Sadly, anti-semitism was rampant in medieval Europe and I would say that it was present until XX century [1], and massacres of jews were popular among all countries, e.g.:
- 1066 Granada Massacre (Granada was a Muslim Kingdom at that time)[2]
- England: 1190 York Massacre [3]
- Castile & Leon: 1391 Massacre [4]
- Brussels: 1370 Brussels massacre [5]
- ... [6]
In fact, I would say that jews have been the most hated ethno-religious group through Europe. The animosity of many cultures in Europe against them was almost omnipresent, both Christian and Islam-based.
Thus, jews were expelled from countries in Europe all the time [7], Spain was in fact one of the last countries to do so, on a side note, most countries expelled jews much earlier e.g.
Most of the Spanish jews chose to be baptized (among them the Abraham Senior, a senior member of the Castilian hacienda [8]) and is estimated that from a population of 400,000 a half of them remained in Iberia. Other sources (Henry Kamen) claim that [from] "80,000 Jews and 200,000 conversos, about 40,000 emigrated".
Of course, those who remained were subjected to discrimination as conversos, but that's another issue that even them was subjected to criticism by some important figures like Ignacio de Loyola (founder of Jesuits).
Oh yes, I'm not hating on Spain, but the parent comment seemed to deny the persecution Jews experienced and portrayed it as some sort of righteous anger on the part of good Catholics.
I don't think it was "rightous anger", but the hate against jews were commonplace in Medieval Ages. That also involves Spain of course. Until recently, most people were extremely racist/prejudiced against "the other" (hate against jews included).
However, I'm afraid that the popularization of the Spanish Inquisition [1] is due to propaganda. It is called Black Legend in academic circles and the publication in England and The Netherlands (and their orbits) of exagerated stories about the atrocities of the Spanish Crown, Spaniards and the Spanish Inquisition is because of that.
Most of the sufferers of the Spanish Inquisiton were Spaniards, and the Holy Office had the aim of control (with an iron fist) the population, not exterminate them. In fact, during its 4 centuries of life, the Inquisition executed around 6,000 people [2] (according to Henry Kamen). For example, you can compare to the 57,000 - 70,000 people killed during the reign of Henry VIII (only 40 years)[3][4]
We are talking about XV-XIX centuries. Most countries had different levels of "iron fist" population control for a segment of their population. It could be control of women, poor people, people of different ethnicity, jews, etc.
What I want to highlight, is that the behavior of the Spanish Inquisition, while abhorrent to our XXI eyes, were not uncommon during those times. Note please that I'm not justifying anything, I'm making a point that Human History has been horrible during almost of its existence: discrimination, wars, slavery, segregation, etc. Human Rights are a "new thing".
Thus, jews were expelled from countries in Europe all the time [7], Spain was in fact one of the last countries to do so, on a side note, most countries expelled jews much earlier e.g.
Most of the Spanish jews chose to be baptized (among them the Abraham Senior, a senior member of the Castilian hacienda [8]) and is estimated that from a population of 400,000 a half of them remained in Iberia. Other sources (Henry Kamen) claim that [from] "80,000 Jews and 200,000 conversos, about 40,000 emigrated".
Of course, those who remained were subjected to discrimination as conversos, but that's another issue that even them was subjected to criticism by some important figures like Ignacio de Loyola (founder of Jesuits).
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