The Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition is the hypothesis of the existence of a series of myths and fabrications about the Spanish Inquisition used as propaganda against the Spanish Empire in a time of strong military, commercial and political rivalry between European powers, starting in the 16th century.

Its proponents argue that its roots date back to the 16th century, when Spain's European rivals were seeking, by political and psychological means, to demonize the Spanish Empire, its people, and its culture, minimize Spanish discoveries and achievements, and counter its influence and power in world affairs. [1][2][3]

Primarily associated with criticism of 16th-century Spain and the anti-Protestant policies of King Philip II (reigned 1556–98), the term was popularized by the Spanish historian Julián Juderías in his book La Leyenda Negra (1914; “The Black Legend”). The Black Legend remained particularly strong in the United States throughout the 19th century.

2023年2月11日 · In the late 16th century, Spanish political exiles such as Gonzalez Montano and the infamous Antonio Perez, former secretary of Philip II, fueled the flames of the Black Legend. The European media lapped up the sensational anti-Spanish propaganda.

2013年8月5日 · In the entire sixteenth century, the Inquisition in Spain executed only about 50 people, which is contrary to the “Black Legend,” which numbers the executions in the hundreds of thousands. Of all the Inquisitions together throughout Europe, scholars estimate that the number of people executed ranged somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000.

This chapter examines the history of Spain and the Inquisition in relation to the Black Legend. It argues that contrary to Black Legend propaganda, the Spanish Inquisition was a modern institution and that Spain was an emerging modern nation.

The "Black Legend" of the Spanish Inquisition is a movement meant to make the Kingdom of Spain look bad. In short, the "Black Legend" states that the Spaniards demonstrated barbarity and cruelty through their violent attempt to suppress religious dissidents.

The Inquisition Myth, which Spaniards call “The Black Legend,” did not arise in 1480. It began almost 100 years later, and exactly one year after the Protestant defeat at the Battle of Muhlberg at the hands of Ferdinand’s grandson, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

2001年4月23日 · It is this post-Reformation anti-Catholic “black legend” that created the myths surrounding the Spanish Inquisition. Serious historical studies in the 20th Century have debunked these myths, but they continue to persist in popular imagination.

2024年4月9日 · The Black Legend—the representation of Spaniards and the Spanish Empire as cruel and intolerant—first emerged in response to accounts of Spanish abuses during the sixteenth-century conquest period.