But I think we’re all in a bit of a muddle here. Let me go very, very carefully. You are in the wrong period. England became Protestant under Elizabeth. Now, when Henry VIII died, he was in theory a Protestant. His son was a Protestant. When his son died, the eldest daughter, Mary Tudor, who was Catholic, she married Philip II of Spain. She died without children. Elizabeth was brought up a Protestant. She became Queen of England. She very interesting, she tried to hold the balance in England. One of the reasons she never married was of course, which rival faction would she go for. One of the greatest threats to Elizabeth was of course Catholic Spain and Catholic Europe. After Mary Queen of Scots. Remember those of you who listened to my talk on the she was married into the French royal family. When he died very young, she went back to Scotland as Queen of Scotland. She was a Catholic. After she was thrown out of Scotland by the Calvinist, she sought refuge in England. But she was always plotting against Elizabeth. And she was in fact executed for plotting against Elizabeth in 1587. Elizabeth reluctantly gave the order of execution and that led Philip II to be able to lead his armada against England. And so that’s the story, Valerie.
Joan, I’m trying to picture fleeing by these prominent Jews, which of course was very different from being a refugee today and considering the daily issues, it must have taken some organising and they probably took servants along. Definitely a project for a good travelling. Look, the very wealthy didn’t have too much trouble, but the majority were not wealthy and Abravanel saw some of the horror. Just imagine you’ve got to get out. How are you going to get out? There isn’t a fleet of ships. How are you going to get out? You have to organise transport overseas. How are you going to do it? You’re going to go through France. Well, France isn’t so easy over the easy over the Pyrenees. It was a terrible, terrible time and many people died and many people committed suicide and actually Abravanel, this led a terrible mark on him. For the wealthy, of course there, he got his fortune up.
Q: Well, if she could only produce daughters, didn’t they mean they could consummate the marriage?
A: Who are we talking about? Yes, yes. I’m not talking about her marriage to Henry. I’m talking her marriage to his brother. She was first married to Henry’s brother. Henry used this as a way of trying to get a divorce. He actually consulted rabbis. She swore that the marriage hadn’t been consummated. Of course it was consummated with Henry.
Yeah. I think I must have been going too fast. I apologise. You see, I know a lot of history. Others of you, why should you? So I apologise and I will go slower.
Yeah, that’s right, Cheryl. Years ago we had a caregiver who came from Trinidad. When she saw me lighting candles, she was very surprised and told us about her black mother who went into the gazebo in their garden every Friday, put on a white tablecloth in a corner, covered her head, held her hand in front of her eyes while she lit two candles. Still am very surprised and we couldn’t figure it out why her mother doing that and having connection years before. Yes, that’s an incredible story, Indy. Yes, Joan, we did have a few talks on the Jews of yeah, of course. Yes, Dennis, a direct descendant of Isaac Abravanel was the American conductor Maurice Abravanel, born in Salonika and director of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for 30 years. Yes, the Abravanel family go on to be distinguished and there are still descendants around today. And of course Salonika is going to be, which was at this time part of the Turkish empire is going to become a very, very important city for the Sephardim. Talk about curses. Juana la Loca known as Joanna the Mad, not only mother of Charles V with his awful underbite, but also hoarded dead husband around with .
Yes, read some biographies of the children of Catherine of Aragon. They were a really, really sad lot. And of course, into the family through intermarriage came that terrible underbite. And I remember going to the incredible museum in Vienna and having a look at the, one of the later Habsburgs whose overbite was so much that he could hardly eat anymore. And one of the students with me was actually an oral surgeon and he looked at the picture and he said, “My goodness, I could have saved that man.”
Now this is from Michael. An ancient Jewish community was found in the mountains of Spain by a Jewish geologist in the early 1900s. They thought they were the only Jews left in the world. Okay, it’s quarter two. Oh, sorry, it’s quarter two now. I’m going to come up.
Michael Feldstein, I’m just going to finish with his last comment. Cookbook called “Recipes of my 15 Grandmothers” is a recipe book that has recipes that converso used. Thanks for that, Michael. Anyway, let me say goodbye and I will see you.
Where are we? It’s Thursday. I’ll see you next Wednesday, but we’re back to our normal programme the following week. But you’ve got a great programme on that.
Oh, Barry has just mentioned that Josh Cohen’s recent book on the Netanyahu, has a lot to talk about Benzion Netanyahu’s view on the Inquisition. Thank you. Maybe you, Monty. Yes. Antonio Fraser is from a high church family. Can we put the questions out next time? Let me say goodbye to all of you and God bless. Okay, and bye Judy. Thank you.
[Assistant] Thank you so much Judy and thank you to everybody who joined us today. Have a wonderful evening.
God bless everyone. Bye.
[Assistant] Thank you. Bye-bye.