<<ALT TAG: This map depicts the city from about a 30 degree angle, meaning that we can see fields and hills in the background.>>
Seville, in present-day Spain, was changing. From 712 to 1248, the city had been under the control of Islamic Moors originating from North Africa. The population of the city had been a mix of Moors, Spaniards, and Jews, Under the control of Castile, a neighbouring Catholic kingdom, the Moors and Jews faced persecution in the 15th century. Many Jews had been massacred in a pogrom in the 1420s; the majority of the Jewish population was forced to convert, and its synagogues were converted to churches. Many of the architectural elements of Moorish and Jewish culture were still visible in 1450. This map of the city, for example, shows a large cathedral next to a palace built for Moorish rulers in the Islamic style.
<<ALT TAG: In this painting, John II looks like a medieval ruler. He is holding a sword, and is wearing long, flowing robes.>>
The ruler of Castile, the area in which the city of Seville is located, in 1450 was John II. His reign was one of many Christian kings during the Reconquista, a lengthy period stretching from the first Moorish conquests to their last defeat by the Christian kings in the 15th century. From the Castilian perspective, this was also a period of consolidation. While the region would not be officially called Spain for decades, the union of John’s daughter, Isabella, and Ferdinand of Aragon, a neighbouring kingdom. centralized power in the region. This is an imagined portrait of John II painted in the 1890s. Why would he still be significant to Europeans more than 400 years after his death?
<<ALT TAG: This is a picture of Torquemada, priest. He is wearing a crucifix around his neck. He is looking off in the distance.>>
In 1478, the kingdoms of Ferdinand and Isabella launched an Inquisition to ensure full adherence to the Catholic faith, especially among Jewish and Moorish converts. While the Inquisition was initially sanctioned by the Church as a means of addressing heresy, concerns over its severity and scope prompted Pope Sixtus IV to call for leniency. The position of Grand Inquisitor was created in order to supervise the Inquisition. The first Grand Inquisitor was a Dominican Monk named Tomás de Torquemada, who escalated rather than curtailed the Inquisition. Anyone who was accused of committing an act condemned by the Church, including blasphemy and witchcraft, could be subject to autos-da-fé, or acts of faith, during which they might be publicly humiliated and beaten. Some were burned at the stake as heretics.