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La Señora
Leslie Rübner
[Written in 2016]
Let me introduce you to a little-known historical figure who pushed for gender equality way before the Suffragettes, in the 16th century. She was a top banker dealing with kings and Popes. This lady’s other activity was the rescue of countless Jews from the jaws of the Inquisition. Later, in the Ottoman Empire, she assumed the leadership of the Jewish Community, but when she died, she was totally forgotten.
Until now.
In Hollywood, a TV mini-series was made about Doña Gracia (Hannah in Hebrew) Mendes, also known by her Christian name, Beatrice de Luna, a New Christian. She was born in Portugal in 1510 as Gracia Nasi, into an ancient and venerable family of Spanish Jews, who were refugees from Aragon in Spain where they were forcibly converted to Christianity. The converted people were known as Conversos, Crypto-Jews, Marranos (pigs in Spanish) or Secret Jews.
When she was 18 years of age, Beatrice de Luna married a cousin of hers, Francisco Mendes (Crypto-Jews, for obvious reasons, tended to marry within their families), one of two brothers who controlled a growing spice trading company. The House of Mendes probably began as a company trading in precious objects but became important spice traders, following the Portuguese explorations that led to the development of the Indian sea route. On 3rd August 1492, the Spaniard Columbus sailed from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the Pinta and the Niña, to find a route to India by circumnavigating the globe, however, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama’s circumnavigation was around the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and opened the sea route to India, 1497–1499. Valuable spices were now available from the mysterious East and the Mendes brothers (Francisco and Diogo), with their ships, were transporting them and distributing them throughout Europe.
In January 1538, when Gracia was only 27 years of age, her husband Francisco died suddenly, leaving her with an infant daughter, known privately as Reyna, but publicly to the Christian world as Ana. In his will, Francisco divided his fortune between his wife and brother, who ran the banking branch of the business in the then Habsburg Netherlands, in the city of Antwerp (at the time the financial centre of Europe). Gracia, her infant daughter Ana and her younger sister Brianda de Luna, decided to join the brother-in-law. After a brief stay in London, Gracia, Ana and Gracia’s sister joined Diogo and settled in Antwerp. Previously, on 23rd May 1536, the Pope had ordered the establishment of a Portuguese Inquisition, whose mighty arms were beginning to be felt. The Mendes family was safe in the Netherlands.
Gracia’s sister, Brianda, and Diogo married in Antwerp. In 1542, Diogo, like his brother, also died young. Doña Gracia assumed the management of the Mendes commercial empire, with her sister as a sleeping partner (as had been stipulated in Diogo’s will). She proved to be a shrewd and very successful businesswoman. Her enormous wealth put her in an influential position in the courts of kings and Popes, which she used to protect crypto-Jews. She made money available to free various Jewish hostages and was involved in a host of charitable activities to help fellow Conversos. She was influential in the publication of the Ferrara Bible from Sephardic source texts, the second printing of which was dedicated to her.
The House of Mendes, under the direction of Doña Gracia, a “mere” woman of the 16th Century, was engaged in business with Henry II of France, Henry VIII of England, Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, Maria of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries, Popes Paul III and Paul IV (bribes to the Pope delayed the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal) and lastly, but not least, Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. From kings and princes there were numerous proposals of marriage to her daughter, Ana. Had this happened, the Mendes fortune would have been largely lost, a problem which was averted by Ana’s marriage to her nephew, Joaõ Miguez, or Joseph Nasi as he called himself as a Jew.
The Inquisition had a long arm and it eventually reached Amsterdam too. The Mendes family, with their fortune, fled to Venice. The Doges were only too keen to have the Mendes money in Venice, a port from which many vessels left for distant lands, including places where Jews did not need to be afraid of living openly as such. Don Joseph Nasi found refuge in Turkey, where he became one of the mightiest men of Europe, as a minister to the Sultan. The King of France, a willing tool of the church, was very angry that Gracia had slipped away from Antwerp, and even more so that she had taken most of her wealth with her before he could confiscate it. At his instigation, and because of Brianda’s desire to free herself from being under Gracia’s thumb, she reported Gracia to the authorities as a secret Jew. The governors of Venice imprisoned her with her family, and confiscated her huge wealth. Cousin Don Joseph interceded with Suleiman the Magnificent. The Sultan sent emissaries to Venice to free the Marrano woman and her family to enable them to escape to the Ottoman Empire with her wealth. It took two years of negotiations and threats of war to set them free. They settled temporarily in Ferrara, where they openly returned to their Jewish religion.
By 1552, Doña Gracia established herself in Constantinople, where she used her wealth to help Jews in trouble, supported yeshivot and built synagogues. A synagogue in Constantinople is named after her- the La Señora synagogue, where the bimah is made in the shape of a ship.
In 1558, Suleiman the Magnificent, as a sign of friendship, granted a long-term lease of the Tiberias region of Galilee, which was then part of Ottoman Syria, to Gracia who, in turn, was hoping to persuade Jewish refugees to settle there. This act may make her an early, if not the first, Zionist. Her aim was to make Tiberias into a major new centre of Jewish settlement, trade and learning.
After the torture and burning of Jews in the Italian city of Ancona, she organised a worldwide boycott of the port of Ancona.
Doña Gracia Mendes died in Istanbul in early 1569. We are not sure where she was buried, but it is assumed that she lies next to her husband on the Mount of Olives. With her passing her name was forgotten. Until now.
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