Tomás de Torquemada

Grand Inquisitor of Spain (1420–1498)

Tomás de Torquemada (14 October 1420 – 16 September 1498), anglicized as Thomas of Torquemada, was a Spanish Dominican friar and the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. In that role, he led a group of ecclesiastical prelates created in 1478 to uphold Catholic religious orthodoxy within the newly formed union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, presently known as the Kingdom of Spain. In part because of persecution, Muslims and Jews in Castile and Aragon at that time found it socially, politically, and economically advantageous to convert to Catholicism (becoming what were known as conversos, moriscos, and marranos).

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