the revolt of the moriscos

The Revolt of the Moriscos

History Learning SiteHistory Learning Site >> Phillip II of SpainPhillip II of Spain >> The Revolt of the MoriscosThe Revolt of the Moriscos

The Revolt of the MoriscosThe Revolt of the Moriscos was one of the first realchallenges to Philip's authority that he had to deal withwithin Spain. The Moriscos were converted Moors whoheld no important state positions in Spain.

The Moriscos communities in Spain had not beenintegrated and they remained closely associated with theTurks which lead to suspicions over their loyalty. In 1568there was an outbreak of strife in Andalusia (the Cadiz andMalaga area) which was symbolic of the bitterrelationships between the Moricos and the Christians insouthern Spain. In simple terms, the Spanish did not trustthe Moriscos and doubted that they were loyal to Madrid.The 1568 rebellion was known as the Rebellion ofAlpujarras. The Moriscos had long term grievances but itwas short-term ones that sparked off the revolt.

There had been a revolt in 1499 but from 1500 to 1550 anuneasy truce existed. In 1508 the Moriscos had beenforbidden to wear their traditional costumes and theirancient customs were banned.

However, these laws were on paper only and were notenforced. The Moriscos did preserve links with Islam inthat they spoke Arabic and preserved Arabic culture andthis failure to become ‘Spanish’ offended many in Madridand elsewhere in Spain. Spanish Christians claimed thatthe Moriscos were sexually promiscuous and that theymaintained family vendettas. This all fuelled suspicion anda number of Moriscan communities were forced to live inmountainous regions to exclude them from Spanish life.

From 1500 to 1550, civil and ecclesiastical authorities

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were at odds with each other on what action to take andcombined action failed to materialise. This allowed theMoriscans time to develop a new balance of power.

The area in question where this took place was governedby the Count of Tendilla from the Mondejar branch of theMendoza family. To maintain their position the Moriscansdeveloped a "special relationship" with Tendilla. Theposition of the Moriscans came to be closely dependenton the ability of the Mondejar’s to maintain their position atcourt against increasing intrigue against them.

From 1540 to 1550, the position of the Mondejar familywas severely undermined and this increasingly affectedthe Moriscans position. It also coincided with a chroniceconomic and religious crisis.

The Moriscans depended on silk for their trade. In the1550’s the export of woven silk was banned and in 1561 ahuge tax was put on Granadan silk. This severely hit theMoriscans. Also at this time the Inquisition was very activeespecially in investigating the ownership of land inGranada. The Inquisition confiscated much land owned bythe Moriscans despite the pleas of Tendilla who neededthe tax paid by the Moriscans on the land they owned topay for his own troops.

Combined with these, the Catholic Church went on theoffensive. It cured its own problems of absenteeism andpoor work done by the clergy and the appointment of anew Archbishop of Granada (Pedro Guerrero) lead to amore forceful campaign by the Church to fully convert theMoriscans to Christianity.

In November 1566, a reform of Moriscan habits wereagreed to.

In January 1567 the reforms were published. They wereonly an attempt to enforce earlier decrees so they werenot novel. 1) Arabic was forbidden 2) Traditional Arabicdress was forbidden 3) the Moriscans were to "abandontheir traditional habits" (this was a reference to theirsupposed sexual habits). The Moriscans sent a deputationto Madrid to plead for the reforms not to be introduced butPedro de Deza was put in charge of enforcing them. It wasthis attempt to introduce these reforms that sparked off therevolt.

Why were the reforms introduced?Nobody had bothered to do so for the previous 50 yearsso why now?

The answer involved 3 people.

A successful enforcement would greatly enhance theprestige of de Deza at court. It would also give him anadvantage over the Mendoza family. The Deza and

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Mendoza families had been fighting out an age-old familyfeud and Deza did all he could to embarrass someone(Tendilla) who was known to be lenient towards theMoriscans.

The President of the Council of Castille was CardinalEspinosa. He was a classic orthodox Catholic and hedisliked Tendilla’s leniency towards the Moriscans. He wasalso concerned that the region was experiencing anadministrative breakdown which might result in socialunrest. His solution was simple - remove Tendilla and putthe region under the control of the President of theAudiencia who happened to be de Deza. This wouldensure stability Espinosa claimed and at this time Philip IIwas very much under the influence of Espinosa.

Philip himself needed stability in Granada because of thethreat of the Turks. In 1565, three Moriscan spies hadconfessed that there was a plan for the Moriscans to seizethe Granadan coast as the Turks attacked Malta. Logicdictated that the Turks would then concentrate an attackon Spain aided by the Moriscans who held Granada. Thisall confirmed the fears of Philip II and to prevent even themerest chance of this happening, Philip agreed to theenforcement of the reforms.

This enforcement caused a revolt by the Moriscans. Itbroke out in 1568 and confirmed to Philip that theMoriscos could not be trusted and that Islam was about toattack Spain using the revolt to aid them. The terrainproved very difficult for a military campaign but Tendilla,using his local troops, fought some brilliant campaigns.Fearing that he would be too successful and that hispower base would expand, Philip II replaced him with hisown half-brother called Don John of Austria. He, however,had to wait for his men to arrive from all over Spain. Thisgave the Moriscos time to organise themselves and it tookhim until 1570 to put down the revolt.

Philip II needed a solution to the problem and he decidedthat he would disperse the Moriscos throughout Castille insmall isolated villages and he then replaced them with50,000 Spaniards. However, between 60,000 and 150,000Moriscos continued to live in Granada and all this ‘solution’did was spread throughout Castille some very angrypeople who in their own minds had done nothing wrongand had been punished for no reason at all.

This had a knock-on effect economically in that theMoriscos had always been advanced in their approach towork and they now had little time for Madrid and Spain’seconomy was affected accordingly. They had no incentiveto work hard for the country and combined with Spain’spoor economic standing further pushed down Spain’sfinancial and economic standing.


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the revolt of the moriscos

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