The Kidnapping of Baby Bonafilla: Jewish guardianship, conversion, and mixed families in the aftermath of 1391 in Girona
Paper by Alexandra Guerson and Dana Wessell Lightfoot
Given at the conference Ethno-Religious Interaction in Premodern Iberia: Mechanisms and Trajectories, held at UCLA, on October 14, 2022
Abstract: The mass violence against Jews in Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1391 changed forever Christian-Jewish relations in the Iberian peninsula. While the Jewish community of Girona survived the mass violence of 1391 as local authorities responded promptly by admitting the Jews to the safety of the Gironella Tower, the subsequent decades would prove to seal their fate. In the early fifteenth century, a wave of conversions swept through the Jewish community influenced by growing fiscal crises and increased pressure from local municipal and ecclesiastical officials, especially in the years after the Disputation of Tortosa in 1413-1414.
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We can see this pressure on the fate of young Jews following the death of their parents. In early 1417, the Jewish guardians of Bonafilla, the daughter of Nacim Roven, kidnapped the young toddler to prevent her conversa mother and stepfather from converting the child. In 1415 another young girl, this one called Tolrana, appealed to the king because she wanted to convert to Christianity but was being prevented by her Jewish guardians. She asked the king to make her converso uncle her guardian and allow her to convert to Christianity. The lives of these two young girls serve as a focal point to unravel the complicated set of pressures on the Jewish community of Girona in the decades after 1391.
It is only by combining documentation available at several local and federal archives through collaborative research that these stories are able to be examined in all of their complexities. Bringing together notarial documentation, letters between municipal authorities and the Crown, as well as royal letters allows us to understand the whole context of these moments of conflict and tension between Jews, conversos, and Christian authorities. In doing so, our work together allows us to tease out the longer-term implications of 1391 for Jewish families in Girona.
The Kidnapping of Baby Bonafilla: Jewish guardianship, conversion, and mixed families in the aftermath of 1391 in Girona
Paper by Alexandra Guerson and Dana Wessell Lightfoot
Given at the conference Ethno-Religious Interaction in Premodern Iberia: Mechanisms and Trajectories, held at UCLA, on October 14, 2022
Abstract: The mass violence against Jews in Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1391 changed forever Christian-Jewish relations in the Iberian peninsula. While the Jewish community of Girona survived the mass violence of 1391 as local authorities responded promptly by admitting the Jews to the safety of the Gironella Tower, the subsequent decades would prove to seal their fate. In the early fifteenth century, a wave of conversions swept through the Jewish community influenced by growing fiscal crises and increased pressure from local municipal and ecclesiastical officials, especially in the years after the Disputation of Tortosa in 1413-1414.
We can see this pressure on the fate of young Jews following the death of their parents. In early 1417, the Jewish guardians of Bonafilla, the daughter of Nacim Roven, kidnapped the young toddler to prevent her conversa mother and stepfather from converting the child. In 1415 another young girl, this one called Tolrana, appealed to the king because she wanted to convert to Christianity but was being prevented by her Jewish guardians. She asked the king to make her converso uncle her guardian and allow her to convert to Christianity. The lives of these two young girls serve as a focal point to unravel the complicated set of pressures on the Jewish community of Girona in the decades after 1391.
It is only by combining documentation available at several local and federal archives through collaborative research that these stories are able to be examined in all of their complexities. Bringing together notarial documentation, letters between municipal authorities and the Crown, as well as royal letters allows us to understand the whole context of these moments of conflict and tension between Jews, conversos, and Christian authorities. In doing so, our work together allows us to tease out the longer-term implications of 1391 for Jewish families in Girona.
Alexandra Guerson is a Lecturer at the University of Toronto. Click here to view her personal website or follow Alexandra on Twitter @aeguerson
Dana Wessell Lightfoot is a Professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. Click here to view her university webpage or follow Dana on Twitter @DrDameHistory
Click here to view the conference website
Click here to watch more papers from the conference through the UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies Youtube page
Top Image: A view of Girona. Photo by Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Pirineu de Girona / Wikimedia Commons
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