Legal Control of Pasturelands in the Comunidad de aldeas de Daroca (Aragon, Spain) during the 15th–16th Centuries: Tensions, Conflicts, Lawsuits and Treaties

Abstract

The seizure of the territories that ended up forming the disappeared Comunidad de aldeas de Daroca began in the 12th-century, when Christian troops took these lands from the Muslims. Among the new settlers cultivating and protecting these conquered domains were many livestock owners from the north of the Kingdom of Aragon who had left their home due to increasing demographic pressure and the lack of pasture. In and around Daroca, their herding activities were regulated in the fuero (charter) of Daroca and in the successive ordinances of the Comunidad. The population increase in the 13th and 14th-centuries, along with the growing economic importance of livestock, led to disputes over the possession and exploitation of agricultural and herding spaces not only within the villages or between neighbouring villages of the Comunidad de aldeas de Daroca, but also with other nearby institutions, such as the Comunidad de aldeas de Teruel or the Casa de Ganaderos de Zaragoza. This chapter examines the tensions and treaties related to the control of pasturelands and herding activities in the Comunidad de aldeas de Daroca during the 15th and 16th-centuries. By the 15th-century, these conflicts generated numerous lawsuits and ended up being economically unsustainable for the Comunidad, which was going through many difficulties – economic and demographic crises, widespread poverty, etc. – derived from the Late Medieval crises. At the beginning of the 16th-century, a number of agreements and concords were reached, although they did not lead to a long-term easing of the problems.