The Pragmatic Sanction of 1567, also known as the anti-Morisco Pragmatic (Spanish: Pragmática Sanción de 1567, lit. 'Pragmatic Sanction of 1567'), was an edict issued in the form of a pragmatic sanction by King Philip II of Spain that forbade the language, dress, customs and religious practices of the Moriscos of the Kingdom of Granada. The text was promulgated on 17 November 1566 and made public on New Year's Day 1567 by Pedro de Deza, president of the Royal Chancery of Granada, who immediately began to enforce it.[1] Resistance to its terms triggered the Rebellion of the Alpujarras of 1568–1571.[2]
| Pragmatic Sanction of 1567 | |
|---|---|
 "Morisco women going for a walk in Granada"; drawings by Christoph Weiditz (1529). | |
| Philip II of Spain | |
| |
| Territorial extent | Kingdom of Granada |
| Enacted by | Philip II of Spain |
| Enacted | 17 November 1566 |
| Signed | 17 November 1566 |
| Commenced | 1 January 1567 |
| Related legislation | |
| Granada War; Junta of 1526 | |
| Status: Unknown | |
Background
editOn the initiative of Pedro Guerrero, Archbishop of Granada, who was convinced that the Moriscos could not become genuine Christians as long as they retained their customs and traditions, a provincial synod of the bishops of the Kingdom of Granada was convened in 1565.[3] The synod resolved to change the previous policy of persuasion, dropping the vocabulary of evangelisation, preaching and catechisation for harsher terms that some authors describe as repressive. It called for the application of measures that had been suspended in 1526, which meant the prohibition of all the distinctive elements of Morisco life: the Arabic language, traditional dress, the use of hammams, religious ceremonies and accompanying rites, the dances known as zambras and similar customs.[4]
The bishops also asked the king to tighten supervision. They proposed that at least a dozen Old Christian families should be settled in every Morisco locality; that Morisco houses should be inspected regularly on Fridays, Saturdays and feast days to ensure that the precepts of the Quran were not being followed; and that prominent Moriscos should be closely watched to set an example for the rest. The synod even requested that the sons of the leading Morisco families be removed and brought up in Old Castile "at their parents' expense, so that they should acquire the customs and Christianity of that region and forget those of this one until they became men".[4]
These proposals were debated by a junta of jurists, theologians and military commanders that met in Madrid, and in which the Duke of Alba took part. The junta recommended that the king apply the prohibitions agreed at an earlier junta convened in Granada in 1526, which the emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) had suspended in exchange for 80,000 ducats paid by the Granadan Moriscos. Immediately afterwards Pedro de Deza, who had taken part in the junta and had been one of the strongest supporters of the hard line, was appointed president of the Royal Chancery of Granada. His conduct in that office would inflame Morisco opinion, as John of Austria later acknowledged in a letter to the king in which he described Deza's "manner of proceeding with these people" as "certainly very contrary to that which has been and is appropriate".[1]
Philip II finally gave his approval, and the pragmatic containing the prohibitions was promulgated on 17 November 1566 and made public on 1 January 1567.[1]
Provisions
editAccording to the summary made by Julio Caro Baroja, the pragmatic consisted of eleven main provisions.[1] Within three years it would become unlawful to speak, read or write Arabic; contracts drawn up in Arabic would be void; all Arabic books in Morisco hands would have to be presented within thirty days to the president of the Chancery of Granada and, after examination, those judged unobjectionable for a Christian to possess would be returned to their owners for a further three years. Moriscos were to dress in the Castilian manner, abandoning the marlota, almalafa and calzas, and Morisco women were to go about with their faces uncovered.[1]
At weddings, betrothals and similar festivities, Moriscos were required to follow Christian customs, leaving doors and windows open and refraining from holding zambras or leilas with Moorish instruments and songs, even if the music was not contrary to Christianity. They were forbidden to observe Friday as a day of rest, to use Moorish given names and surnames, or to dye their hands or hair with henna. Public and private bathhouses of the Moorish type were to be destroyed and the use of artificial baths was prohibited. The gacíes — Muslims from North Africa — were to be expelled, and Moriscos were forbidden to own slaves of that origin; existing licences to keep black slaves were to be reviewed.[1]
The purpose of the edict was to compel the Moriscos to abandon their Islamic way of life and customs and to convert sincerely to Catholicism. Several factors have been adduced to explain the renewed pressure of the Crown on the Morisco population: the constant attempts by the Ottoman Empire and its North African allies to weaken Spanish imperial power, with which the Moriscos had occasionally co-operated militarily or as informants; the fear of a Muslim landing using Granada as a bridgehead; the demographic balance in the Kingdom of Granada, where as late as 1560 the Morisco population (around 150,000) still exceeded the Christian one (about 125,000); the persistence of Morisco banditry — the so-called monfíes — who openly attacked Christian villages; and a broader political wish to homogenise the society of the early modern state then being built by the Spanish monarchy.[4][1]
Aftermath
editThe Moriscos attempted to negotiate the suspension of the edict, as they had done in 1526. The king proved unyielding, and Cardinal Diego de Espinosa, president of the Council of Castile, conveyed his refusal to a delegation sent to Madrid that was led by the Old Christian Juan Enríquez and accompanied by two prominent Moriscos, Hernando el Habaqui and Juan Hernández Modafal. Approaches by Francisco Núñez Muley to Pedro de Deza also failed, the new president of the Chancery telling him that the grounds he had set out "were the old ones and not sufficient to revoke the pragmatic".[5] Even the intervention of the Captain General of Granada, Iñigo López de Mendoza y Mendoza, 3rd Marquis of Mondéjar, to Cardinal Espinosa proved fruitless.[2] For Caro Baroja, "the determination to end once and for all a whole social structure, a whole culture, was clear and there was nothing to be done about it. Nothing, that is, except war."[6]
In the petition (memorial) he presented in protest at the treatment of the Moriscos, Núñez Muley wrote: "Every day we are worse and more ill-treated in every way and by every means, both by the secular judges and their officers and by the ecclesiastical ones; and this is well known and needs no enquiry to establish. How is one to take from people their natural language, in which they were born and brought up? The Egyptians, Syrians, Maltese and other Christian peoples speak, read and write in Arabic, and they are Christians as we are."[7]
As soon as the failure of these approaches became known, the Moriscos of Granada, according to a contemporary chronicler, "began to call one another to rebellion". Secret meetings were held in the Albaicín to prepare the rising, and the authorities began arresting Moriscos suspected of involvement. Plans were even drawn up to expel the Moriscos from the kingdom and replace them with Old Christians. As Antonio Domínguez Ortiz and Bernard Vincent have noted, "we are now far from the time when the methods of assimilation were under discussion; the issue had become one of immediate and total assimilation (which implied the death of a civilisation) or expulsion".[2]
Legacy
editThe Pragmatic Sanction of 1567 is widely regarded as the immediate trigger of the Rebellion of the Alpujarras (1568–1571), in which the Moriscos of Granada rose under leaders such as Fernando de Valor and were eventually defeated by royal forces commanded by John of Austria. The repression that followed the rebellion led to the dispersal of the Granadan Morisco population throughout the Crown of Castile, a measure that prepared the ground for the general expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain decreed in 1609.
See also
editReferences
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Caro Baroja, Julio (2000) [1976]. Los moriscos del Reino de Granada. Ensayo de historia social (in Spanish) (5th ed.). Madrid: Istmo. pp. 158–159. ISBN 84-7090-076-5.
- 1 2 3 Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio; Vincent, Bernard (1993) [1979]. Historia de los moriscos. Vida y tragedia de una minoría (in Spanish). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. p. 33. ISBN 84-206-2415-2.
- ↑ Caro Baroja, Julio (2000). Los moriscos del Reino de Granada. Ensayo de historia social (in Spanish) (5th ed.). Madrid: Istmo. pp. 156–157.
- 1 2 3 Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio; Vincent, Bernard (1993). Historia de los moriscos. Vida y tragedia de una minoría (in Spanish). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. p. 32.
- ↑ Caro Baroja, Julio (2000). Los moriscos del Reino de Granada. Ensayo de historia social (in Spanish) (5th ed.). Madrid: Istmo. p. 160.
- ↑ Caro Baroja, Julio (2000). Los moriscos del Reino de Granada. Ensayo de historia social (in Spanish) (5th ed.). Madrid: Istmo. p. 160.
- ↑ Kamen, Henry (2011) [1999]. La Inquisición Española. Una revisión histórica (in Spanish) (3rd ed.). Barcelona: Crítica. p. 216. ISBN 978-84-9892-198-4.
Bibliography
edit- Caro Baroja, Julio (2000) [1976]. Los moriscos del Reino de Granada. Ensayo de historia social (in Spanish) (5th ed.). Madrid: Istmo. ISBN 84-7090-076-5.
- Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio; Vincent, Bernard (1993) [1979]. Historia de los moriscos. Vida y tragedia de una minoría (in Spanish). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. ISBN 84-206-2415-2.
- Kamen, Henry (2011) [1999]. La Inquisición Española. Una revisión histórica (in Spanish) (3rd ed.). Barcelona: Crítica. ISBN 978-84-9892-198-4.