Who was the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain?

The first Grand Inquisitor of Spain was Tomás de Torquemada. A Dominican friar and royal confessor, he was appointed to lead the Spanish Inquisition in 1483, five years after Pope Sixtus IV authorized its creation under Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

Torquemada organized the tribunal into a centralized institution and helped establish inquisitorial courts in cities including Seville, Córdoba, Jaén, and Ciudad Real. He also promoted policies against Jewish and Muslim converts suspected of secretly continuing their former faiths.

A common mix-up is Diego de Deza, who succeeded Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor in 1498. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros held the office later, while Pedro de Arbués was an inquisitor in Aragon, not Spain’s first Grand Inquisitor. Torquemada remained in office until his death in 1498.