Overview
In 1506, violence in Lisbon targeted New Christians whose families had been forcibly converted from Judaism less than a decade earlier. Preaching, religious accusation, social tension, and weakened royal control contributed to several days of killing and plunder. Contemporary estimates of the dead vary, and later narratives often reshaped the episode for polemical purposes. King Manuel punished some perpetrators and restricted public discussion, but the massacre exposed the insecurity of forced converts within Portuguese society. It also strengthened incentives for New Christian families to establish commercial and refugee networks outside Iberia.
