GONZALO, MARTINEZ (also called Martin de las Castillas):
A poor Spanish knight who was promoted to high offices through the instrumentality of Joseph de Ecija, in whose service he was. Hebrought charges against his master and against Samuel ibn Waḳar before King Alfonso XI. (1312-60), and both were ruined and soon afterward met their death. When he became minister and grandmaster of the Order of Alcantara, he conceived the idea of exterminating all the Jews of Castile, directing his attacks first against two prominent Jews, Moses Abudiel and Ibn Ya'ish, who, however, maintained themselves in the king's favor by means of large gifts of money. When in 1339 Abu al-Ḥasan of Morocco sent an army to conquer Castile, Gonzalo proposed that the Jews be expelled and their fortunes confiscated. On account of its inexpediency this plan was opposed, especially by D. Gil de Albornoz, Archbishop of Toledo. Gonzalo led the king's troops against the Moroccan commander 'Abd al-Malik, who was put to flight. But shortly after this Gonzalo was overthrown by the help of the king's mistress, Leonora de Guzman. He fled and entrenched himself in a tower, but was forced to surrender; in 1340 he was burned at the stake and his fortune was confiscated.
- Joseph b. Ẓaddiḳ, in M. J. C. p. 97;
- Shebeṭ Yehudah, ed. Wiener, pp. 30 et seq.;
- Zacuto, Yuḥasin, ed. Filipowski, p. 224a;
- Grätz, Gesch. vii. 341 et seq.
