JUDAH (known also as Thesoureiro Mor Judah):

By: Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling

Treasurer to Ferdinand, King of Portugal; appointed in 1378. After the king's death he became the favorite of his queen, Leonora de Meneyes, whom he accompanied as a page when she was obliged to flee from the infuriated populace of Lisbon. The deposed queen requested her son-in-law John I. of Castile, who had made war upon Portugal, to bestow the chief rabbinate of Castile (not of Portugal, as Grätz says) upon Judah; John, however, at the instance of his young wife, Beatrice, gave the office to Judah's rival, David Negro-Yaḥya. Thereupon the crafty Leonora hired a count to kill her daughter's husband, then besieging Coimbra. But the plot failed; the king was informed of it by David Negro, of his suite, who had been warned by a Franciscan monk. Leonora, Judah, and a maid who was in the conspiracy were immediately arrested. Brought before the king, Judah disclosed everything in presence of Queen Beatrice, David Negro, and a notary, and repeated his confession before Leonora. The last-named was banished to Tordesillas; Judah, whose wife was the sister of a wealthy man by the name of David Alguadez, a relative of Meïr Alguadez, was condemned to death, but was pardoned at the intercession of David Negro. He fled to Castile, accompanied by Judah and Moses Nahum, his tax-collectors. His treasures were given by John I. of Portugal to Gonçalo Rodriguez de Abreu, and his houses and other possessions to the widow of the brave king Pereira.

G. M. K.