The Last Jew by Noah Gordon Read Free Book Online Page A

bore arms, and he read a proclamation that informed the Jews that despite their long history in Spain, they were ordered to leave the country within three months. The queen already had expelled Jews from Andalusia in 1483. Now they were ordered to leave every part of the Spanish kingdom -- Castilla, León, Aragón, Galicia, Valencia, the principality of Cataluña, the feudal estate of Vizcaya, and the islands of Cerdeña, Sicilia, Mallorca, and Menorca.
    The order was nailed to a wall. Rabbi Ortega copied it in a hand that trembled so badly he had trouble making out some of the words when he read them to a hurried meeting of the Council of Thirty.
    '"All Jews and Jewesses, of whatever age they may be, that live, reside, and dwell in our said kingdoms and dominions ... shall not presume to return to, or reside therein or in any part of them, either as residents, travellers, or in any manner whatever, under pain of death ... And we command and forbid any person or persons in our said kingdom [to] presume publicly or secretly to receive, shelter, protect, or defend any Jew or Jewess ... under pain of losing their property, vassals, castles, and other possessions."'
    All Christians were solemnly warned against experiencing false compassion. They were forbidden 'to converse and communicate ... with Jews, or receive them into your homes, or befriend them, or give them nourishment of any sort for their sustenance.'
    The proclamation was issued 'by order of the king and queen, our sovereigns, and of the reverend prior of Santa Cruz, inquisitor general in all the kingdoms and dominions of Their Majesties.'
     
    The Council of Thirty that governed the Jews of Toledo was made up of ten representatives from each of the three Estates -- prominent urban leaders, merchants, and artisans. Helkias served because he was a maestro silversmith, and the meeting was held in his home.
    The councillors were staggered.
    'How can we be so coldly evicted from a land which means so much to us, and of which we are so much a part?' Rabbi Ortega said haltingly.
    'The edict is yet one more royal scheme to gain fresh tax money and bribes from us,' Judah ben Solomon Avista said. 'Spanish kings have always described us as their profitable milch cow.'
    There was a grumble of assent. 'Between the years 1482 and 1491,' said Joseph Lazara, an elderly flour merchant of Tembleque, 'we contributed no less than fifty-eight million maravedíes to the war effort, and another twenty million in "forced loans." Time after time, the Jewish community has gone steeply into debt in order to pay an exorbitant "tax" or to make the throne a "gift" in return for our survival. Surely this is but another such time.'
    'The king must be approached and asked for his intervention,' Helkias said.
    They discussed who should make the appeal, and there was a consensus that if should be Don Abraham Seneor.
    'He is the Jewish courtier His Majesty most loves and admires,' Rabbi Ortega said, and many heads nodded in agreement.
     
    6
    Changes
     
    Abraham Seneor had lived for eighty years, and though his mind was fresh and sharp, his body was very tired. His history of hard and dangerous service to the monarch had begun when he had arranged secret nuptials that on October 19, 1469, had joined in marriage two cousins, Isabella of Castille, eighteen years old, and Ferdinand of Aragon, seventeen.
    That ceremony had been clandestine because it had defied King Henry IV of Castille. Henry had wanted his half-sister Isabella to become the wife of King Alfonso of Portugal. The Infanta had refused, asking Henry to name her as heir to the thrones of Castille and León, and promising him she would marry only with his approval.
    Henry IV of Castille had no sons (he was mocked by subjects who called him Henry the Impotent) but he had a daughter, Juana, believed to have been the illegitimate child of Henry's mistress, Beltrán de la Cueva. When he tried to name Juana his heir, a civil war erupted. The nobles