Queen Isabella, After the Assassination Attempt on Ferdinand in 1492, Sends an Order from Pope Alexander VI to the Great Abbey at Segovia

A rare letter showing the ways in which the Spanish Monarchs communicated with and on behalf of the Pope, the same Pope who would just months later give the Crown title to the lands being explored at that exact moment in the New World

 

This Abbey had incorporated the land seized from the great synagogue that once stood there

 

“I give my faith and credence”

It was only by virtue of loans from Castile’s great benefactors that Ferdinand and Isabella waged the war to expel the Muslims from Spanish territory. In April of 1491, the Catholic Monarchs brought their forces into camp on the road to Granada, near Castro del Rio. From there they would proceed to Granada, and besiege the city. Castile’s bravest nobles formed the vanguard of the army of approximately 50,000 men. Ferdinand and Isabella traveled with the army, with Ferdinand in an advanced position. With victory at Granada, the Catholic Monarchs sought to extend their control and solidify their power, expel the Moors, and begin to repopulate the occupied lands. The army of the Catholic Monarchs arrived before Granada on April 26, 1491, commencing the siege. The action that began in mid-April 1491 would prove to be the end of the 8-centuries long Reconquista, the reconquest of Spain from the Moors. Boabdil, Sultan of Granada, surrendered the city on January 2, 1492.

With Spain united, the Monarchs were able to turn their attention to a new visitor and his request: While Ferdinand and Isabella were still at Santa Fe, their forward headquarters for the campaign to free Spain, they were visited by Christopher Columbus, also in January 1492. His initial request in Sante Fe was rejected in February and he left for France to plead his case there. This stirred pride in the minds of the Spanish and allies of Columbus made another appeal to Isabella. This was successful and in April of 1492 a final agreement was signed between Columbus and the Spanish monarchs, naming him admiral and sending him West to find the “Indies.”Columbus was westward bound, and in Spain, in early December, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had taken their court to Barcelona for the winter. They regularly held audiences to hear grievances and resolve criminal and civil cases of their common subjects and, at noon, Ferdinand finished an audience at the Casa de Deputacion.

As he descended the steps to the Plaza of Kings, Ferdinand was attacked by an assailant wielding a knife and gravely wounded. Ferdinand’s advisers mobbed the attacker, intent on lynching him to death, but Ferdinand retained consciousness and ordered that the man’s life be spared for an interrogation to identify conspirators. Isabella immediately suspected Catalan dissidents or French agents and ordered Barcelona’s priests to lead her subjects in prayer.

The Abbey of Parraces was a prominent 14th and 15th century religious institution near the town of Segovia. It gained some of its lands through the incorporation of seized property from the great synagogue which once existed there and suffered the fate – confiscation – of other Jewish institutions during the Inquisition.

The Chantre was the singer at Church services and held in high regard. The Capellan (the Queen would have more than one) was a senior Church official. Someone could hold both positions at once, which evidently is the case here.

Document signed, Isabella, “Yo la Reyna,” Barcelona, December 8, 1492, to the Prior and Canons (priests) of the Monastery of Paraces. Ordering “that the people might receive a message from the Chantre de Camora, my Capellan, who carries a bulla (papal order) from our most Holy Father, which on my part I bring to your attention and to which I give my faith and credence.”

An uncommon document from the very year that the Spanish monarchs sent Columbus to the New World