During the fourteenth century another De Sola distinguished himself fighting under the Infante of Aragon and figured conspicuously in the Spanish wars of that period. During the succeeding centuries the family continued to hold an illustrious place, owing to the large number of eminent scholars, physicians and statesmen it produced. Their fortunes, however, changed when King Ferdinand, having by the conquest of Granada destroyed the last vestige of Moorish power in Spain, decided to drive therefrom all who did not conform to the dominant faith; and in 1492 was promulgated the terrible edict of expulsion, which, at one blow, deprived hundreds of thousands of Spain’s most intelligent and industrious inhabitants of happy and prosperous homes. The De Solas took refuge in Holland, but a branch of the family continued to hold business connections with Lisbon, and eventually some of them settled in the Portuguese capital, where they amassed much wealth. Watched by the Inquisition, they, like many other Portuguese Jews, for some time evaded the danger by assuming to become Marannos or Nuevos Christianos--as converted Jews were styled--while they secretly remained loyal to Judaism. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, however, suspicion was directed towards them, and David de Sola (who to elude his persecutors had assumed the name of Bartolome) was apprehended and charged with having relapsed into Judaism. Although placed under the most fearful torture nothing seems to have been proved, as he was allowed to afterwards go free; but he was physically broken down by his terrible sufferings. Escape from the country by a suspect was then extremely difficult, but in the next generation his son, Aaron de Sola, managed to secure refuge on board a British man-of-war and to make good his escape with his family to England; not, however, before two of his relatives had been imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death at an auto-da-fé, by the Inquisition, for secret adherence to Judaism.
It was in 1749 that Aaron de Sola fled with his wife and family to England, and now that they were freed from the terrors of the Inquisition they openly avowed once more their loyalty to the faith of their fathers. From England they took passage for Holland, where they rejoined their relatives, and taking up their residence in Amsterdam they soon again rose to distinction in the various learned professions.