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Events on Saturday 4 April 1609 1
1609Expulsion of the Moriscos decreedPhilip III orders Spain's Muslim-descended converts expelledOn 4 April 1609 King Philip III of Spain decreed the expulsion of the Moriscos, descendants of Muslims converted to Christianity, from the kingdom. Over the following years hundreds of thousands were deported to North Africa, often with great loss of life. The expulsion marked the end of centuries of Muslim presence on the Iberian Peninsula.