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Under Manuel the public administration was increasingly centralized. A committee of royal officials revised town charters granted by previous rulers, standardized local privileges, and rationalized taxes. In 1515 Manuel ordered his council to revise the code of laws: his Ordenações Manuelinas were issued in 1512 and revised in 1521. The judiciary was enlarged, and royal corregedores were appointed to all districts. This carried forward the process of neo-Roman absolutism and assured the rise of the judicial class. Manuel also excepted the church and the military orders of knighthood from certain obligations. He severely punished those responsible for the massacre of Jews in 1506. Manuel married Eleanor of Austria, sister of the emperor Charles V, in 1518, and had one daughter by this marriage. He died at Lisbon in 1521 and was buried in the Jerónimos monastery.
His three queens were Spanish. The first was Isabella, eldest daughter of cosovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella and widow of John II’s heir. As a condition of the marriage, Manuel was to expel theJews many thousands of whom had been admitted by John II on their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Thus in December 1496 Manuel ordered Jews and free Muslims to quit Portugal within 10 months. On their assembly in Lisbon, every attempt was made to force their conversion. Some were allowed to leave, but the rest were “converted” under the promise that no inquiry should be made into their beliefs for 20 years.