Tomás de Torquemada

"You dare to lecture me? I am the hammer of heretics, the light of España, the honor of my order. I follow none but God's command."

- Torquemada to Ezio Auditore da Firenze, 1492.

Tomás de Torquemada (1420 – 1498) was a Spanish friar, the first Inquisitor General of Spain, confessor to Isabella I of Castile, and a member of the Templar Order.

Under influence of Rodrigo Borgia, Grand Master of the Italian Templars and Papal candidate, Torquemada opposed the Spanish Assassin Brotherhood, persecuting them as part of the Spanish Inquisition.

Biography
In 1491, Tomás de Torquemada served Rodrigo Borgia, whom he greatly admired, so much so that Rodrigo provided him with a list of names of people who had to be executed. Believing them to be heretics, Tomás had his men capture and prepare them for execution; Torquemada was not aware of the fact that Rodrigo Borgia had used him as a tool to kill the Spanish Assassins.

However, the Assassins Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Raphael Sánchez attempted to prevent the executions and killed Gaspar Martínez, who was to oversee the first of such on an Assassin in Barcelona.

Sometime later, Torquemada visited Pedro Llorente, the Inquisition's Calficador, in Zaragoza; here, the two men oversaw the execution of another of the Assassins. However, Ezio Auditore overheard their conversation and discovered that the names had been provided by Rodrigo Borgia, causing him to decide on assassinating Pedro Llorente as soon as Torquemada had left.

Torquemada then traveled to the besieged city of Granada, where he met with Juan de Marillo and ordered him to round up all heretics in the city. This never happened, as Ezio managed to assassinate Juan without anyone noticing.

Not long after that, Ezio made his way through Torquemada's castle in an attempt to find out how much he knew of the Templar Order, and whether or not he was a Templar himself. Ezio confronted him, but Torquemada denied any knowledge of a Templar conspiracy. He then lowered a gate and managed to escape from the Assassin.

After his encounter with Ezio, Torquemada was officially inducted into the Templar Order. He used the Inquisition to root out those manipulating the faith for their own gain. He favored the auto-de-fe, a public execution by burning alive for those who crossed the Inquisition. Despite the threat of violence, he would be challenged by Aguilar de Nerha and the Spanish Assassins.

Torquemada was nonetheless eventually killed by the Assassins on 16 September 1498.

Trivia

 * Crawford Starrick, Grand Master of the British Templars around 1868, owned a portrait of Tomás de Torquemada.
 * Torquemada will be played by Javier Gutiérrez in the Assassin's Creed movie.