Evil means for the Jews of Balmaseda
- Balmaseda, 1483. The town council, by means of an ordinance, prohibited the Jews from settling and marriage to the Balmasedans. The Jews had arrived in the town a century earlier and lived in thirteen Old Street houses. Balmaseda then had about 1,000 inhabitants and the Jews were about 50. It does not look like a great deal, but in the middle of the 15th century Balmaseda was the second most important Jewish quarter of the Basque territory, after that of Vitoria.
Three years later, in January 1486, the council decided to expel the Jews from the town and several armed men, presided over by Mayor Pedro Sánchez Terreros, forcibly executed the decision. The Jews fled and most of them took refuge in the Burgese village of Villasana de Mena in Burgos. That same year, the subject was discussed at the Assembly of Gernika, and the representative of the Jews Haron agreed that the Jew should definitely depart from Balmaseda, because he surely had no other choice at the time.
But the Jews also turned to the Catholic Monarchs to seek a solution and received their answer in 1488. A letter was sent to the people ' s council requesting the readmission of the Jews. In addition, the Royal Court appointed a mediator to complete the request: Bachelor Lope García de Chinchilla.
The neighbours of Balmaseda did not give them permission to return, but at least they were willing to negotiate with them. And finally, thanks to the efforts apparently made by Chinchilla, they agreed to value the assets that the Jews had in Balmaseda and to pay those values in money to their owners. Therefore, the Jews were expelled from Balmaseda, but at least they were not thrown with empty hands, thanks to the mediation of the Catholic Monarchs.
The fact is that four years later the same authorities, Isabel I de Castilla y Fernando II de Aragón, decided to expel all the Jews from the kingdom. On 31 March 1492 the Granada Edict was signed and entered into force on 1 May. And there was no negotiation: the Jews had to leave without property or rights.
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