In the article “Tommaso Torquemada. A man who became a symbol of a terrible era”, we talked about various assessments of his activities, as well as about the edicts of“intolerance”and“mercy”and the persecution of converses, tornadidos and Marranos before the birth of Torquemada. Now let's talk about the life of a humble Dominican, who for many years did not even suspect that he was destined to become the Grand Inquisitor, and we will tell you how he influenced the history of Spain.
Spiritual career of Tommaso de Torquemada
The uncle of the future Grand Inquisitor, Juan de Torquemada, was a Dominican and a cardinal, he took part in the Cathedral of Constance - the very one where Jan Hus was convicted and sentenced to be burned at the stake.
Having received a good education at home, Tommaso was sent to a monastery school at the age of 12, and at 14 we see him in the Dominican monastery of St. Paul in the city of Valladolid, performing not too honorary duties as an assistant cook. Thus began his spiritual career, which opened the way for him to the royal palace and led to the heights of power.
Torquemada did not spend all his time in the monastery, until 1452 he traveled a lot in Castile, attracting everyone's attention with asceticism (he did not eat meat, walked barefoot and wore a hair shirt, slept on bare boards) and high oratory. In 1451 he became a member of the Order of Brothers Preachers (this is the official name of the Dominican monastic Order). And in 1452 (some sources call 1459, which is incorrect), he agreed to take the post of prior (abbot) of the Dominican monastery of the Holy Cross (Convento de Santa Cruz la Real) in Segovia.
Segovia (the administrative center of the Spanish province of Avila) is little known in our country, but at that time it was one of the most important cities in Castile, its former capital.
Here in 1218 Dominic Guzman founded one of the first monasteries of the new Order of Brothers Preachers. Here is the grotto, in which he indulged in "mortification of the flesh" in 1218, and where Christ and Dominic appeared to Saint Teresa of Avila on September 30, 1574, promising help in reforming the Carmelite Order and creating an offshoot of the "Barefoot Carmelites". Now the building belongs to the university.
In addition, Segovia is very conveniently located between Madrid and Valladolid, and very close to the small town of Arevalo, where just at that time, along with her mother and younger brother Alfonso, was the Castilian infant Isabella.
It was in this monastery that until 1474 Tommaso Torquemada held the post of prior.
Infanta Isabella
Mother and daughter (who at the time of their acquaintance with Torquemada was 3 years old) visited the monastery of the Holy Cross, meeting there with its abbot - already famous for his asceticism and religious zeal. And then he began to visit them, and he invariably refused to take a mule, walking a distance of 30 miles. It is not surprising that it was Torquemada who became Isabella's confessor and her teacher (and a good one: later it turned out that Isabella is much more educated than her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon). Moreover, it was precisely communication with Torquemada that for a long time limited Isabella's connection with the outside world, from him (and in his interpretation) she received news of all events in Castile and abroad. And Isabella's mother was almost constantly in a state of severe depression and had little effect on her daughter's upbringing. In the early 70s, she completely stopped recognizing her (recall, by the way, that the fourth daughter of Isabella I the Catholic - the Queen of Castile and the wife of Philip the Fair, went down in history under the name Juana Mad).
And therefore, it was Torquemada who had a huge, simply decisive, influence on the formation of the personality of the future Catholic queen. Bishop Valentine Fleschier wrote in 1693:
“Torquemada was Isabella's confessor from her very birth, and he inspired her that God would one day raise her to the throne, that her main business would be the punishment and destruction of heretics, that the purity and simplicity of the Christian Doctrine are the basis of government, that the means of establishing peace in the kingdom should be religion and justice”.
The French Dominican Antoine Touron (1686-1775) in his "History of Famous People of the Dominican Order" reports:
“In all the difficulties that often gave her (Isabella) pain and annoyance, she needed comfort; and after God, she most of all found him in the advice of her confessor: she appreciated his knowledge, his honesty, diligence and affection, confirmation of which he gave constantly and in any circumstances."
We add that the strength of Torquemada's personality was such that the husband of Isabella Ferdinand fell under his influence.
But back to Isabella. The girl grew up short and not particularly slender, her eyes were greenish-gray, her hair was golden. For leisure, she preferred reading and embroidery. Biographers note that, in addition to fanatical religiosity, she was characterized by persistence and even some arrogance. Raised as a nun, becoming a queen, she rode on horseback, and sometimes personally led military detachments.
However, to the crown of Isabella was still very far away. Her father, Juan II, died in 1454, his eldest son, Enrique IV, became king, who, due to his impotence, received the contemptuous nickname "Powerless".
His second wife gave birth to a daughter by her lover - Bertrand de la Cueva (this girl is known as Juana Beltraneja), and the Castilian grandees forced the king to appoint the son of the former king - the younger brother of Isabella Alfonso, known by the nickname "Rival", as heir.
After that, Enrico demanded that the children of his stepmother, Isabella of Portugal, be brought from Arevalo to the yard. For some reason, the pupil of Torquemada was forbidden to sit at the royal dining table; in protest, her brother Alfonso and the Archbishop of Toledo began to sit next to her.
On June 5, 1465, the rebel grandees burned an effigy of King Enrique and proclaimed Isabella's brother Alfonso the king (this incident went down in history as the "Avila booth"). A war broke out between the brothers, in which the northern provinces of the kingdom supported Enrique, the southern ones - Alfons. And only after the death of the 14-year-old applicant (who fell into a coma, having eaten the trout prepared for him, probably poisoned by the enemies), did it come to Isabella, who in 1468 was declared Princess of Asturias. According to the agreement drawn up, Enrico could not force Isabella to an unwanted marriage for her, but she could not get married without the consent of her brother. And now the humble prior Tommaso Torquemada has entered the stage of big politics. It was he who played a huge role in the preparation and practical implementation of Isabella's secret marriage with the son of King Juan II of Aragon Ferdinand, who was a year younger and was her second cousin.
This intrigue was also supported by the Archbishop of Toledo, Don Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña, who was at war with King Enrique IV.
Isabella and Ferdinand
Isabella and Ferdinand were members of the Trastamara dynasty, whose representatives at various times ruled in Castile, Aragon, Leon, Sicily, Naples and Navarre.
Especially, perhaps, it is worth mentioning Asturias, which, like the Basque Country, was never conquered by the Arabs.
In 910this kingdom was divided into Leon, Galicia and Asturias proper, but in 924 these lands were re-united under the name of the Kingdom of Leon and Asturias - it was it that became the base of the Reconquista. The Asturians were very proud of the "blue blood" (the fact that blue veins were visible on the white skin of their hands) and considered themselves to be nobles. In Don Quixote, Cervantes speaks of the innkeeper's maid, an Asturian woman, who promised to come at night to a certain driver:
"It was said about this glorious girl that she kept such promises even in those cases when they were given by her in a deep forest and, moreover, without witnesses, for the said girl was very proud of her noble birth."
Now let's return to Isabella's fiancé - Ferdinand, who at that time was the governor of Catalonia and the king of Sicily - here he was known as Ferrante III. In Castile, he will be called Fernando V, and from January 20, 1479, after the death of his father, he will become King of Aragon Fernando II. At the time of the marriage, which was contracted either in Valladolid or in Segovia on October 19, 1469, he was 17 years old, and there were rumors that by this time he already had two illegitimate children.
Ferdinand and his retinue arrived in Castile under the guise of merchants, the pope's consent to a closely related marriage was fabricated (the present was obtained later - after Isabella had her first child, and a copy of it in the Vatican was never found, so some historians believe that it was also fake). According to the agreement drawn up, Ferdinand became only a prince consort, which categorically did not suit him. Later, it was possible to agree with him on the basis of a compromise: Ferdinand now had to become not a consort, but a co-regent of his wife. Their names were minted on coins, the acts of appointment and the pronouncement of court sentences were also performed on behalf of both spouses - there was even a saying: "Tanto monta, montatanto, Isabel como Fernando" (All one, Isabella, like Ferdinand).
But at the same time in Castile, Ferdinand acted as Isabella's commissioner, and the state treasury and the royal army remained in the exclusive subordination of the queen.
It was Isabella, as Queen of Castile, who decided to finance Columbus's expedition, and therefore the Kingdom of Aragon was initially prohibited from maintaining any, primarily commercial, relations with the American continent, its sphere of influence remained the Mediterranean.
For his help in organizing the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand Torquemada, he was later offered the post of Archbishop of Seville, which he refused.
And Enrique IV accused Isabella of violating the contract and declared the illegitimate daughter of his wife, Juana, the heiress. Fearing for their lives, Isabella and Ferdinand settled in Medina del Rio Seco, which was ruled by the grandfather of the prince, the Castilian grandee, High Admiral Fadric de Henriquez.
Later, King Enrique made peace with his sister, and returned her inheritance rights.
Catholic kings
On December 11, 1474, King Enrique IV died, Isabella became queen of Castile and Leon, her husband Ferdinad also received the crown of Castile.
But in 1475, the king of Portugal, Alfonso V, who married Juan Beltraneja, tried to challenge Isabella's rights. The war with Portugal continued until 1479, in which Pope Sixtus IV annulled the marriage of Alfonso and Juan as closely related. Isabella's unhappy niece went to the monastery, where she spent the rest of her life.
Alexander VI, the second pope of the Borgia family, granted the new monarchs the title of Catholic kings - and every person in Spain immediately understands who they are talking about when they see the word la Catolica next to the name Isabella or Ferdinand.
In 1479, after the death of Ferdinand's father, Isabella of Castile also received the title of Queen of Aragon and Valencia, and also became the Countess of Barcelona.
But we must remember that Spain has not yet been on the map of Europe: Castile and Aragon retained their crowns, institutions of power, their money and their languages. Only in the 18th century will the complete unification of these lands take place.
Some researchers believe that it was Isabella I of Castile la Catolica that influenced the functions of the chess queen: even in the 15th century, he was a male figure and, like a king, could only move one square. But, after Isabella became one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe, the queen became associated with the queen and was able to move around the entire board, and chess began to symbolize the struggle of the Christian states with the Saracens.
On the advice of Torquemada, Ferdinand was appointed master of all military-religious Orders. And the grandees in the new state were ousted by letrados (scientists, literate) - people with university degrees, who, as a rule, came from among the petty nobility (hidalgo) and townspeople.
In 1476, the "Saint Ermandada" (from hermandades - "brotherhood") - the traditional urban police militia of some Castilian cities, became mandatory in all areas of Castile, Leon and Aragon and was subsequently subordinated to the royal government. This organization became the mainstay of the central government and played a large role in restricting the rights of local feudal lords (in a short time the fortifications of 50 castles were torn down, which made the grandees much more manageable and obedient). Another result was a significant decrease in crime. One can learn about "Ermandade", the authority of this organization and the fear that it inspired from the novel "Don Quixote" by Cervantes. Sancha Panza says to his master:
“I’ll tell you what, sir: it would not hurt us to take refuge in some church. After all, we left the person with whom you fought in the most distressful situation, so that the Holy Brotherhood will come and you and I will be seized … those who start fights on the highways are not patted on the head by the Holy Brotherhood."
All these innovations, of course, were of a progressive nature, and benefited the state. But in 1477, an event took place that painted Spanish history in dark, blood-black tones. Then Philippe de Barberis arrived to the Catholic kings - an inquisitor from Sicily, which was dependent on Aragon (in this kingdom, inquisitors appeared already in the first half of the 13th century, but by the time described they were practically inactive). The purpose of his visit was to confirm the privilege of appropriating one third of the property of the convicted heretics. It was Barberis who advised the royal couple to resume the actions of the Inquisition in Aragon and extend them to Castile and Leon. This proposal, supported by the papal nuncio Nicolo Franco, found a warm response among the local clergy, who demanded an investigation into the degree of sincerity of the conversion of the Jews and Moriscos. The decisive was the opinion of Torquemada, who told Isabella that most conversos only portray "good Christians." After that, the queen decided to turn to Pope Sixtus IV with a request for permission to establish her own inquisition in Castile, directed mainly against the "converso" - both secret Jews and hidden Muslims.
Founding of the Inquisition in Castile and Leon
On November 1, 1478, Sixtus IV issued a bull Sincerae devotionis, in which the Catholic kings were allowed to establish a special body with the power to arrest and try heretics. The power to appoint and remove inquisitors was granted to Isabella and Ferdinand. Inquisitors were to be "archbishops and bishops or other ecclesiastical dignitaries known for their wisdom and virtue … at the age of at least forty years and impeccable conduct, masters or bachelors of theology, doctors or licentiates of canon law."
The property of the convicts was divided into three parts, going to the royal treasury, the Pope and the persons conducting the investigation (who, thus, turned out to be financially interested in the conviction of as many suspects as possible).
This was the beginning of the infamous Spanish Inquisition.
