Sunday, October 12, 2008

A Request for Royal Consent to Exterminate Jews 1513



Afonso Albuquerque, Duke of Goa and Governor of Portuguese India (1508-1515)

Within three years of establishing Portuguese rule in Goa, a cause of concern for the Governor of Portuguese India, Afonso Albuquerque, was the perceived sudden and rapid influx of Portuguese and Castilian Jews into Malabar and Goa. He responded in one of his regular letters to the Portuguese monarch, King Manuel I, dated 15 December, 1513, by asking whether "I maybe permitted to exterminate them one by one as I come across them". This was essentially a matter of form as Albuquerque was not one to wait before embarking on such a bloody venture with the fanatical zeal so fundamental to his nature.

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