The Persecution of Portugal's Beautiful Marrano, Beatrice de Luna AKA Gracia Nasi, Leading to Tiberias, Palestine

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

In 1510, Beatrice de Luna was born in Portugal as a Marrano.  The Marranos were Jews who decided to remain in Portugal after Portugal followed Spain's treatment of Jews in 1492 by giving them an ultimatum.  Leave our country.  We don't want anyone living here who isn't a Christian.  If you convert, you can stay, but if you don't leave, you will be killed.  The Christian religion ruled the day and the ultimatum came from the Pope through the king and queen of Spain.                                          

                                  King John (Joao) III of Portugal from 1521-1557 

She was born 18 years after this ultimatum and her parents had stayed, so had to have decided they would convert but that was just a pretense to them.  Privately, they were Jews, and practiced as much of their Judaism as they felt they could get away with.  For instance, they  would not have eaten any pork, nor be able to attend synagogue service, as there were none anymore.  They might have tried to remember holidays and made some special treats for it on those days.  If they were found out, they would be killed.  They may have actually been baptised.  Then they may have had to attend church.   Marranos would be watched by spies for the church to see if they do anything "Jewish."  If denounced as Jews, they would have been killed because of the deception.  

Beatrice married   the banker, Francisco Mendes, also a Portuguese Marrano of a very outstanding family.  

Within the Mendes family was Diogo Mendes, who died in 1543, a banker.  He had established an important financial and trading house in Antwerp, Belgium  in 1500 and long headed the Marrano community of that city.  He was now the brother-in-law of Gracia Nasi, so Diogo must have been the brother of Francisco.  

Francisco, Beatrice's husband, died in 1536, making her a widow at age 26, so she moved to Antwerp, where her husband's family lived.  She was now alone, a prominent woman, envied because of her great wealth.   She feared religious persecution  and escaped first in 1544  to Venice.  There, she was denounced as being a wanted Marrano, and was put in prison.  

She must have been let out, because by 1549, she went to Ferrara, Italy.  There she let it be known that she was a Jew.  She was able to patronize literature  while controlling an underground organization for the rescue of Marranos in Portugal and was only 39.  

Three years later in 1552-1553, she went to Constantinople, Turkey, today called Instanbul,  It was the ancient Byzantium, largest city and principal seaport of Turkey. It was the capital of both the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, now going by the name, Gracia Nasi.  She was joined by her nephew, Joseph Nasi.  Beatrice is now known as Gracia Nasi, a Jewish leader.  

She was able to continue her widespread commercial operations, as well as becoming the most prominent leader of Turkish Jewry.  She built synagogues, helped fugitive Marranos, organized in 1556-1557 in the face of opposition, the boycott of the port of Ancona in revenge for the burning of a group of Marranos, and began the project for the colonization of Tiberias in Palestine.  

She probably died in Palestine in 1569 at the age of 59, most likely in Tiberias.  

Her nephew, Joseph Nasi, was born in 1520 and became a statesman.  He was Gracia's son-in-law as well as nephew.  His Portuguese birth name had been Joao Miguaez and he had gone to Antwerp in 1536 with Gracia.  When his aunt fled to Italy in 1544, he remained behind to settle her affairs.  He joined her in 1554 in Constantinople where he embraced Judaism publicly as Joseph Nasi and married Gracia's daughter, Reyna.  In those days, Jews married cousins if they wished.  It was the norm.  if anything, anti-Semitism brought it about.  Also, if was a way of family protecting their finances.  

Because he now had a wider knowledge of the world of European affairs, he obtained an entree to the Turkish court and became an intimate of Selim, the heir to the throne.  In 1561, he received from the sultan, a lease of Tiberias and an adjacent area which he endeavored to develop as an autonomous Jewish center.  When Selim became sultan in 1566, Joseph Nasi was created Duke of Naxos and the Cyclades, "the premier duchy of Christendom."  Promised the crown of Cyprus by the sultan if the island became Turkish, he was partly responsible for the breach with Venice and the disastrous Cyprus war of 1570.  

Although in 1571, he was appointed voivode of Wallachia,  Romania,  his power thereafter waned.  Joseph's widow, Reyna,  established, after his death in 1579, a Hebrew printing-press at her palace of Belvedere outside Constantinople, there and at Kuru Cesme,  which was also near Constantinople, several works were published under her auspices from 1592 to 1599.  

The Mendes family kept up their reputation of having worthy descendants.  Fernando Mendes died in 1724 and was a Marrano physician.  He accompanied Catherine of Braganza when she went to England to marry Charles H,  He founded a noted English-Jewish family.  

Moses Mendes died in 1758 and was the English author, grandson of Fernando Mendes who was baptized.  He wrote poems and plays.  

Catulle Mendes (1841-1909) was a French poet and playwright.  He was one of the founders of the Parnassian school of poetry and long adhered to classic  executions.  His later works were written in a lighter vein.  He was an early admirer of Wagner.  

Henry Pereira Mendes (1852-1937) was an American Sephardi rabbi.  He was born and educated in England.  Henry was the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel of New York.  He was one of the founders of the Zionist Organization of America, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, the New York Kehillah and the Jewish Theological Seminary of which he was president from 1897 to 1902.  

Life was almost impossible as a Marrano. In Spanish, Marrano means "SWINE."  Jews do not eat any part of a pig.   You have to give them credit of not bending and actually follow a religion they did not believe in that would have made life so much easier to bear.  I have found Marranos living in all sorts of small islands, unknown to most of us.  Leaving Spain or Portugal in those days was a life and death situation as travel by boat was scary.  

Jews were becoming Marranos as soon as 1391 after massacres and the Dominican campaign.  The Spanish Inquisition was introduced in Spain in 1480 and began repression that continued after the expulsion of Jews in 1492.  Portugal's forced conversion was in 1497 which converted almost the whole body of Portuguese Jewry into insincere Christians.  The Inquisition was introduced in Portugal by 1540.  Persecution of these people continued into the 18th century. 

Isn't it interesting that  Henry Mendes of the 20th century is a throwback to his ancestors of the 16th century?  Maybe the genes we inherit are on a cycle  and come out every 4 centuries.  We do have to give credit to our ancestors for our abilities.  

                                                                        

In Wonder' singer, Shawn Mendes, has a very close relationship with his mum, dad and sister, but who are they all? Get to know his family... born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He gained a following in 2013, posting song covers on the video-sharing application Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manager Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton, which led to him signing a deal with the record label. Mendes's self-titled debut EP was released in 2014, followed by his debut studio album Handwritten in 2015. Handwritten debuted atop the US Billboard 200, making Mendes one of five artists ever to debut at number one before the age of 18. The single "Stitches" reached number one in the UK and the top 10 in the US and Canada.  I just found him on the web.  Chances are that he is related to the Portuguese Mendes family.  

Who is Shawn Mendes’ dad?

Manuel Mendes, originally from Portugal, is a strong figure in Shawn’s life with the singer very happy to thank his dad regularly on Twitter for their experiences together.

In 2019 Shawn showed his dad just how grateful he is for him by bringing him along to the Grammys so he got a front-row seat to watch his son perform with Miley Cyrus.

Manuel sells bar and restaurant supplies in Toronto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHeQemJJQII  You can listen to him here.  I like him.                                                          

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/09/beatrice-mendes-nee-de-luna-aka-dona.html , a 6 year lapse of writing about the same person...different.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Portuguese_monarchs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Mendes

Beatrice Mendes nee de Luna, AKA Dona Gracia NASI: leading Marrano Anti-Defamation Leader of 1500's

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                              

                      
When Jews were forced out of Spain in 1492, they went next door to Portugal.  There they were able to enter IF they paid a poll-tax, so many were subsequently detained in the country and sold as slaves.
                                                                         

Manuel, king from 25 October 1495 to 13 December 1521Emmanuel I; 31 May 1469 – 13 December 1521)

Manoel I ordered the expulsion of the Jews from his dominion of Portugal in October 1496 in order to secure the hand of the Spanish Infanta but later changed his mind and had almost the entire community converted by force in 1497.  This is how a large body of Marranos was created in Portugal.  He hadn't wasted any time, starting all this against the Jews a year after taking the throne.  Manuel succeeded in 1495 his first cousin, King John II of Portugal, who was also his brother-in-law, being married to Manuel's sister, Leonor.                                                 

                                                                               
The Inquisition was in 1492 and also introduced with its more evil punishments in the 16th century and the refugees who fled to escape it formed the Portuguese synagogues in London, Amsterdam, New York, etc in the 16th and 17th centuries.  
                                                                                                     

Back in  1510 in Portugal was born Beatrice de Luna who was a Marrano.  That meant she had Jewish ancestors who were forced to convert to Catholicism because of the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 when Jews had to either convert to remain in Spain or leave the country.  They must have fled to Portugal next door and found the same thing happening there; either convert or leave Portugal, so they converted, but on the sly remained Jewish.

There was Diogo Mendes who was a Portuguese banker.  He had established an important financial and trading house at Antwerp in about 1500 and headed the Marrano community of that city for a long time.  His brother was Francisco Mendes.

Beatrice married the banker, Francisco Mendes who then died in 1536. His brother, Diogo died shortly after Francisco in 1543.  After her husband had died, she moved to Antwerp..  She was a prominent and very wealthy woman, greatly envied by others.  Things had become frightful for her, and she was worried about religious persecution against her, so actually had to escape to Venice in 1544 where she found things even worse.  She was denounced and imprisoned as a Marrano.
                                                                         

   
 By 1549 she was able to leave, so she went to Ferrara, Italy in the north east section..  There she became known as a Jew. Ferrara had Jews living there in 1275 with early settlers who were part Italian natives and part Jewish immigrants from Germany.  It became one of the most important Italian Jewish centers.  They had a printing-press set up there in 1477.  Spanish-Jewish refugees were welcomed there after 1492.  Portuguese Marranos congregated there in the middle of the 16th century and works were published for their benefit in Spanish and Portuguese from 1552 to 1558.  The were the first publications of Jewish vernacular literature.  The  Marrano settlement was broken up in 1581 and the ghetto system was introduced in 1597 when Ferrara passed under papal rule.  However, the city continued to be a center of Jewish intellectual life.   She patronized literature and controlled an underground organization for the rescue of Marranos from Portugal.

In 1552-3, she then went to Constantinople, being known now ass Gracia Nasi.  Nasi means "prince."  It's a Talmudic term for the president of the Sanhedrin, who was also the spiritual head and later, the political representative of the Jewish people.
                                                                       

Joseph Nasi b: 1524 Portugal d: 1579 Istanbul

There she was joined by her nephew, Joseph Nasi.  While continuing her widespread commercial operation, she became the most prominent leader of the Turkish Jewry.  She was involved in building synagogues, helping fugitive Marranos, organizing in 1556-57, in the face of opposition, the boycott of the port of Ancona in revenge for the burning of a group of Marranos, and beginning the project for the colonization of Tiberias associated with Joseph Nasi. She probably died while in Palestine in 1569.

Her nephew, Joseph, born about 1520, was a statesman and son-in-law of Gracia.  He also was a Marrano born in Portugal as Joao Miguez.  He went to Antwerp in 1536 with Gracia.  When his aunt fled to Italy in 1544, he stayed in Antwerp to settle her affairs for her.  He then joined her in 1554 in Constantinople where he became Jewish publicly as Joseph Nasi and married Gracia's daughter, Reyna, who would have been his cousin.  In those days, it was allowed if not even expected.
                                                                   

Sultan Selim II, ruled from 1566 to 1574;  born May 28, 15224-died December 12, 1574He was a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and Haseki Hürrem Sultan.

Joseph had a wide knowledge of European affairs.  He obtained an entree to the Turkish court and became an intimate of Selim, the heir to the throne.  In about 1561, he received a lease of Tiberias from the sultan.  I can't imagine a person being able to lease a whole ancient and famous city, but the Ottoman Empire was holding the land, and this was done then.  Not only the city but also he got an adjacent area with he meant to develop as an autonomous Jewish center.  When Selim became the Sultan in 1566, Joseph Nasi was created Duke of Naxos and the Cyclades, "the premier duchy of Christendom." " The Cyclades  were  Greek islands located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea.  The islands are located at the crossroads between Europe and Asia Minor and the Near East as well as between Europe and Africa." Naxos was the largest of the islands being 166 sq miles.  

"Moneylenders and financiers (mostly Jews, no doubt) did a large business lending money to the English government in 1544–1574. London bankers were too small to operate on that scale, and Antwerp had a highly efficient bourse that itself attracted rich bankers from around Europe. After the 1570s the city's banking business declined: England ended its borrowing in Antwerp in 1574."
                                                                         

Cyprus Today with tourism

Joseph was then promised the crown of Cyprus, an island, by the sultan if the island became Turkish.  Cyprus happened to be the biblical land of the Kittim or in modern Hebrew, the Kaphrisin.  He was partly responsible for the breach with Venice and the disastrous Cyprus war of 1570-3.   Joseph Nasi was partly responsible for the conquest of Cyprus by the Turks in 1571 but was not created king as he had anticipated However, in 1571 he was appointed Voivode of Wallachia, (a prince or duke of-actually a Slavic term)  Wallachia, from the first mention of a medieval polity situated between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube until the union with Moldavia in 1862, leading to the creation of Romania.   His power then waned.  In 1579 he died.

Joseph's widow established a Hebrew printing-press after his death at her palace of Belvedere outside Constantinople.  There and at Kuru Cesme, which was also near Constantinople, several works were published under her auspices from 1592 to 1599.

Events happening during this period concerning Portugal were:
1498 — Discovery of a maritime route to India by Vasco da Gama
1500 — Discovery of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral
1505 — Appointment of Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of India
1503–1515 — Establishment of monopolies on maritime trade routes to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf by Afonso de Albuquerque, an admiral, for the benefit of Portugal
All these events made Portugal rich on foreign trade while it formally established a vast overseas empire.  Interestingly, Commercial treaties and diplomatic alliances were forged with China and the Persian Empire.

Actually Belgium did not became a country until October 4, 1830.  The congress held in Vienna tried to untie the part that would became Belgium, then called the Southern Netherlands, with the Northern Netherlands, which was Holland, and it didn't work.  They had a war and finally Belgium gained its independence.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antwerp
http://www.belgium.be/en/about_belgium/country/history/belgium_from_1830/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voivode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Cyclades
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_of_Portugal