Hernando de Talavera was a Spanish monk of the Order of Saint Jerome, of converso origins, who became archbishop of Granada and confessor of Queen Isabela.
Background
According to the accusations raised against him by the Spanish, Hernando de Talavera was the son of the Lord of Oropesa, a province of Toledo, related to the Great Master of the Military Order of Santiago and the bastard son of a Jewish mother, fathered by King Alfonso XI of Castile.
Education
Around 1458, Hernando graduated in Theology from Salamanca University, becoming a Prior of the Monastery of Prado near Valladolid and Royal Confessor of the ruling Queen Isabel I of Castile (1474–1504).
Career
Hernando de Talavera was also Financial Administrator of the Salamanca Bishopric (1483–1485), the Bishop of Avila (1485–1492), and Archbishop of Granada (1493–1507), which was established after the conquest of the Moorish Moorish Emirate of Granada. Wyn Hernando may have been the son of Don García, Lord of Talavera de la Reina, born around 1370 who died in 1429 with Royal Hebrew blood. Hernando may instead have been the son of Don Fernando, born around 1390, who would have had a relationship with a Hebrew woman from Oropesa, near Talavera de la Reina, and who would have been promoted to 1st Count of Oropesa after 1475 by Queen Isabel.
There are other "Álvarez de Toledo" families, related to the actual Duchess of Alba, however, who seem to escape such familial slander brought about at the time concerning Archbishop Don Hernando de Talavera, also known as Hernando de Oropesa.
He preferred the "reasoned" preaching and appropriate schooling of children, a line strongly disapproved by the Inquisitors and many of the Lords of the newly conquered lands. This reinforced suspicious of his background and in his perceived attachment to his alleged ancestors.
By 1499, Cisneros" forced conversions breached the Royal truce agreements on respecting the beliefs of the submitted non-Christian peoples, mainly traders and farmers, stimulating an armed opposition that was quickly and repeatedly crushed. Inquisitor Diego Rodríguez Lucero, pushed by Archbishop Hernando, sent orders of prison with genealogical inquiries on Don Hernando´s ancestors in 1505 to Rome, one year after Queen Isabel had died.
Pope Julius II della Rovere (1443 - Pope 1503 - 1513), however, ordered his release and the cessation of harassment to Hernando"s family in 1507, the year of the Archbishop"s death.
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