page_title: Manuel I of Portugal
section_title: Portuguese Inquisition
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel I of Portugal / Reign / Portuguese Inquisition
caption_attribution_description: English: On the center right is Maria of Aragon, followed by Isabella of Portugal, and then Beatrice of Portugal, Duchess of Savoy and the center left is Manuel I of Portugal, followed by his sons in descending order of age. Português: No centro-direita está Maria de Aragão, seguida de Isabel de Portugal e Beatriz de Portugal, Duquesa de Saboia. No centro-esquerdo está D. Manuel I de Portugal, seguido dos seus filhos em ordem decrescente de idade.
context_page_description: Manuel I, known as the Fortunate, was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, as monarch. Manuel ruled over a period of intensive expansion of the Portuguese Empire owing to the numerous Portuguese discoveries made during his reign. His sponsorship of Vasco da Gama led to the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India in 1498, resulting in the creation of the Portuguese India Armadas, which guaranteed Portugal's monopoly on the spice trade. Manuel began the Portuguese colonization of the Americas and Portuguese India, and oversaw the establishment of a vast trade empire across Africa and Asia.
  Manuel established the Casa da Índia, a royal institution that managed Portugal's monopolies and its imperial expansion, and he financed numerous famed Portuguese navigators, including Pedro Álvares Cabral, Afonso de Albuquerque, and João Vaz Corte-Real, among numerous others.
context_section_description: Manuel was a very religious man and invested a large amount of Portuguese income to send missionaries to the new colonies, among them Francisco Álvares, and sponsor the construction of religious buildings, such as the Monastery of Jerónimos. Manuel also endeavoured to promote another crusade against the Turks.
  His relationship with the Portuguese Jews started out well. At the outset of his reign, he released all the Jews who had been made captive during the reign of John II. Unfortunately for the Jews, he decided that he wanted to marry Infanta Isabella of Aragon, then heiress of the future united crown of Spain (and widow of his nephew Prince Afonso). Her parents Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled the Jews in 1492 and would never marry their daughter to the king of a country that still tolerated their presence. In the marriage contract, Manuel I agreed to persecute the Jews of Portugal.
  In December 1496, it was decreed that all Jews either convert to Christianity or leave the country without their children. However, those expelled could only leave the country in ships specified by the king. When those who chose expulsion arrived at the port in Lisbon, they were met by clerics and soldiers who tried to use coercion and promises in order to baptize them and prevent them from leaving the country.
  This period of time technically ended the presence of Jews in Portugal. Afterwards, all converted Jews and their descendants would be referred to as "New Christians", and they were given a grace period of thirty years in which no inquiries into their faith would be allowed; this was later extended to end in 1534.
  During the course of the Lisbon massacre of 1506, people invaded the Jewish Quarter and murdered thousands of accused Jews; the leaders of the riot were executed by Manuel.
caption: Manuel with his second wife Maria of Aragon and their eight children; by Colijn de Coter, c. 1515-17.
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