0:00:02 > 0:00:06GUNFIRE
0:00:07 > 0:00:10Here, the streets are thick with the smoke of battle.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14GUNFIRE
0:00:14 > 0:00:19Behind the good-natured, slightly tipsy fervour of a small town
0:00:19 > 0:00:25fiesta in Spain, you can smell the delirium, the fever of victory.
0:00:32 > 0:00:38These people are re-enacting the long battle between Christendom
0:00:38 > 0:00:39and Islam.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43This, not the Middle East, over many centuries, was the final
0:00:43 > 0:00:47frontier between Christendom and Islam -
0:00:47 > 0:00:48the long war.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55This is the story of Spain after the fall of its Muslim caliphate.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03A 400-year Holy War ended with the power couple who
0:01:03 > 0:01:05made modern Spain.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11First came anarchy then, from Africa, waves of Islamic invaders
0:01:11 > 0:01:15and finally, the traumatic transition into a Christian kingdom -
0:01:15 > 0:01:17the explosive birth of Spain.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25It's deafening. I'll have to shout till I'm hoarse.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28HOARSELY: In the North, half the country was ruled by Spanish
0:01:28 > 0:01:31kingdoms like Castile and Aragon,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35and in the South, the Emirs fought for power in cities like Seville
0:01:35 > 0:01:36and Granada.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42It was a time of dog eat dog.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44All fought against each other.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47It wasn't just about Christian versus Muslim.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51It was also a tournament of power, a game of thrones.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57As I make my way as historian and traveller,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00I'll visit the most beautiful places in Spain
0:02:00 > 0:02:01and reveal their secrets...
0:02:03 > 0:02:06..Granada and its radiant Alhambra,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10the Giralda in Seville,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14and I'll find the shocking truth about my own family,
0:02:14 > 0:02:15hidden for centuries.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18That's unbelievable.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24Even before the Crusades had arisen, even after the Crusades had failed,
0:02:24 > 0:02:29it was here that Christendom would be re-awakened.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32Spain's Renaissance monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36would claw the nation together in a blood-soaked embrace.
0:02:36 > 0:02:42They've let me in to the vault of Ferdinand and Isabella,
0:02:42 > 0:02:44where they're actually buried.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Ferdinand and Isabella's new confidence is expressed
0:02:48 > 0:02:49everywhere here.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Here is a huge F for Fernando with a crown over it.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Over there is the Y for Isabella. They left their mark everywhere
0:02:58 > 0:03:02because it expressed the new power of the Spanish monarchy.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11This bitter victory, consolidated by blood purges of Jews
0:03:11 > 0:03:16and Muslims, celebrated by the dispatch of Columbus to the
0:03:16 > 0:03:21Americas, would turn a collection of war-torn principalities
0:03:21 > 0:03:25and fiefdoms into the first world empire,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28the champion of international Christendom.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45After three centuries of Muslim domination,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Christendom re-awakened in the 11th century.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52The caliphate in the South broke up into rival Muslim states.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57Spain was the plaything of hostile warlords.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00They would decide
0:04:00 > 0:04:04if Spain remained Islamic or joined the rest of Christian Europe.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14In 1079, the most famous of these warlords
0:04:14 > 0:04:17rode into Seville on his magnificent steed.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24He came to collect gold, tribute from the Muslim South.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31His name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Later, El Cid, as he became known, would be
0:04:35 > 0:04:39reinvented as the national hero of Spain.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42He was a Christian, of course, but he won almost as many
0:04:42 > 0:04:46battles for the Muslims as he did for the Christians,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and he never lost a battle.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51And the clue is in his name.
0:04:51 > 0:04:57El Cid derives from the Arabic Al-Sayyid - a descendant of Mohammed.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01It meant the boss, the commander, the big man
0:05:01 > 0:05:05or, as it says up here, El Campeador,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08The Champion,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12"who, by his virile power of character,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16"brought calamity to Islam."
0:05:16 > 0:05:20And, I should add, when it took his fancy, to Christendom, too.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29El Cid was in his ambitious, cunning prime,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31a noble-born knight of Castile,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34the largest of the Christian kingdoms emerging in the North.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40He came to meet Seville's Muslim Emir, Al-Mutamid,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42a very different type -
0:05:42 > 0:05:47a poet and a scholar, yet like El Cid, a pragmatic politician.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49He made El Cid an offer to join him in battle
0:05:49 > 0:05:52against the rival southern Emirate of Granada.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04I'm travelling to that battlefield.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06How did El Cid's intrigue play out?
0:06:11 > 0:06:13I've come to the small town of Cabra.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16It used to be famous as the olive oil capital of the world
0:06:16 > 0:06:19but now it's best known for its connection with El Cid.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23He fought one of his most notorious battles here
0:06:23 > 0:06:28and now I'm going to go up there to find the exact site of the battle
0:06:28 > 0:06:30among the famous olive groves.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41The two armies met around here, halfway between Granada and Seville.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Naturally, El Cid tipped the balance.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Even though there were also fine Christian knights
0:06:46 > 0:06:50fighting for Granada at the other side, El Cid showed no mercy.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55This is said to be El Cid's sword.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59He had two and he gave each of them a nickname.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01This one he called the Poker.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Fighting for Seville, El Cid was overreaching himself,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13treating captured Castilian nobles with contempt
0:07:13 > 0:07:17and even pocketing some of the Muslim gold
0:07:17 > 0:07:19paid to his own king.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24El Cid's flamboyance and duplicity made him many enemies at court,
0:07:24 > 0:07:29including his king, Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36The battle was fought right here, above the town of Cabra,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39and, of course, El Cid won,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43but this time, he'd gone too far. He was summoned to court.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47King Alfonso made him kneel in front of everyone
0:07:47 > 0:07:49and banished him with the words,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53"May God curse Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar!"
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Alfonso warned his subjects if anyone gave El Cid shelter,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04they would lose all they owned and have their eyes gouged out.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Juan Cobo Avila is a local historian in Cabra
0:08:11 > 0:08:14who's investigated the Spanish cult of El Cid.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19Why were songs sung of this man?
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Why did he become a hero? Was it propaganda?
0:08:22 > 0:08:25IN OWN LANGUAGE:
0:08:36 > 0:08:39El Cid as often fought for the Muslims as he did for the Christians.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Did you learn about that at school?
0:08:41 > 0:08:44IN OWN LANGUAGE:
0:09:14 > 0:09:18The reconquest of Spain started a multifaceted war with
0:09:18 > 0:09:22Christians and Muslims on both sides.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Christian Spain would choose El Cid as its champion
0:09:25 > 0:09:27because there were no true heroes.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35And then, only a few years after Cabra, came the ideological shift.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Spain's destiny changed
0:09:37 > 0:09:41from a tournament of power played for land
0:09:41 > 0:09:44and gold to a war of faith and identity.
0:09:47 > 0:09:53King Alfonso, who sent El Cid into exile, was an astute serpentine
0:09:53 > 0:09:56player, grown rich on Muslim gold, yet now,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59a new plan was taking shape.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03He would seize the most iconic city in Spain -
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Toledo, once the Christian capital until the Muslim Conquest,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10a seat of Islamic scholarship.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17Alfonso was a Christian king who dreamed of uniting Spain
0:10:17 > 0:10:20and conquering the Islamic South.
0:10:20 > 0:10:26He set his sights on Toledo, the old Christian Visigothic capital.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32In 1085, he took the city. Christianity was resurgent.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Toledo was a great Muslim city
0:10:45 > 0:10:47and it had been for 400 years.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51It was full of mosques and Arab schools.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56Surprisingly, that suited Alfonso down to the ground.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01He was a cosmopolitan monarch in a cosmopolitan time.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Now he declared himself emperor of the two faiths.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08He was right at home with Arab culture.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14He gloried in opening up Toledo's famed Islamic library.
0:11:14 > 0:11:21Its Ancient Greek manuscripts, lost for centuries, now helped illuminate
0:11:21 > 0:11:27the dank corners of the dark and ignorant castles of Northern Europe.
0:11:31 > 0:11:37Yet while Alfonso grew up in a bifocal Christian Islamic world,
0:11:37 > 0:11:39he was now embracing a mission to reconquer
0:11:39 > 0:11:41all of Spain for Christendom.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45He was in for a big surprise.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48He hadn't counted on the formidable Muslim reaction.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57This is when the Emirs of Al-Andalus put aside their differences
0:11:57 > 0:12:02and appealed to a new, harsh, more powerful Islamic movement.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10Their arrival would change everything once again.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13They landed here, in Gibraltar, to fight the Christians
0:12:13 > 0:12:16and exploit the weakness of Spain's Muslim princes.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22The fall of Toledo terrified the Emirs of Al-Andalus.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27It was clear that the Emperor King Alfonso was going to roll up
0:12:27 > 0:12:33the cities of the Islamic South and conquer them for Christendom.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38They had to ask for help and there was only one place they could look -
0:12:38 > 0:12:39across these straits to Africa,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43where a new fundamentalist sect of puritanical Berbers had
0:12:43 > 0:12:46arisen in the Atlas Mountains.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50The Almoravids were known as the veiled ones
0:12:50 > 0:12:52for not just their women, but their men,
0:12:52 > 0:12:57soldiers and commanders alike wore veils covering their entire faces.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02Only their eyes were visible. It was their trademark.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04For their part, they were happy to come
0:13:04 > 0:13:07because they were disgusted by the decadence of the Emirs
0:13:07 > 0:13:12of Al-Andalus who were paying tribute to Christians.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16In 1086, they raised an army of 15,000
0:13:16 > 0:13:20and they set off from Africa in rafts,
0:13:20 > 0:13:25towing special boats carrying their elephants and horses.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29They arrived in Spain and immediately set to work.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34King Alfonso rushed to stop them.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38He mustered 2,500 troops, including 1,500 horsemen
0:13:38 > 0:13:40and 750 knights.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42It wasn't enough.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45The Almoravid leader, Yusuf ibn Tashfin,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49entitling himself Prince of the Muslims, fielded
0:13:49 > 0:13:54an army of Berbers, Africans and Senegalese cavalry on white horses.
0:13:54 > 0:13:55He sent a message -
0:13:55 > 0:13:59convert to Islam, pay us tribute or fight.
0:14:00 > 0:14:07The two sides met at 1086 at Sagrajas near the Portuguese border.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12King Alfonso, still vibrant after his victory at Toledo,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14was totally routed.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18The ground was so soaked with Christian blood that the
0:14:18 > 0:14:22Almoravids nicknamed it the slippery field.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27And the next day, carts heaped with the heads of the Christian dead
0:14:27 > 0:14:32were paraded through the cities of Al-Andalus
0:14:32 > 0:14:36to show off and announce the Almoravid victory.
0:14:41 > 0:14:42It looked as if
0:14:42 > 0:14:45there never would be a Christian reconquest.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48The Almoravids didn't just delay it,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51they transformed it into a religious war.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53With Marrakech as their imperial capital,
0:14:53 > 0:14:59the Almoravids toppled the Emirs of Al-Andalus and ruled Spain directly.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Here in Seville, I want to find out what happened to Al-Mutamid,
0:15:03 > 0:15:05the city's Muslim Emir,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09who only eight years earlier hired El Cid in battle.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12It was he who'd invited in the Almoravids
0:15:12 > 0:15:14and then they swiftly deposed him.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Hidden, almost forgotten
0:15:17 > 0:15:21and lost in the gardens of the Alcazar in Seville is this -
0:15:21 > 0:15:27one of the columns of Al-Mutamid, the poet king of Seville.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30He so loved these gardens that he writes in poetry
0:15:30 > 0:15:32here that, at the end of the world, he'd like to be
0:15:32 > 0:15:36resurrected and come back here.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41But it wasn't to be. Mutamid retired to Morocco.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45But he didn't regret this decision, however much of a pragmatist
0:15:45 > 0:15:47he'd been in his dealings with the Christians.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51He said, "I'd rather be a camel-driver in Morocco than
0:15:51 > 0:15:54"a swineherd in Castile."
0:15:57 > 0:16:02The African invaders changed the game in Spain in less than a decade
0:16:02 > 0:16:04yet guile and ambition still won out.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Guess who came out of all this, smelling of roses?
0:16:09 > 0:16:14Yes, the ultimate warlord, the ultimate opportunist - El Cid.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18He managed to conquer his own private kingdom
0:16:18 > 0:16:22and he died an independent prince of Valencia.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29When he passed away in his bed in 1099, the world
0:16:29 > 0:16:30had changed completely.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35From that year, the Crusades - Christendom's own Holy War -
0:16:35 > 0:16:39had taken Jerusalem in the Middle East.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43They massacred 70,000 Muslims when they took the Holy City.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47From now on, in Spain and in the Middle East,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51the Holy War would be a fight to the death.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Over the next decades, the Almoravids grew soft,
0:16:57 > 0:17:03unprepared when more severe extremists arose to destroy them.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09A militant sect of Islamic jihadists burst, fully formed,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11from the deserts of Morocco.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15These Almohads, to everyone's amazement,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19not unlike Isis today, carried all before them,
0:17:19 > 0:17:24conquering a vast empire from West Africa to Morocco.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Their founder had called himself the Mahdi - the chosen one.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34But on his death, his successor declared himself the Caliph.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38In 1147, the new Caliph crossed the sea to take what
0:17:38 > 0:17:44he called the camel's hump of al-Andalus, the juiciest part.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52The Almohads, who made Seville their capital,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55proclaimed the beginning of a new order.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Their outrages were fanatical, intolerant and spectacular.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04They favoured ostentatious atrocities.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06They burned Jews and Christians alive
0:18:06 > 0:18:08in their synagogues and churches.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14They ruled from fortified towers, like this one, the Torre Del Oro.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18There were once towers on both sides of the river...
0:18:19 > 0:18:22..and a mighty chain was stretched between the two
0:18:22 > 0:18:24to control and defend Seville.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32I'm meeting Maribel Fierro, an expert on the Almohads,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36to learn more about these fearsome religious fighters.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Maribel, who exactly were the Almohads?
0:18:40 > 0:18:43How did they define themselves as different?
0:18:43 > 0:18:48One of the things they did, for example, was to mint square coins.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52This is a typical Almohad dirham,
0:18:52 > 0:18:57and by minting coins which had a square format,
0:18:57 > 0:19:02which was unusual, coins had been round until that moment,
0:19:02 > 0:19:08it was a very simple but not simplistic way of telling everybody,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10"A new era has arrived.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13"We are something different from what existed before."
0:19:13 > 0:19:17How did they enforce their new creed? Were they violent?
0:19:17 > 0:19:20What happened to minorities like the Jews and the Christians?
0:19:20 > 0:19:24This was a revolutionary movement, and as a revolutionary movement,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27they produced revolutionary violence.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31They had a charismatic leader who was proclaimed to be infallible,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34so they thought that they had the truth
0:19:34 > 0:19:39and that the truth, having this Messiah, had to be acknowledged
0:19:39 > 0:19:42by everybody, and those who didn't want to accept it,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46and if they resisted or made problems,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49they were sometimes massacred.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52So, what effect did they have on Seville?
0:19:52 > 0:19:58Well, they made it its capital, and in order to make it its capital,
0:19:58 > 0:20:04they had to change the layout of part of the town.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Where the Cathedral is now, that's where they built their mosque,
0:20:08 > 0:20:13which was huge by the standards, even for Almohad standards.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24The Almohads built this gorgeous minaret, known as the Giralda.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28But it was so tall, that their ageing Moisin, who had to climb it
0:20:28 > 0:20:32five times a day to lead the call to prayer, asked for a change,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36and they specially designed a ramp inside the tower
0:20:36 > 0:20:40so he could ride his donkey all the way to the top.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44I applied to do the same, but for some reason, they wouldn't let me.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53The Almohads ruled for over a century,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57until slowly weakened by their own factional strife.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05In 1212, a coalition of the Christian Kings of Castile,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Portugal and Aragon finally defeated them.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12They would now swallow the Islamic cities one by one.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18In 1248, the King of Castile captured Seville,
0:21:18 > 0:21:24installing Christian bells in the minaret of La Giralda.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Spain's landscape was becoming Christian.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39By 1250, only one Islamic kingdom remained -
0:21:39 > 0:21:41the Emirate of Granada.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44And that's my next stop.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Granada, and much of the coast,
0:21:50 > 0:21:55was now ruled by the Nasrid family, who emerged after the Almohads -
0:21:55 > 0:21:57the last Muslim dynasty.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08This bathhouse, or hammam, dates back to the 14th century,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11a favourite hang out in Nasrid times.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Muslims were expected to perform ablutions
0:22:14 > 0:22:17of ritual purification before prayer.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Though Islam in Nasrid Granada was often lax,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25the hammam was also a place of architectural delights,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28luxury, sensuality, and beautification.
0:22:30 > 0:22:36The Nasrids ruled the last Islamic emirate in Western Europe
0:22:36 > 0:22:40with an exquisite if frenzied decadence.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Here in the hammam baths, they continued to enjoy
0:22:43 > 0:22:46the traditional Arab luxuries.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Scented in pomegranate and amber,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52they enjoyed body washes and body lotions.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57Their deodorants were made of great blocks of perfume.
0:22:57 > 0:22:58They even used toothpaste.
0:22:58 > 0:23:04And here, they ruled on with an ominous and doomed splendour.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24The Nasrids were no empire builders.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27They were minor Emirs, twisting and turning,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29compromising to survive.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33Yet they were masters of one thing,
0:23:33 > 0:23:39the art of concealing their weakness behind a facade of grandeur.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Spain's supreme example of Muslim architecture,
0:23:43 > 0:23:48is built on a rocky outcrop to the north of the city.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50Originally a fortress, it was converted
0:23:50 > 0:23:53into a Royal Palace in 1333.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55'Alhambra' means 'the red'.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59The name comes from the red dust that settles on the Citadel.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06I'm standing in front of probably the most spectacular Islamic
0:24:06 > 0:24:11building in Spain, and one of the most famous buildings in the world.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14It's the Alhambra Palace of Granada.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Yet it was built by the Nasrid dynasty, a family of venal,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22self-indulgent and feckless, petty tyrants.
0:24:22 > 0:24:28The story of the Nasrids, played out within the Alhambra Palace,
0:24:28 > 0:24:33is not half as spectacular as the setting they created.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57There's something majestic and magnificent about this place -
0:24:57 > 0:25:01the very model of a powerful Sultan's palace.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04But all is not quite what it seems.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Granada was now at the mercy of the resurgent
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Christian Kingdoms to the North.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15There's something of a theatrical stage set about this place.
0:25:15 > 0:25:20An air of artifice. A flimsiness, a frailty.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24This was the Indian summer of Islamic Spain.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26How long could it last?
0:25:31 > 0:25:34As the last heirs of Islamic resplendence
0:25:34 > 0:25:38in al-Andalus, the Nasrids tried to recreate
0:25:38 > 0:25:41the glories of their predecessors.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45And yet, they built the Alhambra on the cheap.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50While they understood beauty, and the interplay of light and shade,
0:25:50 > 0:25:55they had to make do with wood and stucco instead of stone and marble.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01The Court of Lions reflects a mathematical concept
0:26:01 > 0:26:05of perfection, a Muslim golden mean.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Some snobbish 19th century English travellers sneered
0:26:09 > 0:26:11that this was just a glorified gazebo.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14I'm not so sure.
0:26:14 > 0:26:20It's really the jewel in the crown of this amazing complex of palaces.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23If you look around at this beautiful work around this
0:26:23 > 0:26:28courtyard where the Sultan, the Emir, would hold court,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32you can see all the eclectic influences of art
0:26:32 > 0:26:37across the Islamic world, from Persia, from Baghdad, from Damascus,
0:26:37 > 0:26:43all expressed here in this perfectly exquisite carving that you see.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50The lion images are quite unusual,
0:26:50 > 0:26:55because imagery was banned as idolatry in most Muslim art.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58But these are small enough just to get away with it.
0:27:09 > 0:27:15Behind the facade, the last Muslim dynasty in Spain lived in fear.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22This is the courtyard of the two doors, because these two doors
0:27:22 > 0:27:28tell the story of the paranoia and instability of the Nasrid court.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31As you can see, this is now the main entrance.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34But in the Islamic world, the right-hand door
0:27:34 > 0:27:38was always the main entrance to the court.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Now, the Nasrids were always ready for attack,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45and they were a lot more afraid of Muslim factions
0:27:45 > 0:27:48or their own family than they were of the Christians.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53But if you attacked this door or tried to batter it down,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57it would always be in vain, because it's a trompe d'oeil.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00There's just a brick wall behind this door.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03You could never get in.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06This tells you all you need to know about the insecurity,
0:28:06 > 0:28:11fear and duplicity in the corridors of the Alhambra Palace.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22Amongst this palace of Islamic splendour, hidden from view,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26is the symbol of the woman who destroyed it all.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32And there you can see it, the crest of Queen Isabella of Castile,
0:28:32 > 0:28:37the woman who brought down the last Islamic kingdom in Western Europe.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Isabella and her husband Ferdinand orchestrated
0:28:44 > 0:28:47the finale of the Reconquest.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53By the 1460s, Spain's three main Christian kingdoms were weary,
0:28:53 > 0:28:58divided and embattled, their courts riven by tension
0:28:58 > 0:29:02between over-mighty barons and ineffectual monarchs,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04their peoples culled by plague.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08A final push was needed, yet the Northern Kings were too weak
0:29:08 > 0:29:11and feckless to plan a full-scale war.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Isabella, Princess of Castile was 18,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20green eyed, auburn hair, small and plump.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23But she was intelligent and she was ambitious.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Her brother, Enrique IV, King of Castile,
0:29:27 > 0:29:29cut her out of the succession.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Even though he tried to marry her to as many as seven other suitors,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36she secretly started to negotiate her own marriage.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Her choice was her cousin Ferdinand, heir to the throne
0:29:40 > 0:29:42of the neighbouring kingdom of Aragon.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45He was cunning, intelligent and handsome.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Together, they would be a formidable team.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53In 1469, the two of them secretly eloped and married.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55The marriage changed everything.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Though they kept their own separate kingdoms,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04Ferdinand and Isabella's monarchy
0:30:04 > 0:30:07was the foundation of what became Spain.
0:30:07 > 0:30:13They were united by faith, political acumen and dynastic ambition.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18First, they restored power over their turbulent, venal barons.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Then, they turned to Granada.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38They captured the Emirate of Granada castle by castle, town by town
0:30:38 > 0:30:41and it took them over ten years.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44Now, I'm following in their footsteps.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49Ferdinand commanded the army, Isabella raised men and money,
0:30:49 > 0:30:50helped by the Pope,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54who granted them one tenth of all revenues from the Spanish church
0:30:54 > 0:30:55for their crusade.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02I'm standing at the very spot where, in June 1491,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06Queen Isabella set eyes for the first time
0:31:06 > 0:31:09on the great prize of her entire career -
0:31:09 > 0:31:13the culmination of her personal Christian crusade
0:31:13 > 0:31:16to eradicate Islam in Spain.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19And there it was before her... Granada.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23She stood here, she looked and then she marched down
0:31:23 > 0:31:27and paraded her entire army around its walls.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29She was tormenting the people of Granada.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33The women came out onto the battlements and booed and hissed.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35And, finally, the nobility could stand it no longer.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39The Islamic knights galloped out and attacked the parade.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41But they were fought off.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44After 14 years of long war,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48marshalled personally by Queen Isabella herself,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51at a great cost in blood and treasure,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54one by one, the strongholds of Granada had fallen.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57And now she was here for the last reckoning.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59The final stronghold.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02Granada was doomed.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13Behind the city wall, as the Christians came closer,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15the Nasrids cowered,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17plotting against each other, as was their way.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24This hidden-away jewel of Granada,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27the madrasah, an Islamic school,
0:32:27 > 0:32:34was built in 1349 by the greatest of the Nasrid emirs, Yusuf I.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37But he was murdered, while praying, soon afterwards by a madman.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40And that unfortunate death set a pattern.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43The Nasrids were incorrigibly, irredeemably
0:32:43 > 0:32:47murderous, dissolute and treacherous.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49They had an expression for this.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52They called natural deaths "a white death".
0:32:52 > 0:32:55And murderous death they called "the red death".
0:32:55 > 0:32:59Well, of the first nine emirs of Granada in the Nasrid dynasty,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03one was overthrown, one died in an accident
0:33:03 > 0:33:04and the rest were all murdered.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08The Nasrids were definitely a dynasty of the red death.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Yusuf was succeeded by his teenage son,
0:33:17 > 0:33:23who was soon overthrown by his wicked uncle Ismail II.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26His vizier and historian, Ibn Khatib,
0:33:26 > 0:33:30said that Ismail liked to cavort in female clothing
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and was a wicked, perverted and dissolute transvestite.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39He was soon overthrown and murdered in the dungeons of the Alhambra.
0:33:39 > 0:33:40Just another Nasrid.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Now, within Granada, Muhammad XII,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50known to the Spaniards as "Boabdil",
0:33:50 > 0:33:51was only on the throne
0:33:51 > 0:33:55because his mother forced him to usurp his own father.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59He held out against Ferdinand and Isabella for eight months
0:33:59 > 0:34:03and then he started to secretly negotiate terms.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13On 2nd January 1492,
0:34:13 > 0:34:17the banners of Castile and Leon were raised
0:34:17 > 0:34:19from the towers of the Alhambra,
0:34:19 > 0:34:25to the cry of, "Castile! Castile!" for Ferdinand and Isabella.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30On 6th January, the most Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34entered the city in formal procession through this gate
0:34:34 > 0:34:37to claim Granada for Christendom.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43That day, a 46-year-old Genoese sailor
0:34:43 > 0:34:48watched the Christian banners flutter on the battlements of Granada.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Cristobal Colon.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53We know him as Christopher Columbus.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55An eccentric, grizzled maverick,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58his dreams now dovetailed perfectly
0:34:58 > 0:35:01with the ambitions of Ferdinand and Isabella.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04For him, too, this was a blessed day.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11The last emir, Boabdil,
0:35:11 > 0:35:13turned on this hill, as he marched away
0:35:13 > 0:35:18to take up his new estates granted by Ferdinand and Isabella.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20He looked over the city.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23This was known as "the Moor's last sigh".
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Lorca, the great 20th century Spanish poet,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32said that when the Moors were driven out of Spain,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36their freedom of spirit and their lightness of being
0:35:36 > 0:35:37vanished forever.
0:35:37 > 0:35:43Their elegant mosques were replaced by garish and ornate churches
0:35:43 > 0:35:45filled with bloodstained Christs.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57Granada Cathedral captures the blood-spattered triumphalism
0:35:57 > 0:36:00of Christian holy war.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02Here, St James the Muslim-slayer,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06pins an Islamic soldier to the ground by the throat,
0:36:06 > 0:36:07like a wounded animal,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11before he brings his broadsword crashing down.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18Ferdinand and Isabella embraced their mission as Catholic champions
0:36:18 > 0:36:20with apocalyptic fervour.
0:36:22 > 0:36:27They regarded the capture of the city as a crusading triumph
0:36:27 > 0:36:30and Christopher Columbus offered them a way to combine
0:36:30 > 0:36:35trade, glory, empire and crusade.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39He would sail for the Indies, find gold along the way,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43and a route to conquer Jerusalem from the East.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Ferdinand and Isabella were dazzled and they agreed.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50They appointed him Admiral of the Ocean Sea,
0:36:50 > 0:36:52viceroy of all he captured,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54and they issued this decree -
0:36:54 > 0:36:57"We despatch Cristobal Colon..."
0:36:57 > 0:36:59- Christopher Columbus -
0:36:59 > 0:37:03"..with three caravelles, to sail across the ocean sea..."
0:37:03 > 0:37:05- that's the Atlantic Ocean -
0:37:05 > 0:37:06"..towards the Indies,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09"and there to fulfil an enterprise
0:37:09 > 0:37:13"that touches on the glory of the Catholic faith."
0:37:13 > 0:37:16He sailed and he was away for two years.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24The Pope rewarded Ferdinand and Isabella
0:37:24 > 0:37:26with the title "the Catholic Monarchs".
0:37:28 > 0:37:30Looking inward, though,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33they saw their success as fragile,
0:37:33 > 0:37:37their sacred rule tainted and weakened dangerously
0:37:37 > 0:37:40by alien blood and heretical beliefs.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Ferdinand and Isabella believed that their triumphs
0:37:45 > 0:37:51were just part of a divine and apocalyptic master plan.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Before Judgement Day, the hidden one, or the bat,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57would swoop down on Spain
0:37:57 > 0:38:01and cleanse it of Jews, Muslims and locusts.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06Meanwhile, Christopher Columbus would find the gold
0:38:06 > 0:38:10and the route to conquer Jerusalem from the East.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12In preparation for all this,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Ferdinand and Isabella would cleanse the kingdom.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20They would create a pure Christian Jerusalem within Spain itself.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27They were considering a solution to a long-standing problem -
0:38:27 > 0:38:30a people rooted in Spain since Roman times,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33now the enemy within.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36On the 31st March 1492,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40the monarchs published their decree, which read,
0:38:40 > 0:38:45"As the Jews daily continue their evil and their harm,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48"the only remedy is to expel them from our kingdoms."
0:38:48 > 0:38:51The Jews were given three months to sell everything,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54collect their belongings and leave forever.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57Or convert to Christianity.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Chillingly, the monarchs chose the 9th of Ab,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03the day in the Jewish calendar when the Jews remember
0:39:03 > 0:39:06the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem,
0:39:06 > 0:39:09as the very date of their deportation.
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Out of 300,000 Jews,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13about half did convert
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and the rest, around 150,000,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20departed forever from Spain on this perilous journey.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23The 9th of Ab was appropriate
0:39:23 > 0:39:27because this was the greatest trauma in Jewish life,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30between the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and the Holocaust in the 20th century.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54I'm visiting one of Spain's few remaining synagogues.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59In 1492, hundreds of synagogues were destroyed.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03And in all of Spain, only three survive from that time.
0:40:05 > 0:40:11And yet, ironically, 20% of Spaniards have Jewish blood today.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13As for this synagogue,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16it only survived because it was converted into a hospital.
0:40:16 > 0:40:21And after 400 years, it was only discovered to be a synagogue
0:40:21 > 0:40:27when the plaster fell off the walls to reveal this beautiful decoration.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Spanish Muslims were Isabella's next target.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54Her chief adviser was Cardinal Francisco de Cisneros,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56the Archbishop of Toledo.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02He came down here to Granada and purged Muslim culture.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04The bathhouses were closed.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06Islamic dress was banned.
0:41:06 > 0:41:11And he came here to the madrasah, the old Islamic school,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14and cleared out all the Muslim books,
0:41:14 > 0:41:18which he claimed encouraged indecency, infidelity and sorcery.
0:41:18 > 0:41:24He had them taken outside to the square and systematically burned.
0:41:24 > 0:41:281,000 years of Islamic scholarship went up in smoke.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34I'm in the village of Churriana.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36It's just outside Granada.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39This is where the Muslim and Christian delegates
0:41:39 > 0:41:43signed the surrender terms of the city.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47And at first, they offered openness of worship and culture.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Isabella was generous,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52because she believed the Muslims would convert en masse.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56Her bishops descended on Granada
0:41:56 > 0:41:59in a triumphant frenzy of missionary optimism.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Some refused to convert.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Others, known as Moriscos, meaning Moorish,
0:42:10 > 0:42:12did become Christian.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15Their artisans kept up Muslim traditions.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19This is a beautiful ceiling,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22carved for the Christians by Morisco workmen.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30After Muslim unrest,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33in 1502 Isabella cancelled her promised toleration.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36She banned Islamic practices,
0:42:36 > 0:42:38claiming her new Christian subjects
0:42:38 > 0:42:40might be false converts.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Trying to convert Muslims to Catholicism -
0:42:44 > 0:42:46Archbishop Cisneros told the queen -
0:42:46 > 0:42:49was like throwing pearls at swine.
0:42:58 > 0:42:59I'm in Seville.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01Here, a holy office was set up
0:43:01 > 0:43:06to eliminate the bacteria of heresy and impure blood
0:43:06 > 0:43:09within the body of Spain.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11The Inquisition lacked the scale or efficiency
0:43:11 > 0:43:14of a 20th century terror state,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18yet it was based on the same public frenzy, suspicion, repression.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24In 1480, Ferdinand and Isabella came here to Seville
0:43:24 > 0:43:28to establish the Tribunal of the Holy Office.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30The Spanish Inquisition.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35And they gave them this, the Castle of St George, as their headquarters.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37There's not much left of it.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40There's just this wall and the dungeons inside.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43But this was the working heart, the workhouse,
0:43:43 > 0:43:47the gruesome centre of the Inquisition machine.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49From here, Inquisitors,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53led by the first leader of the Inquisition, Torquemada,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57rode out on their mules to search for victims,
0:43:57 > 0:44:03assisted by their special faith police force, the Familiars.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Their aim was to enforce a united Catholic Spain.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13False converts, known as "the conversos",
0:44:13 > 0:44:15were investigated in secret sittings
0:44:15 > 0:44:19and tortured to secure forced confessions.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22While many Moriscos were hunted down,
0:44:22 > 0:44:24the primary targets were the Jews.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32The Inquisitors and their pure blood and faith police, the Familiars,
0:44:32 > 0:44:38devised increasing ingenious ways to smoke out the crypto-Jews,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41whom they called "Marranos", or pigs.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45First, they claimed the Jews smelled differently,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49because of their secret Judaic cooking practices.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52Some say that tapas was created
0:44:52 > 0:44:56as a way of surreptitiously testing conversos
0:44:56 > 0:45:01to see if they would eat ham or other non-kosher dishes.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06But they really did check the conversos hung at least two hams
0:45:06 > 0:45:08outside their doors
0:45:08 > 0:45:11to show that they were eating non-kosher food.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14And as you can see, I think this guy would pass the test!
0:45:14 > 0:45:18But more than that, behind the righteousness of the Inquisition,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21there was big business and there was greed.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25Fortunes were confiscated, great sums were made
0:45:25 > 0:45:27by the crown and the Inquisitors,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30some of whom were actually prosecuted for extortion.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35Faith and avarice dovetailed immaculately.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43From 1492 to 1530,
0:45:43 > 0:45:4615,000 Spaniards were locked in the torture chambers
0:45:46 > 0:45:49of the Inquisition.
0:45:49 > 0:45:512,000 were executed.
0:45:52 > 0:45:5790% of those murdered were found guilty of having Jewish blood.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12I'm right here in the dungeons of the Inquisition.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16And one can almost feel here
0:46:16 > 0:46:21the terrible crimes that were committed inside these cold walls.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Tens of thousands of crypto-Jews or conversos,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27or people usually totally innocent,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30who were denounced for impurity of blood,
0:46:30 > 0:46:33were brought here, kept here for years
0:46:33 > 0:46:36and tortured to confess, to repent,
0:46:36 > 0:46:39or to denounce other traitors.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Most of them, of course,
0:46:41 > 0:46:46were simply descendants of Jews from many, many generations ago.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50But anyone could be accused of impurity of blood.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52Really, the Inquisition was often used
0:46:52 > 0:46:56to settle personal scores and rivalries.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01Like every Inquisition or terror, it soon started to consume its own.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Professors were denounced by rival professors
0:47:05 > 0:47:07for ludicrous crimes, such as studying the Hebrew
0:47:07 > 0:47:10instead of the Latin Bible.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12A bishop, a minister of the crown,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14was denounced and investigated for many years.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22As the Inquisition gathered pace,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26even devout Christians were accused of heretical tendencies.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35One typical victim, a Christian victim of the Inquisition,
0:47:35 > 0:47:36was kept in these very dungeons.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Her name was Maria Lopez.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44And she was a blind visionary who claimed to be the Virgin Mary.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47She was accused of having sex with her jailors.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50But she certainly asked them to whip her naked,
0:47:50 > 0:47:52while she was held in these cells.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55In the end, she was found guilty.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57She was taken out to be burned,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00but repented and, as a result,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03before the flames were lit,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07she was given the great honour of being garrotted.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09Then she was burnt.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Such was the mercy of the Inquisition.
0:48:21 > 0:48:22I'm off to Cordoba now
0:48:22 > 0:48:26to find out more about the Jewish victims of the Inquisition.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35While most conversos gave up their Jewish faith
0:48:35 > 0:48:37and became devout Catholics,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41some secretly kept their Judaism alive
0:48:41 > 0:48:44at great personal cost.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47This is the Casa de Sefarad in Cordoba,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50the House of the Spanish or Sephardic Jews.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54These Jewish prayer books show how secret Jews
0:48:54 > 0:48:57practised their faith in private.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00They have Latin on the outside, Hebrew on the inside.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06In Spain, the distant past still has the power
0:49:06 > 0:49:09to spring terrible surprises.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11As a historian of Sephardic Jewish descent,
0:49:11 > 0:49:15I thought I knew everything about my own family's story.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Turns out I was wrong.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Alex Tellez is one of the research team here,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26who have looked back 12 generations into my family.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30I didn't know that we came from Spain.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Nor that we served the Spanish kings in Mexico.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Alex, you've been doing some research into my family, I understand.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40Show me what you've found. I'm fascinated.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42This is part of a two-volume collection
0:49:42 > 0:49:46of volumes belonging to the national files of Mexico.
0:49:46 > 0:49:47Because they went to Mexico.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51What? Show me! I've never heard that before.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55They were the governors of an area of Mexico, the northern part.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57So wait a second, so the Carvajals...
0:49:57 > 0:50:00- I'm descended from this family, the Carvajals.- Carvajals, yes.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03They pretended to convert, or they did convert, to Christianity.
0:50:03 > 0:50:04They pretended to convert.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08They convert officially and they practised Christianity officially.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10But at home, secretly, they practised Judaism.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12You were fake Christians.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15I don't mind being descended from fake Christians at all.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18- I'm proud they kept it going.- No, of course. It's a reason to be proud.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23So they were secret Jewish governors of these colonies.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25When you said you had something about my family,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29I expected some sort of very vague, distant thing that, you know...
0:50:29 > 0:50:31But this is... This is actually...
0:50:31 > 0:50:33This is the direct descent of the family,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35from these people I've never heard of.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37- A straight branch, actually.- Yeah.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39So you've got the brother, Luis...
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Uh-huh.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44..who's pretty young, actually. He's about 30.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47And you've got Lenora de Andrade, who is his sister.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Exactly. Luis de Carvajal got in a fight
0:50:51 > 0:50:53with one of the important figures of the city.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56And this man denounced the family to the Inquisition.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58- Oh, my gosh.- Because of this.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00In this document,
0:51:00 > 0:51:02which is the auto-da-fe document,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06the judgement of the trial, he was accused of being a traitor
0:51:06 > 0:51:09and for being, as well, a heretic.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11Is this his death sentence?
0:51:11 > 0:51:13Exactly. The death sentence.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15They are hunted down by the Inquisition
0:51:15 > 0:51:18and they're basically wiped out
0:51:18 > 0:51:20by the Inquisition.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23I mean, the brother... First of all, Luis and Leonora are killed
0:51:23 > 0:51:25and burnt to death.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27- Almost the same time. - Almost the same time.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29Maybe even in the same auto-da-fe,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32the same burning in the square of Mexico City.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35I mean, that's heartbreaking enough to die brother and sister.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37In the case of Leonora de Andrade,
0:51:37 > 0:51:42Leonora, she was proud of being what she was,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44of practising Judaism at home, secretly.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49At the moment of the trial,
0:51:49 > 0:51:51she recited a poem she wrote,
0:51:51 > 0:51:57in which she asked for the help of the Messiah, the King of the Jews.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58Mm... Do you have that somewhere?
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Yes, I've got some verses of the poem in Spanish.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19I think this is the saddest cut of all.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23Yes, she is actually asking for a sweet death,
0:52:23 > 0:52:25for a sweet end, to God.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28So this girl, in her 20s,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32who, literally, you know, minutes or hours later
0:52:32 > 0:52:35is going to be burned naked to death
0:52:35 > 0:52:38in the square of Mexico City, probably,
0:52:38 > 0:52:41is asking for a sweet...
0:52:41 > 0:52:43for an easy death in the flames.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Exactly. That's the point of this poem.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47Just unbelievable.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52Amazing.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59I'm usually dubious of the lachrymose fashion
0:52:59 > 0:53:02for televised family revelations from history.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Yet this has surprised and moved me.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09My direct ancestors were secret Jews,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11royal civil servants in colonial Mexico,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14hoping to avoid the Spanish Inquisition.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17They were betrayed and sent to their deaths.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21We know for sure one child escaped -
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Joseph Leon, son of Leonora.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Only by fleeing to Tuscany
0:53:26 > 0:53:28and changing his name there to Montefiore,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30did the family find safety.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39I'm in Granada, where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried
0:53:39 > 0:53:43in the royal chapel here at the cathedral.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47Their actions in war and in peace changed Spain forever.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Yet when Isabella died in 1504, there was unfinished business.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58For all her success, her family was unlucky.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00Her sons died young
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and her elder surviving daughter was no Isabella.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18HUSHED TONE: They've let me into the vault of Ferdinand and Isabella,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21where they're actually buried.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25In many ways, this is the secret heart, not just of Granada,
0:54:25 > 0:54:27but of Spain itself.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29And it's usually closed to the public.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33But here lie the two great Catholic monarchs.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37The most successful king and queen of their era.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39But at what a cost.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43And when they died, they laid buried here.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47Over there you can see their crown and their sceptre and Christ,
0:54:47 > 0:54:49which sums up their rule.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56They were succeeded by their daughter, Juana,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59who lies over there.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02She was married to Philip the Handsome,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05the Habsburg Duke of Burgundy.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09When he died - and his body lies over there -
0:55:09 > 0:55:11she refused to bury him.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15She carried his body round and round Spain for months and years
0:55:15 > 0:55:18as he rotted, bloated and putrefied.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21They realised, of course, that she was mad.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25She's known to history as Juana la Loca - Juana the Mad.
0:55:31 > 0:55:37In 1516, Juana the Mad was deposed in favour of her son Charles.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41He was the dutiful and shrewd heir to vast Hapsburg lands...
0:55:42 > 0:55:47..Archduke of Austria, King of Spain and soon Holy Roman Emperor, too.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53Charles V came to Spain
0:55:53 > 0:55:55to claim his new kingdom
0:55:55 > 0:55:57and win over his dubious subjects.
0:55:58 > 0:55:59In March 1526,
0:55:59 > 0:56:04he stayed for months here at the Alhambra with his new young wife.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06It was his honeymoon.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Most royal marriages are miserable, but Charles got lucky.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14He fell passionately in love with his bride,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17Princess Isabella of Portugal,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20who was beautiful and intelligent.
0:56:20 > 0:56:21They were married in Seville,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24but they came here to Granada for their honeymoon.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26They were so happy
0:56:26 > 0:56:31that Charles built this extraordinary palace, square on the outside,
0:56:31 > 0:56:36but with this surprising circular courtyard in the middle.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38But Charles went away to war.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Isabella died tragically young.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44And Charles never came back.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Charles' sprawling territories
0:56:51 > 0:56:55meant never-ending wars from one end of Europe to the other.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58And there was more - a greater empire to come.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00Columbus never reached Jerusalem,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03yet he found the Indies.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07It took a generation of adventurers, blessed by Charles V,
0:57:07 > 0:57:11to turn a geographical discovery into a world empire.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17Those ferocious Spanish conquistadors, Cortes and Pizarro,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22were conquering new territories - Mexico and Peru - in the Americas.
0:57:22 > 0:57:29And they sent back enough gold to fund Spain's Catholic mission
0:57:29 > 0:57:33and to make Spain the dominant military power in Europe
0:57:33 > 0:57:35for almost a century.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Their ambitions were boundless.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42Their resources seemed endless.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44They were doing God's work.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46Who could stop them?
0:57:49 > 0:57:51Next time...
0:57:51 > 0:57:53Spain at its zenith.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55Philip II, a colossus.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58A new capital, Madrid, flourishes.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01Napoleon invades.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04And, in a bloody civil war,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07Hitler and Stalin duel for Spain,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10leaving a cruel dictatorship.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14I wouldn't have been surprised
0:58:14 > 0:58:16if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
0:58:16 > 0:58:18had clattered into the hall.
0:58:24 > 0:58:26If this story has inspired you
0:58:26 > 0:58:29and you'd like to find out more,
0:58:29 > 0:58:31go to the address given on-screen
0:58:31 > 0:58:34and follow the links to the Open University.