Download PDF | Fernando Arias Guillén - The Triumph of an Accursed Lineage_ Kingship in Castile from Alfonso X to Alfonso XI (1252-1350)-Routledge (2020).
169 Pages
The Triumph of an Accursed Lineage analyses kingship in Castile between 1252 and 1350, with a particular focus on the pivotal reign of Alfonso XI (r. 1312–1350). This century witnessed significant changes in the ways in which the Castilian monarchy constructed and represented its power in this period. The ideas and motifs used to extoll royal authority, the territorial conceptualisation of the kingdom, the role queens and the royal family played, and the interpersonal relationship between the kings and the nobility were all integral to this process. Ultimately, this book addresses how Alfonso XI, a member of an accursed lineage who rose to the throne when he was an infant, was able to end the internal turmoil which plagued Castile since the 1270s and become a paradigm of successful kingship. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval Spain, as well as those interested in the history of kingship.
Fernando Arias Guillén is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the University of Valladolid, Spain. His research focuses on kingship in Castile, particularly during the reign of Alfonso XI (r. 1312–1350)
Acknowledgements
This book was made possible by the Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC2018- 025440-I) I was awarded by the Spanish Government, the research project El ejercicio del poder: espacios, agentes y escrituras (siglos XI-XV) (ref. HAR2017- 84718-P) which I am part of, and the programme MOVILIDAD INVESTIGADORES UVa-BANCO SANTANDER 2019, which funded my research stay in Madrid in March 2019. I also want to thank the Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid), the Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza (Toledo), the Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid), Patrimonio Nacional, and the Archivo Municipal de Toledo for allowing me to use images of their fantastic privilegios rodados, the Compendio de crónica de reyes, and of the famous sculpture of Santiago del Espaldarazo (Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos) in this book. I am most grateful to Ana Rodríguez. Her encouragement and feedback helped me immensely when writing the first draft of this book, and her comments and suggestions have always been poignant and useful. There is also a long list of friends and colleagues from St Andrews, Vitoria, Zaragoza, and Valladolid with whom I have had the opportunity to discuss some, and in some cases all, of the topics analysed in this work and whose observations, remarks, questions, and support have been of enormous value: Guillermo Tomás, Ekaitz Etxeberría, Chris Given-Wilson, Simon MacLean, John Hudson, José Ramón Díaz de Durana, Jon Andoni Fernández de Larrea, Juanjo Larrea, Ernesto Pastor, Francesca Tinti, Pascual Martínez Sopena, Carlos Reglero, Mario Lafuente, Álvaro Sanz, and Mauricio Herrero.
I am indebted to all of them for their help. In the case of Mauricio Herrero, I am also thankful that he and Francisco Molina allowed me to use the picture of Alfonso XI’s royal seal they took at the monastery of Las Huelgas in Valladolid. I also want to thank the two reviewers, for their salient comments and suggestions, and Michael Greenwood and Stewart Beale from Routledge and the team at River Editorial for their editorial work. I am very thankful to Jeremy Roe, who corrected my English on countless occasions and gave me very poignant feedback. The maps were made by Rubén Cascado, to whom I am most grateful. I would also like to thank Nieves Osorio, the secretary of the Departamento de Historia Antigua y Medieval de la Universidad de Valladolid, for her invaluable help throughout this project. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Modesto and Lola, my sister, Alicia, and the rest of my family for their relentless support. My wife, Anna Peterson, occupies a special place among this group. Like always, she helped me improve my English and made both witty and useful comments when reading parts of the book. More importantly, she makes life better. This book is dedicated to her.
Notes on names, places, and terms
Throughout the book, I use the modern Spanish version of the names of the kings and other individuals from Castile. Likewise, I use the modern English, Portuguese, and French names of the English, Portuguese, and French monarchs, respectively. In the case of the rulers of Granada and the Marinid Sultanate, I use their transliterated names. When referring to the Aragonese kings, I use their Catalan names and start counting from the union of Aragón and Catalonia under the same ruler. This numeration was acknowledged by the kings themselves at the time, and it is the one used in the Archivo de la Corona de Aragón in Barcelona. The dates of the monarch’s reign are provided to avoid confusion. Queens’ names pose a difficult problem. In this case, I have opted to name them in the ‘language’ of the kingdom they moved to rather than the one they originally came from.
Therefore, I use Leonor to refer to Alfonso VIII’s wife and Eleanor when speaking about Alfonso X’s sister who became queen of England. In relation to places, I have used the English name in those Spanish locations which have an easily identifiable translation, such as Seville, Cordova, or Biscay. I have also decided to keep the accents in León and Aragón. Lastly, I would like to make a clarification on certain terms. I use royal privileges as a synonym of privilegios rodados many times, especially in Chapter 7. Although royal privileges did not necessarily have to be written in the form of a privilegio rodado, most of them were. In consequence, I thought it was acceptable to alternate both terms in order to avoid repetition. Additionally, I use the term retinue to refer to the kings’ or nobles’ close military entourage, although this does not mean that these troops constituted a professional, standing army.
Introduction Framing the reign of Alfonso XI (r. 1312–1350) as a successful version of his greatgrandfather Alfonso X’s (r. 1252–1284) is an old adage in the historiography of medieval Spain. Around 1345, Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid (d. c. 1362) wrote the cycle of chronicles, on the king’s orders, which developed this narrative by contrasting Alfonso XI’s successful kingship with the tumultuous reigns of his predecessors. The modern historiography shares this view. The prevailing interpretation is that it was during the reign of Alfonso XI when Alfonso X’s ambitious reforms finally came to fruition, thanks to the former’s realpolitik regarding the relationship between the Castilian monarchy and the kingdom’s elite.1 Consequently, Alfonso XI is emblematic of the ‘strong king’ archetype: a monarch who combined military prowess and ruling skills.
Surprisingly, the reign of Alfonso XI remains an understudied period. Alfonso X has attracted much-deserved attention from scholars for decades, including two authoritative biographies on Alfonso X3 and a biennial journal, Alcanate, devoted to Alfonsine studies.4 More recently, monographs on his legal reforms and cultural endeavours have labelled the Wise King as the ‘Justinian of his Age’ 5 and a ‘Renaissance Prince’. 6 By contrast, the reigns of Sancho IV (r. 1284–1295), Fernando IV (r. 1295–1312), and Alfonso XI had not received the same favour, which is particularly striking in the case of Alfonso XI’s crucial rule. There are obviously some works devoted to these kings and aspects of their reigns, which will be explored below. For instance, my own research on Alfonso XI has discussed the importance warfare had in strengthening royal authority during his rule.7 However, it is necessary to analyse Alfonso’s impact in a wider context, both thematically and chronologically. There is a noticeable lack of general large-scale studies and monographs, especially in English, and those that do exist are substantially flawed, such as José SánchezArcilla’s biography of Alfonso XI, published in 1995,8 which was accurately reviewed by Manuel González Jiménez as a ‘missed opportunity’. 9 Similarly, César González Mínguez’s recent monograph on royal authority and the nobility in Castile during this period provides a very outdated interpretation of kingship that ignores the substantial changes the field has experienced in the past three decades.10 This book, therefore, analyses the significant metamorphosis kingship experienced in Castile between 1252 and 1350, with a special focus on the pivotal reign of Alfonso XI. In doing so, it examines how royal power was constructed – by focusing on the interpersonal aspects of kingship, a facet of ruling which remained extremely important in the fourteenth century11 – and, especially, represented in this period. Consequently, there are four main topics which will be discussed: the representation of royal power, territoriality and kingship, the role played by the royal family in the ruling of the kingdom, and the relationship between the king and the nobility. While Castile is the main focus of this book, there are comparisons drawn with other Western European kingdoms such as France, England, Aragón, or Portugal. Kingship in Castile was idiosyncratic, but there were also obvious similarities with other kingdoms which are worth highlighting. Underscoring these commonalities and/or studying the reasons behind these differences serves to both expand the understanding of the topic while also dispel the idea of Castile’s exceptionalism. Ultimately, this book addresses how Alfonso XI, a member of an accursed lineage who rose to the throne when he was an infant, was able to restore royal authority and become a paradigm of successful kingship. These changes in kingship occur in parallel with the jurisdictional and institutional development of royal authority, a subject which itself requires an in-depth study. The century between 1252 and 1350 was characterised by the expansion of royal government.12 For instance, there were two major developments in royal taxation in this period: the creation of the servicios (direct tax) in 1269, and the generalisation of the alcabalas (tax on trade) in 1342. The latter became the major source of revenue for the Castilian monarchy in the Late Middle Ages.13 Likewise, there was substantial administrative development at the central and local level, and a noticeable expansion of royal justice.14 These topics have been widely studied, so they will only be addressed when it is pertinent to the argument; however, it is important to remember that the changes kingship experienced in Castile during this period occurred against the backdrop of the growth of the regnal state.15 In a similar vein, the relationship between the Castilian monarchy and the Church will not be discussed. This topic has been covered extensively by Peter Linehan and José Manuel Nieto Soria, among others.16 The representation of kingship in Castile is a thematic thread woven throughout this work. Therefore, the examination of royal chronicles and the privilegios rodados, beautifully embellished privileges which were the ideal avenue for transmitting royal ideology because they were issued regularly by the royal chancery (see Images 0.1 and 0.2), are central to analysing how the Castilian monarchy understood and projected its power. More specifically, the motifs and ideas used by the kings to glorify their authority are at the centre of the argument in Chapter 1. This topic has received a lot of attention from scholars such as Peter Linehan,17 José Manuel Nieto Soria,18 and Jesús Rodríguez Velasco,19 to name just a few. Providing an exhaustive look at all the works produced on the orders of the Castilian monarchy and the ideas they portrayed to communicate their power would need its own monograph.
Therefore, I will focus on three key aspects: how was history written, especially the cycle of chronicles by Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid that were designed to be the ‘official’ version of the recent past; the ethos of the Reconquista and the chivalric ideal developed by the Castilian monarchy; and the debate regarding the sacred nature of kingship in Castile, especially its importance in law codes. In 1332, Alfonso XI crowned himself after being knighted by a statue of the Apostle St James, an event which neatly summarises the overlapping ideas used to extol kingship in this period. At the same time, his coronation reflects Alfonso XI’s desire to erase the ‘original sin’ of his family. Alfonso X cursed and disinherited his son Sancho for rebelling against him in 1282. Although he, as Sancho IV, acceded to the throne two years later, the continued existence of the sons of the infante Fernando de la Cerda (1255–1275), the Wise King’s first-born (see Appendices 1), cast doubts on his and his accursed lineage’s legitimacy to rule.
Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to territoriality and kingship. First, it examines the different realms and territories which comprised the domains of the Castilian kings after the extensive conquests of Fernando III (r. 1217–1252). Despite their diversity, these lands were increasingly seen as a united and indivisible entity, its boundaries and identity defined by the kings’ rule, a concept reflected in the term ‘la corona de sus regnos’. Similarly, the Castilian monarchy developed the notion of ‘naturaleza’, which considered that all the inhabitants of the kingdom were automatically obliged to serve the king as their ‘natural’ lord. Chapter 3 analyses the kings’ itineraries between 1252 and 1350. Unlike in other European kingdoms, the Castilian royal chancery did not settle down in one place until the very end of the Middle Ages.
This chapter shows that royal itineration was not the result of administrative underdevelopment, but a response to the very nature of kingship, as royal mobility and the physical presence of the monarch continued to be of great importance. Additionally, I discuss how Seville, Burgos, and Valladolid all shared the title of ‘capital’ of the kingdom, and why the legitimacy problems experienced by the Castilian kings of this period prevented the establishment of an uncontested royal mausoleum comparable to Westminster, Saint Denis, Poblet, or Batalha. Ruling was a corporate endeavour during the Middles Ages in which members of the royal family participated alongside the king.
This is why Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the idea of ‘plural monarchy’ 20 by exploring the role played by queens and other royal relatives in the ruling of the kingdom. Queenship in Castile-León has become a vibrant field in the recent years; however, most of the studies have concentrated on either the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth centuries,21 or on the fifteenth century.22 There are noteworthy works about Queen Violante (1236–1300), Alfonso X’s wife,23 and Queen María de Molina (c. 1261–1321), such as the recent studies by Patricia Rochwert-Zuili and Ángela Muñoz.24 However, there are no general works on queenship between 1252 and 1350. This chapter, therefore, analyses the ways in which queens participated in the kingdom’s ruling, from acting as diplomats and mediators to the importance of the lordships they held. In doing so, it also shows how queens cannot be reduced to royal agents, as their personal interests did not always coincide with the king’s.
Queen María de Molina was a crucial player during the minorities of Fernando IV and Alfonso XI; however, she faced significant opposition when she tried to exercise powers which went beyond the scope usually associated with queenship, a theme which is examined at length in this chapter. Additionally, in opposition to the traditional view, I argue that Leonor de Guzmán (1310–1351), Alfonso XI’s concubine, played a key role in the strengthening of royal power experienced during Alfonso XI’s reign, as she was expected to act as a parallel queen in what was the king’s de facto polygamy. Chapter 5 discusses infantes, the kings’ sons, and other male royal relatives such as Juan Manuel. As a whole, these individuals remain largely understudied, although there are some works related to Alfonso X’s brothers25 and Juan Manuel.26 The large number of male members of the royal family during the reign of Alfonso X created an unprecedented situation. In consequence, the Wise King, despite his initial reluctance, had to endow his brothers and younger sons with lordships originating from the royal demesne. Due to their power and prestige, the infantes became important political operators, especially as regents during the minorities of Fernando IV and Alfonso XI. Royal chronicles present these individuals as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, depending on the chroniclers’ inclinations and their standing with the king; however, their political role was more complex than that due to the problems of the competing loyalties to the king and the pursuit of their own personal ambitions. Juan Manuel faced a similar dilemma.
He was the son of the infante Manuel and grandson of Fernando III, and he became Alfonso XI’s nemesis due to his decade-long semi-permanent rebellion. More interestingly, Juan Manuel continued his conflict with the king in the realm of literature. The magnate’s numerous writings provide a fascinating view into his ideas regarding royal power and present a dissident history to the ‘official version’ offered by royal chronicles. In these writings, Juan Manuel and his father are the ‘true heirs’ of Fernando III, not the royal dynasty. Finally, it is argued that Alfonso XI used the conspicuous absence of male royal relatives to create a ‘new’ royal family with the offspring he and Leonor de Guzmán had, which became a pillar of his success. The last two chapters analyse the relationship between the king and the most prominent members of the nobility, the ricoshombres. Instead of perpetuating the traditional view, which opposed royal authority to seigneurial power and considered that the nobility dreaded the expansion of royal government, I argue that the strengthening of royal power should be interpreted as occurring in parallel with the consolidation of the magnates’ position. This process was obviously not exempt from tensions and conflicts: the nobles’ competed to benefit from royal patronage which led to factionalism and internal turmoil.27 The penultimate chapter examines the different ways in which the nobles benefitted from royal favour, such as receiving a salary from the king’s revenues, obtaining a royal office, and/or being granted a lordship. Although the lack of documentation makes it difficult to undertake an in-depth analysis, it is evident from the extant sources how the nobles benefitted from the expansion of royal government. The magnates were the main recipients of an increasingly growing royal taxation, sometimes exercising direct control over the revenues allocated to them. Additionally, the nobles’ territorial power became more formalised, as lordships received from the king started to include jurisdictional rights over the transferred lands. The second half of the chapter focuses on the conflicts of this period. First, it analyses the ways in which the nobles expressed dissent and their opposition to the king, with special attention paid to the notion of ‘desnaturarse’ (renunciation of personal ties to the king as one’s natural lord), which became increasingly more formalised in this period. Another aspect which changed during this period was the Castilian monarchy’s responses to rebel nobles.
The ricoshombres now feared that the king might order their assassination when they were in a disagreement.28 However, I argue that, despite the occasional homicide, kings favoured negotiated solutions to these conflicts.29 This chapter also explores the endemic nature of factionalism, which was exacerbated by nobles creating leagues to fight for control over royal patronage, and the rise of the privados; 30 royal favourites resented by the rest of the kingdom’s elite for their proximity to the king. Lastly, I analyse Alfonso XI’s successful kingship: by 1338, the king had temporarily ended the internal turmoil which had plagued Castile since the nobles’ rebellion of 1272 against Alfonso X. Chapter 7 delves into the idea that the process of strengthening of royal power was occurring in parallel to the nobles’ by studying the list of confirmers in the privilegios rodados. These were individuals included by the royal chancery in these documents because of their position or status between 1252 and 1350. The enormous potential of these diplomas has not been fully utilised by historians, as they have rarely been analysed systematically.31 The privilegios rodados offer a vantage point from which to examine the Castilian monarchy’s views on power and authority, as the wide dissemination of these documents made them perfect vehicles to transmit these ideas. Therefore, this chapter proposes an innovative approach to these diplomas: to study the annual evolution of the list of nobles who confirmed royal privileges between 1252 and 1350. Analysing all the confirmers in detail would require a monograph of its own; however, observing the changes in this list throughout this century, combined with a selection of representative case studies, offers meaningful results. The position of confirmer was a privilege almost exclusive of the ricoshombres – a sign of status within the kingdom’s elite. Nevertheless, this group significantly increased its size during this period, as secondary lineages were ‘promoted’ by the Castilian monarchy for their service to the king.
These ‘new’ families, however, encountered a ‘glass ceiling’: the top positions in the list of confirmers were the patrimony of the few most prestigious lineages such as the Lara, Haro, and Castro families. Moreover, it became increasingly more common that the sons of these powerful ricoshombres were included in the privilegios rodados along with their parents. Since the 1280s, the frequent presence of young children among the list of confirmers indicates that, unlike before, personal and familial status were more important than the ability to serve the king personally as a requirement to be included in this group. Although these privileges were mostly concerned with extolling the king’s authority, changes like this – together with the inclusion of the nobles’ patronymic and the lordships they held from 1272 onwards – reflect the growing power of the Castilian ricoshombres during this period. This idea is further developed by a brief account of the fortunes of the Lara family in this century informed by the royal chronicles and the privilegios rodados. Instead of presenting the history of this lineage as one of constant conflict with the Castilian monarchy until the line was extinguished, as Simon Doubleday’s nonetheless insightful monograph on the Laras suggests,32 a different interpretation is proposed.
The Laras’ support was fundamental to the Castilian monarchy throughout this period. Alfonso XI’s successful kingship did not mean the decline of this family. On the contrary, by the end of Alfonso XI’s reign, Juan Núñez III de Lara (d. 1350) was the kingdom’s most powerful magnate and enjoyed a position which his ancestors could not fathom. Between 1252 and 1350 the ways in which kingship was exercised and expressed underwent significant changes in Castile. In 1350, when Alfonso XI died of plague while laying siege to Gibraltar, the motifs used to glorify royal authority, the territorial conceptualisation of the kingdom, the definition and standing of the royal family, and the relationship between the king and the nobles were rather different than when Alfonso X was acclaimed king in the cathedral of Seville a century before. Some of these innovations might have been foreshadowed by the Wise King; however, it was his great-grandson who made them possible, reflecting the renewed power and confidence of the Castilian monarchy under Alfonso XI’s rule.
Link
Press Here
0 التعليقات :
إرسال تعليق