El gran secreto : El origen judío de la nobleza española

For centuries, Spanish society was built on a fiction: that of purity of blood. While the Inquisition persecuted the descendants of Jews and statutes of purity of blood conditioned their access to power, many of the most influential families of the Hispanic Monarchy concealed precisely those origins they despised. In *The Great Secret*, Enrique Soria Mesa unveils the hidden origins of Spain's most powerful families. Based on monumental research in archives, genealogies, and noble court cases, Soria Mesa reconstructs the trajectory of lineages that rose from the status of converts to occupy the pinnacle of society. From Ferdinand the Catholic to the Dukes of Alba; from the great families of the old nobility to the highest positions in the administration, the Church, and the Inquisition itself; from marriage strategies and surname changes to the complex family networks that connected the elite of the Empire, a world of social advancement, hidden identities, and surprising contradictions emerges. The Great Secret is a fundamental work for understanding the true history of the Spanish nobility and the origins of the elites who governed the Hispanic Monarchy.