The Restrained Policies of Charles V in Applying Legislation for Moriscos from the Kingdom of Granada

Abstract

The Capitulations granted by the Catholic Kings to the Muslims of the Kingdom of Granada when they surrendered were signed on November 25, 1491 in Santa Fe and constitute the first document on the Moorish question. They were very generous. The first years of command of the Catholic Kings was characterized by their flexibility and tolerance towards the Mozarabs. This situation was reversed when the Franciscan Jimenez de Cisneros started another type of campaign for conversion in 1499. The Muslim response to the unorthodox methods used by the Cardinal, so obviously contrary to the agreement of 1491, provoked an uprising, which was the excuse to denounce the Treaty. The consequence was the Royal Certificate, issued on February 12, 1502 by the Catholic Monarchs, in which the Muslims who remained in their kingdoms were given the choice between baptism and expulsion. However, Carlos V adopted with respect to the Moriscos a position of acceptance in his modus vivendi. Although, in 1526, he issued some hard dispositions known as the measures of the Congregation of the Royal Chapel, in the end, for a variety of reasions, among others, economic ones, they were not be applied. The Inquisition, with respect to the Moors, manifested a policy of relative tolerance handled by the Emperor. With Philip II the policy of tolerance changed completely, following the Tridentine principles in 1570, which determined the expulsion of all the Moriscos from the Kingdom of Granada.