"only 2% resulted in execution, and they were one of the first institutions to dismiss confessions obtained via torture" Wow, Spanish Inquisition, I gotta admit I didn't expect that.

Everybody expects the “nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” jokes

Spanish Inquisition: 2% of our trials result in the death penalty Joe Stalin: You Gotta Pump Those Numbers Up, Those Are Rookie Numbers

One of the biggest eye openers for me was learning that not only was the Spanish Inquisition not as bad as I had always been lead to believe, but that there was a French Inquisition and it was apparently a *bloodbath*

"Most People expected the Spanish Inquisition" The Internet: Unfortunately for you, History will not see it that way.

"My time in Spain - Was tortured - They took my stuff - Lovely food 3/10" LOL

Plus, persecution of witchcraft was banned in 1604 after the only major witchcraft trial held in Spain in Zugarramundi (near the French border, not a coincidence), torture was practised only through three methods that could never draw blood, mutilate or permanently damage the individual, the accused could not be tortured for periods of more than 1 hour and 15 minutes, and confessions uttered via torture had to be confirmed. In the Americas, only Spanish people were held accountable to the inquisition, leading to people bribing authorities to change their status from Spanish or mestizo to Indigenous to avoid being tried and there were numerous cases of prisoners in civil jails blaspheming to be transported to Inquisitorial jails, which were notably more lenient.

It's an interesting note that the spanish inquisition became famous mainly because protestant kingdoms didn't have an institution with that name. Although they did the same things, they made sure quite successfully that the spaniards were acknowledged as the worst of all. Truth is other kingdoms committed the very same tortures and kills, and in some cases in greater numbers than the spanish institution. Good examples are the baltic crusades carried by Denmark, Sweden and Germany, the cathars massacres in France, the executions of catholics in protestant countries, or the witchhunts Europe-wide based on the german book Malleus Maleficarium.

"The Spanish Inquisition gives a month of notice" Ahh the spanish bureaucracy, being a pain in the ass to the spanish people since ancient times until these days.

Good to know that the Spanish Inquisition had standards.

Thing about witch hunting was that, while the Church generally didn't believe witchcraft was real, they still saw it as a sin/crime to attempt to perform witchcraft. Their reasoning was, chanting a spell won't actually curse someone, but if you chant a spell BELIEVING that it will curse someone, you're still guilty of ATTEMPTING to do wrong. Like how, if you fire a gun at someone intending to kill them, it's attempted murder, even if it turns out that (unbeknownst to you) the gun was unloaded, so your victim was never in actual danger.

Glad to see an English spoken channel non biased and doing a proper investigation about this matter.

"How do you know that she is a witch?" "WHY SHE TURNED ME INTO A NEWT!" "A newt?" "I got better."

Spanish inquisition tortured and burned less people in 300 years than the english and the dutch in 10 year. And thats a fact. So much black legend here.

The Spanish inquisition has also been thought to be that bad because of the dark legend ( leyenda negra ) a series of misconceptions about Spain in general made by, at the time, enemies of Spain. Very few people now about this.

Alternate title: How Unexpected was the Spanish Inquisition

2:38 "And their torture was less severe." Get... The Comfy Chair!

Everybody doesn't expect the Spanish Inquisition, but nobody expect the PORTUGUESE Inquisition.

In Mexico the Spanish inquisition actually helped the natives and converted us really successfully. The inquisition treated us better than the castizos back in spain some time cause of how brutal the Spanish governors in Mexico were

I still love the fact that any extreme torture depicted on this channel will only have a reaction of mild annoyance from its victim

Fining people for making false accusations seems pretty sensible!

People tend to forget that torture was considered an expected and normal part of the legal process for thousands of years at this point, some cultures wouldn't even accept admissions of guilt unless they were obtained through torture.

Thank you for bringing the unfair reputation of the spanish inequisition to the forefront. It's true that their practices should be compared to existing practices at the time, not today's practices.

I can see why the Spanish Inquisition would disregard any confessions from someone who was being tortured realizing that people will say anything to get the pain to stop. Which is exactly what happened to the Templars Knights.

- Was tortured - They took my stuff + Lovely food 3/10 God I love your channel

I love that, in an essentially serious history video, they felt it necessary to address Monty Python’s famous “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

Short, Objective, and put things into perspective. Becoming a huge fan of yours! keep posting!

1:28 the "well" joke got me good NGL

i remember reading somewhere awhile ago that it was a somewhat common practice in iberia at the time to claim to be possessed when accused of a crime, for it prompted your case to get sent to the inquisition and they were seen as more lenient and less prone to death sentences due to (generally) not being alligned to local nobles/burghers (who might have influence over the common court and screw you if given reason.) If you were catholic, of course.

History matters: the Spanish inquisition was expected Me: *visible confusion*

I remember watching a television program on the Spanish Inquisition once that made a point about how it wasn't as bad as everyone seems to think it was. But since the program was aired on a Catholic-specific television station, I wasn't sure if the channel was just trying to whitewash it or not. Thanks for confirming.

Thank you for pointing out that historical events need to be understood within the context of their times.

I love how everyone getting burned alive in your videos just looks mildly annoyed. Like “oh, this again” 🙄

Witchcraft trials were rare even in supposed 'hotspots' and of those most of the people accused were released. The whole period gets majorly exaggerated in modern times.

Great video that shed some light about the real Inquisition. I would have added some cultural aspects that impacted on today's Spanish thought and culture. One of the Inquisition's main responsibilities was the cultural alignment of literature to the Catholic dogma. For instance, those books containing too much fantasy were no favoured by the censorship. During the Middle Ages, it was common finding fantasy books about the Arthuric legends, but from the establishment of the Inquistion onwards, they gradually vanished. The story of Don Quixote reflects the above mentioned fact. Who is the main character interested in bringing don Quixote back to reality? Right, the priest. Was it a metaphor written by Cervantes? Probably he did it unconsciously. What it is uncontestable is that no Spanish author could have ever produced such a fantasy book as Harry Potter. Magical realism surged in the only area where the intervention of the Inquisition on society was testimonial: the West Indies.

I thought I liked this channel but after they actually bother to research for this topic, in which everyone just exposes popular folklore without attempting to investigate the truth behind what they say. Now this channel is between the few ones that has my attention and in which I expect not to be fooled. So basically thank you for your integrity

Good video: I'm stunned that there are some people who seriously believe that the Spanish Inquisition burned tens of millions of people (no exaggerating, at least two people I have encountered genuinely believe this). There was a great BBC time watch documentary called "The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition" which gives a true picture of the reality of the Inquisition. Based on their records, it is estimated that 3000 people were executed by the Spanish Inquisition over a 300 year period. Make no mistake, that's 3000 too many, but to make a near contemporary comparison Henry VIII is estimated to have executed around 10,000 people during his 38 year reign.

When you had a trial by the inquisition, it was more likely that you would get a fair trial, considering the times. But if you had a trail by secular authorities, whatever the country, things would be always manipulated against you (manipulated in favour of the one in power). They would torture till the accused confessed although he didn't commit the thing he was accused of. On the contrary, the inquisition, most of the times, tried to search for the truth of the matter. And no. Joan of Arc wasn't judged by the inquisition. There were some pro-England corrupt and bought clergy-men involved (but not from the inquisition), and also secular authorities. It was a sham. They needed an excuse for her to be put to death. A political move. No much time later, the inquisition made a revision of the case, and they found out all the brutal irregularities, and they officially declared it was a false trial. And she was canonized (made saint). This was like a few decades later, IIRC. Witch trials were more of a Modern Era thing. And they happened a bit more in northern protestant countries. The problem was printing press. The book Malleus Malleficarum got viral, even when the church officially considered it a bad book (prohibited), but it was too late, printing press made it viral (that was a new phenomenon). So witch trials were condenmed by church authorities, but they happened (not so frequently as people now believe they did) in towns with mass hysteria and small secular authorities who had read the book.

Spain: hey babe time for your every week inquisition Spaniards: yes honey

Reminds me of "The Great Noise" in Sweden, were rampant accusations of witchcraft lasted for a few years, but some towns lost 30% of their entire population to execution.

"They definitely expected it" You just gotta ruin the best monty python skit, didnt you?

Monty Python: No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! History Matters: Well yes but actually no.

Thank you for this. I just came back from Ted-Ed's video about the Spanish Inquisition and saw them just repeat the usual myths associated with the Spanish Inquisition.

Thank you. To answer a question on social media I couldn't think of my favourite "silliest joke that only makes you laugh." It's at 0:51 on the left. In the Spanish Inquisition sketch, Terry Jones's mitre was a leather WW1 flying helmet, and he was called Cardinal Biggles.

Nobody expects the relative leniency of the Spanish Inquisition, expect for maybe 16th Century Spaniards

I like how people burning at the stake only ever have a slight look of disappointment on their face.

History Matters, I very like your videos. You are doing them really fun. informative and its usefull. But i would like to ask you - can you make in future a video about Czechoslovak legions? It would be interesting for most of the viewers

I love this channel! Good job guys

I'M very very glad about this episode, since I think that fairly recent research (especially ones done by Heny Kramer into the Inquisition's archives) revealed many of these misconceptions, but so far it has failed to materialise in public intellectual thought.

As a Spaniard, thanks for this.

I was browsing through History Matters' videos but I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.

Wasn’t expecting you to make this video.

No one expects the socio-polical-economic factors that lead to the Spanish Inquisition!

Finally someone sheds some truth! I did a history paper on the Spanish inquisition during High school. It was mainly a focus on the social impact of the inquisition but I did mention how they weren't as bad as people like to think. Big problem is that every time I mention that they aren't as bad as commonly depicted. I get labeled as a religious extremist.

You should give some numbers (more than % or % to apply to a total numbers) ! We had around 100 to 500 executions. For comparaison for this time : In England, each year, they executed twice what the inquisition did in 100 years ....

Let’s just get this out the way, “Nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!” Right now no more Monty Python references.

"You have been accused of Heresy!" "What? I protest this accusation!" "So you admit to being a protestant?" "What? No, I mean.....just take the money......"

People are making Monty Python jokes, while I’m here humming Mel Brooks’ “The Inquisition” song

I may have expected the Spanish Inquisition, but I did not expect the Spanish Inquisition to have standards. Great information.

I didn't expect this video to be in my recommendations.

Read some Rodney Stark on this subject: the tougher authorities were the civil authorities; the Catholic Dominicans frequently were able to avoid imposing the harsher penalties. The civil authorities were concerned about political subversion, while the Church was concerned for the souls of the accused. Two very different objectives, sadly linked together.

Nobody expected a video about the spanish Inquisition!

I saw this in my recommended I honestly did not except this

Now this is a video I didn't expect to see in my recommended.

History Matters, Thank you very much for putting the Spanish Inquisition into context of it’s time period. Many documentaries that talk about the Spanish Inquisition seem to leave that out, instead comparing the Spanish Inquisition to modern times. Also, little bonus history fact. In the vast majority of cases an inquisitor was not a full time job. In most cases when there was an accusation of heresy, a local priest would be temporarily given the title of inquisitor. After the inquisitor finished the investigation, he would then go back to being a priest.

Frankly, I didn't expect this video. Good job. 👍

This is weird, only ten comments in the ten days since it was posted? Was there a massive comment purge?

Next video: How Scary was the Red Scare?

No one expects a fair overview of the Spanish Inquisition!

“Well” *inserts well transition*

I missed the part comparing the trial of witches in Spain to those trials of witches held Germany and Switzerland.

1:30 “Well” a actual well lol

I wasn't expecting to see this in my feed.

I was not expecting a history video on this topic...

Well, looks like History Matters expected Spanish Inquisition.

I love how the guys in the first few frames are literally the Monty Python crew.

I did not expect this episode in my feed

When Santander (a Spanish bank) took over Alliance Leicester in around 2011, I was chatting with a bank employee, who was very surprised as the news was just announced. I retorted, "No-one expects the Spanish acquisition." Funny at the time.

90% of early comments. Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!

Love your work! Also please make more videos on Spain under Philip II as that is module for my History A-Levels, and your videos are the only thing that help me to remember specific detail ;)

2:47 NOBODY EXPECTED THAT!

I don't know who you are, Spinning Three Plates, but just know that I appreciate you for being an amazing patron supporter.

"how long will it go before the reference?" - I think, clicking on the video answer: the very first frame.

Last time I was this early the Spanish Inquisition jokes weren’t terrible.

Thank you for bursting the bubble of the Black Legend. Yes, it was brutal by modern standards but nowhere as bad as by its time's, which is how History should be considered altogether. The propaganda labor led by the English, French, Dutch and even Italians, as historian Elvira Roca Varea has published in several books, has exaggerated a reputation out of any proportion and I'm glad people are taking matters into their own hands to educate others better. Thank you!

never expected this video on my reccomendations!

"How unexpectable was the spanish inquisition really?"

Anglo propaganda, as almost everything during those times towards France and Spain

I imagine, though, that the Spanish Inquisition didn't mind a reputation for ruthlessness, seeing that it probably made people more willing to confess up front.

The "well" running joke always gets me.

"lovely food" killed me xD Thanks for the nice laugh after work💚

I love how the one being burned at the stake has his eyes half closed as if to say "Really guys? Really?".

why was i expecting for a Warhammer 40k reference since this is an inquisition video.. i didn't expect that one :)

"Or were, god forbid, a protestant" lmao

me: i am so tired i am going to sleep now *history matters posted a new video* also me: i think i have another 5 minutes

Spanish inquisition: 'Burns the heretics in a fire.' Monty Python,the true historians of our time: 'HAHA TORTURE BY SOFT PILLOWS!'

I wasn't expecting this video

I wasn't expecting this!

Spanish Inquisition: I'm the most *feared thing*... KGB: *Hold my vodka*...

So the Comfy Chair was more historically accurate then one would expect?