Abduction, Adultery, and Sexual Violence: The Plight of Portuguese Cristãs Novas after the Jewish Expulsion of 1496–97

Throughout the Middle Ages, both Jews and Christians had worked tirelessly to maintain the integrity of sexual boundaries. Social segregation between Iberian Jews and Christians was legislated (even if imperfectly enforced) and sexual relations between the members of the two religions was an offence which the Portuguese law code, the Ordenações Afonsinas deemed to be punishable by death. However, the mass conversions which followed the so-called ‘expulsion’ from Portugal appears to have contributed to an increase in the incidents of sexual violence directed at women who had recently converted to Christianity--Cristãs Novas.   

Faced with circumstances that differed from those of Aragon-Castile, the Portuguese crown had been extremely reluctant to expel the Jews from Portugal. Although external pressures had forced Manuel I to promulgate the Muge decree which mandated the immediate expulsion of all Jews from the kingdom, the king also enacted legislation that impeded their emigration, leading to the forced conversion of tens of thousands of Jews. The immediate consequence was the disintegration of communities (judiarias), their legal and fiscal administrations, as well as Jewish confraternities which offered social assistance. Families were torn apart as Jewish children, whose parents had left, went to institutions or were billeted with natural Christian families. Engagements contracted between future young couples were voided as new legislation forbade New Christians from marrying one another.    

This paper explores the early experience of New Christians in Portugal, a topic which has been little studied. Drawing on royal pardons, contained in the Manueline Chancery Registers, it argues that the social upheaval that followed the events of 1496-97 left young, unmarried women especially vulnerable to sexual violence and unhappy marriage. Often they travelled unaccompanied for long distances to visit friends and family members and no longer enjoyed the community protections that they had once had.