Author(s): Nicole Watson

Presentation: oral

On 31 March 1492 in Grenada, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand signed one of the most significant documents in the history of the Jewish people: The Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews. This paper challenges the traditional polemic surrounding discussions of the causes leading up to the Edict of Expulsion that attribute anti-Semitic sentiment as the primary cause. Since 1391, waves of Jewish conversions to Christianity occurred for multitudinous reasons—including lack of Jewish leadership, Messianic speculation, increased Christian proselytizing, fear of persecution, and socioeconomic status. Why did increased voluntary conversion to Christianity lead to attacks, anti-Jewish laws, the Inquisition, and ultimately the Expulsion? This paper takes a geographical approach, looking at how regional and political differences within the Iberian Peninsula itself during this time led to differences in how Jewish converts to Christianity embraced their new religion and how they were welcomed into their new faith by existing Christians. Using both primary and secondary sources, this paper addresses the issue of proximity between New Christians and Jews and how this proximity became a destabilizing force in first Castile-Aragon and then in Navarre.

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