Don Juan of Austria, signed decree, Santa Fe de Mondújar, 23 April 157[0]

Don Juan of Austria

Signed decree ("Don Ju[an]"), written by his secretary Juan de Soto and countersigned by Soto

written during the rebellion of the Alpujarras (the Morisco Revolt) in Granada (1568-1571), ordering his troops not to take as slaves any of the new Christians of this kingdom ("Christianos nuevos que en este Reyno se an revelado"), on pain of death, nor to mistreat them but to gather them with mercy,

"no haciendoles ninguna molestia ni maltratamiento, antes recogiendolos con toda piedad, benignidad y blandura"

folio (316 x 215mm.), 1 page, papered seal, no watermark, Santa Fe de Mondújar, 23 April 157[0], in a modern buckram folder, shaved at right hand side of leaf with loss of final digit of the date

Following the Spanish conquest of Granada from the Moors in the late fifteenth century, official policy was to Christianise the remaining local Muslim population, though Charles V had suspended this practice on receipt of a substantial payment from the Moors. In 1567 a council in Madrid prohibited Moorish customs and language, in order to facilitate the Christianisation of the Moriscos. These repressive measures were met with resistance and an armed uprising in 1568.

During the brutal military campaign, there were (unsurprisingly) incidents of looting and enslavement by the Spanish soldiers, which hampered the success of the operation. The Moorish troops, supported by Algeria, targeted churches and Old Christians and also sold Christian captives into slavery.

Don Juan de Austria, half-brother to Philip II, was appointed to the command of the Spanish troops in early 1570, and this decree attempted to regulate the behaviour of his troops by broadcasting the punishments for disobedience. He managed to suppress the rebellion by the end of that year, following which many of the Moors were deported to other regions of Spain. The campaign also provided literary inspiration for Cervantes, who shortly afterwards served under Don Juan at the Battle of Lepanto.