How Columbus’ First Voyage of Discovery Took Him Beyond the Reach of the Spanish Inquisition

The documentary, Colón ADN: Su verdadero origen (Columbus DNA: His True Origins), produced by Spanish broadcaster RTVE and Story Producciones, provides new context to the significance of the children’s rhyme, “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” It suggests that when Columbus sailed from Palos de la Frontera in Andalusia on August 3 of that year, it may have enabled him to escape the reach of Tomás de Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of the Tribunal of the Holy Office, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition.

The film is the culmination of two decades of research led by forensic expert José Antonio Lorente, professor of Legal Medicine at the University of Granada. According to the documentary, Columbus’s DNA reveals that the man, a sea captain from Genoa, may have been a Spanish Sephardic Jew.
Although Columbus first approached the Spanish Crown with his proposal for a voyage of discovery six years earlier, in 1486, four months before he set sail on March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile issued the Alhambra Decree. This decree required all Jews in their kingdoms to convert to Christianity or leave Spain by July 31 of that year.

The BBC reports that “There have been an estimated 25 or so separate claims regarding where he [Columbus] was born, including from Poland, Scotland, Hungary, and Scandinavia.” However, Prof. Lorente’s team narrowed it down to eight possible birthplaces, located in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The process involved comparing Columbus’s DNA with that of individuals believed to be his relatives in these locations.

Those who converted to Christianity (conversos) lived under the fear of persecution by Torquemada, Queen Isabella’s confessor and personal advisor. Under Torquemada’s leadership, the Inquisition focused on identifying, prosecuting, and punishing those accused of heresy, particularly conversos suspected of secretly practicing Judaism.

The BBC reports that “There have been an estimated 25 or so separate claims regarding where he [Columbus] was born, including from Poland, Scotland, Hungary, and Scandinavia.” However, Prof. Lorente’s team narrowed it down to eight possible birthplaces, located in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The process involved comparing Columbus’s DNA with that of individuals believed to be his relatives in these locations.

One theory posits that Columbus was a Jew from Valencia who hid his Jewish background to avoid persecution by the fervently Catholic Spanish monarchs. This hypothesis is not far-fetched, given the plight of Spanish Jews even before their eventual expulsion. In fact, in 1391, an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 Jews were killed in pogroms across various cities, with the Jewish community of Seville being almost entirely wiped out.

Image credits: Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo via creazilla.com and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.