The Edict of Expulsion of the Sephardic Jews in Spain went public with the Alhambra Decree in April 1492. The charter declared that no Jews were permitted to remain within the Spanish Kingdom and Jews who wished to convert were welcome to stay. The power of the wealthy Spanish Jewry was inconsequential; whether a Jew was rich or poor did not matter, they all still had to convert or leave by orders of Grand Inquisitor Cardinal Tomas de Torquemada, an ally to King Fernando II de Aragón and Queen Isabel I de Castilla. In the faraway Ottoman Empire, Sultan Bayezid II, extended an immediate welcome to the persecuted Sephardim.
