Apropiaciones de comunales en la Puebla de Guadalupe (Cáceres) durante la Baja Edad Media = Appropriation of Common Lands in Guadalupe (Cáceres) during the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

This work aims at reexamining the model of late-medieval rural society, considered a paradigm by previous scholarship, which was focused on the involvement of different social groups that were part of the rural community of the Puebla de Guadalupe in the process of appropriating communal lands. The privatization of this territory is seen as a response by the rural economy to the new late-medieval economic framework. The analysis of notary records reveals the evolution of the process and the ability of tax-payers to develop various economic practices: From the establishment of large territorial units of exploitation aimed at the local market and a subsistence economy, to the ownership of small and medium-sized plots meant for the development of commercial agriculture. All tax-paying groups participated in this practice and this was due in part to the open character of the rural elite.