Lordship and landownership in the South of Old Castile in the middle of the fourteenth century

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss the structure of the power of lords in Old Castile in the middle of the fourteenth century, focusing on lordship and landownership. The ‘Becerro of the Behetrías’ records the lordships of the villages of Old Castile in 1352. Large estates were composed of lordship rights over villages (or, very frequently, parts of villages) and their inhabitants, and landownership rights over lands located in places under the lordship of other lords. Different sectors of the feudal class based their power on different combinations of lordship and landownership rights. Fragmentation and juxtaposition of rights and powers were the main characteristics of the resulting system. In order to understand the evolution of social relations in Castile in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, therefore, it is necessary to take into account two key elements: the conflicts and competition between lords.