The Expulsion of the Moriscos (, ) was decreed by King Philip III of Spain on April 9, 1609. The Moriscos were descendants of Spain's Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile or death from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502. Fighting wars in the Americas, and feeling threatened by the Turks raiding along the Spanish coast, it seems the expulsions were a reaction to a perceived internal problem of the stretched Spanish Empire. Between 1609 through 1614, the Crown systematically expelled the Moriscos through a number of expulsion orders in Spain's various kingdoms, meeting varying levels of success.