The Abravanel family is an extraordinarily prominent…
1484 CE
The Abravanel family is an extraordinarily prominent one among Jewish families in the Middle Ages, active in public service in the court of Castile.
Judah (or Leon, as he is known in Spanish) is the son of the Bible commentator Isaac ben Judah Abravanel, (meaning Isaac “son of Judah” Abravenel).
Don Isaac is a statesman, financier, and a defender of the Jewish faith, who was born in Lisbon in 1437 and has spent most of his life in Portugal, eventually becoming a financial advisor to King Afonso V. However, when King Afonso V died in 1481, Don Isaac was suspected of conspiring to enthrone the Duke of Braganza, whom he had befriended earlier, over the son of Afonso, John II.
Consequently, he had had to flee without his family from Portugal to Seville, Castile finally settling in Toledo.
Don Isaac eventually took refuge from his financial and political dealings in his other love—literature—while living with his family, with whom he was later reunited in Toledo.
Spain had recently seen the marriage of Isabel de Castilla and Fernando de Aragón, the Catholic Monarchs.
Under their rule began the centralization of power in Spain, then fragmented by individual governance of its many regions.
The monarchs desire to conquer the kingdom of Granada, which at this time is Muslim.
Don Isaac Abravanel sees this as an opportunity and becomes a financier at the court.
His son, Judah, joins him in service to the Catholic Monarchs in 1484 as personal doctor to the royal family.