Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries (1894) by Meyer Kayserling

Author:Meyer Kayserling [Kayserling, Meyer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

The lawyer Luis de Santangel, the one who had sought for the treasures buried by his parents in Calatayud, held the high office of treasury advocate (fisci advocatus). The names of Luis de Santangel and Luis de la Caballería, the treasurergeneral, were subscribed to a patent of nobility and grant of privileges issued on December 4, 1461, in Calatayud, by King Juan of Aragon, to his "well-beloved" soldier Juan Gilbert and his descendants. At a meeting of the cortes of Aragon in the year 1473, this Luis de Santangel represented the knights and nobles, while in the same year Antonio de Santangel of Calatayud represented that city.* The latter interposed on behalf of the Jewish community of Hijar a few days after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In the middle of the fifteenth century the Santangels of Valencia and Saragossa were the Rothschilds of their time. At the head of the Valencian house was the merchant Luis de Santangel the elder. In the year 1450 Luis already gained the favor of King Alfonso V. of Aragon; he also had uninterrupted intercourse with King Juan II. He was farmer of the de la Mata salt-works near Valencia, for which, according to a contract of July 9, 1472, he had to paya yearly rent of 21,100 sueldos to the Marrano Juan de Ribasaltas he was also farmer of the royal domains and customs.* After the death of Luis the elder in 1476, his wife Briandaf assumed the management of his business, and his son Luis de Santangel the younger, who was a royal councillor in Valencia, became farmer of the royal domains,^: while the farming of the salt-works, after the termination of the elder Luis's contract, passed to his relative and partner Jaime de Santangel. § Jaime's coffers were always open to Juan II., who appointed him royal cup-bearer, and they were also open to Ferdinand, his son and successor. Jaime lent the latter large sums of money to subdue the rebellious Catalonians, to recover the county of Rousillon from the King of France, to whom it had been pledged, and to conquer Granada. * Whenever Ferdinand needed money he appealed to his friends the Santangels in Valencia, and never in vain.

To this family which stood in such high repute in all Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia, the Inquisition proved fatal. As we have already seen, the introduction of the Holy Office was opposed by the richest and most distinguished Marranos of Saragossa. The Santangels were among those who, at heart true to their old faith, headed the conspiracy against the Inquisitor Pedro d'Arbus. As the spot where Arbues received his death-blow is still pointed out in the metropolitan church of La Seo, so too one may still see in the large and beautiful market-place, or Mercado, of Saragossa the stately houses which in the flourishing days of the Aragonese capital belonged to Luis and Juan de Santangel.* The Santangels were also among the first Jewish heretics to mount the funeral pile.

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