The Dark Trienium: Valencia, 1389-1391. Unrest coinciding with an assault on the Jewish district

Abstract

This document-based study examines the rise of anti-Semitism beginning in 1371 and the assault on the Jewish district of Valencia in July 1391, shortly after its extension. It situates the violence in the context of political tensions in the Crown of Aragon and in the city of Valencia, where different factions clashed: the actions of the Inquisitor Nicolau Eimerich (Directorium inquisitorum) against heretics and his condemnation of the work of Ramon Llull; the Cortes of 1388-1389; wars in the Pyrenees in 1390; the politics of the city of Valencia’s supply and defence and the kingdom’s towns’ and nobles’ opposition to the capital’s municipality, which armed a mounted militia in May 1391; the repression of delinquents and means of immediate pacification after the assault on the Jewish district.