Entre o desterro dos judeus e o fechamento dos portos portugueses no reinado de D. Manuel I (1495 - 1521): os caminhos trilhados pelos cristãos-novos após o édito

Abstract

The present doctoral thesis draws an approach pass through the history of the Jews in the Middle Ages in a long way, in order to analyze the change in their status for New Christians and their role as language interpreters, diplomats and merchants in the Portuguese empire. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the historiographical discussion about the place of the Jews in medieval Lusitanian society, in order to perceive the motives of the monarch D. Manuel I to decree the Edict of expulsion in 1496 and later to impel the compulsory conversion in 1497, in this way, we were also interested in observing and analyzing the paths taken by the converts after forced baptism and their performance in the Portuguese empire. Since in this investigation we have highlighted the political and strategic uses of the royal administration along the lines of its time - from the 15th to the 16th century - based on Manueline diplomacy to effect the interests of the Portuguese Crown to reach the commercial domain and its monopoly on the lands from beyond the sea. In order to do so, we sought to analyze D. Manuel I 's various strategic measures concerning Jews and converts, which developed a strategist policy with the other spheres of power that were involved in this situation, namely the religious - Papacy - and politics which were intertwined in the consolidation of the royal interests, which we call the "Royal Design", whose main objective was to expand commerce and dominions in the lands of the Beyond- sea. Thus, we did not have the pretense of belittling previous studies, but our intention was focused on shedding light on other possibilities to think about the factors that have been as relevant in this process as the questions already presented by the authors who have been thinking the legal and religious policies concerning medieval Jews and the new Portuguese Christians after the forced conversion into Lusitanian lands and those relating to their dominions.