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El rey João II es recordado en la historiografía portuguesa principalmente como el primer rey «moderno» de Portugal, y un monarca que trabajó enérgicamente para restaurar el estatus de la Corona, debilitada durante el reinado de su padre Afonso V (1438-1481). Sin embargo, la historiografía judía ha construido una imagen del rey como infame por su persecución de los judíos expulsos llegados de Castilla en 1492, así como por la orden de sustracción de niños judíos a sus progenitores para usarlos en la colonización de la isla de São Tomé. Mediante el uso de fuentes hebreas, hispánicas y portuguesas, este artículo examina de forma detallada la naturaleza de las relaciones existentes entre João II y los judíos, tanto de los que eran nativos de Portugal, como de los castellanos exiliados.

The events leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas began when Columbus returned from his first voyage. Spain and Portugal competed in the attempt to obtain their desired rights of navigation and conquest in the Atlantic Ocean and to be the first Europeans to the Indies. The combined versions of what happened by Davenport (1917) and Nowell (1945) exemplify the historical narrative of these events. The present paper’s version of the narrative considers for inclusion ten items absent from these two previous accounts. Three of these ten new items are considered here to be highly probable: King João’s pony express, his 1488 threat of war with Spain over the marriage of his son, and Freire’s discovery not only of missing chancery records, presumably of King João’s southern Atlantic voyages, but also of contemporaneous records containing the ship’s biscuit data suggesting long Atlantic voyages. The other seven new items must await additional documentation if they are to be considered highly probable. Using some highly probable items as well as some deemed less than highly probable, the present article offers an explanation for the behavior of both King João and King Ferdinand in the latter’s ultimate agreement that the treaty should move the line of demarcation westward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the policies of persecution against the Jews by King João II of Portugal that were instituted against the Jews who came to Portugal following their expulsion from Castile, Spain in 1492. Particular attention is paid to his infamous order to seize Jewish children from their parents so they could be converted to Christianity and sent to colonize the island of São Tomé. The relationship between King Joã II to both Jews native to Portugal and those exiled from Castile is examined through various Hebrew, Spanish, and Portuguese sources.