La conflictividad social en Palencia desde 1421 hasta la guerra de las Comunidades

Abstract

During the War of the Communities of Castile, there took place in Palencia the taking of power by the comunero party, which happened to include the majority of the population. Such an exceptional event can be accounted for by the city’s high level of conflict throughout the fifteenth century —a fact that would determine the decline of the bishop’s seigneurial domain dating back to the early eleventh century. The city still retained its century-old claim to become part of the royal domain and thus free itself from the rule of bishops. However, the disputes involving the seigneurial power, the council and the several social groups eventually led to a state of steady confrontation which became even more heated as a result of the growing protagonism of the commoners. The latter actively opposed the misuse of power by the lords and the ways of the most powerful ranks of urban society that rivaled over the exclusive control of the local council. In fact, unremitting conflict led to an ever more frequent intervention by the Crown in the detriment of seigneurial power, whose decline in turn entailed the strengthening of the local oligarchy. The defeat of the comunero cause ultimately dismantled the struggle for the city’s self-rule, so that Palencia eventually subsided into the royal domain during the reign of Philip II.