Tomas de Torquemada
1420 – 1498 Castilian Grand Inquisitor, Dominican friar
First Grand Inquisitor of Spain, whose name became a byword for the Inquisition's severity.
- Religion
- Roman Catholicism
- Affiliations
- Spanish Inquisition; Dominican Order
Torquemada, a Dominican friar and confessor to Queen Isabella, was named the first Grand Inquisitor of Castile and Aragon in the 1480s. He organized the tribunals that prosecuted conversos accused of secretly keeping Jewish practices, using confiscation and, in many cases, execution. He is widely reported to have pressed the monarchs toward the 1492 expulsion, though the extent of his role is debated.
In the timeline
- 1483 Torquemada drives the Spanish Inquisition and expulsion mentioned