Gracia Mendes Nasi - Marriage

Marriage

In 1528, Beatrice de Luna Gracia married the very rich black pepper trader Francisco Mendes Benveniste who belonged to the same very prominent Jewish family as her mother - Benveniste from Castile and Aragon. He was the great grandson of Don Abraham Benveniste of Castile. She never went by her husband's name of Mendes or Benveniste, although many historians have since called her Gracia Mendes, based on the modern notion of names. According to Spanish customs, Spanish women retain their own names, even after marriage. The couple were believed to have been married in the great cathedral of Lisbon, in a public Catholic wedding, and then to have had a Crypto-Judaic ceremony with the signing of a ketubah. Francisco Mendes (originally Benveniste) directed, along with his brother Diogo, a powerful trading company and bank of world repute with agents across Europe and around the Mediterranean. The House of Mendes/Benveniste probably began as a company trading precious objects and currency arbitrage. Following the beginning of the Age of Discovery and the finding, by the Portuguese, of a sea route to India, they became particularly important spice traders. They also traded in silver - the silver was needed to pay the Asians for those spices.