Manuel I of Portugal

MANUEL I ° (1469–1521), king of Portugal 1495–1521.

On Dec. 4, 1496, an edict was passed ordering every Jew to leave Portugal before November 1497, on penalty of death.

But in 1496 the king entered a politically motivated marriage with Princess Isabella of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, who made their consent conditional to Manuel's ridding Portugal of the Jews.

To stem the departures, he ordered all Jews desiring to emigrate to come to Lisbon, supposedly for embarkation.

When some 20,000 had convened in Lisbon, Manuel herded them together for forced conversion.

As the mass emigration got under way, Manuel realized that the loss of his Jewish citizenry would have dire economic results for Portugal.

When some 4,000 of the New Christians were massacred by a Lisbon mob in 1506, Manuel responded by executing the Dominican friars who had incited the riot

Manuel agreed, and five days after the marriage agreement was signed, on 5 December 1496, he issued a decree giving Portugal's Jews eleven months to leave the country.

and Manuel's actions emphasize that his primary concern was conversion.