Royal service, the common good and politics in Castile, 1250–1350

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of service in Castilian political culture between 1250 and 1350. Many interactions between different elements of political society were discussed and understood in terms of service, from holding office to military service, grants and royal taxation. The study traces the development of phrases which harnessed the discursive power of service through royal documents, Cortes records, political writings and letters. I argue that service was sufficiently resonant that it ought to be considered the central ethic of political interaction between the king and the kingdom. Moreover, by regularly justifying actions because they were “God's service and mine, and the profit and safeguard of all my land,” Castilian kings made a discursive link between service and the common good. By contrast with England, where parliament considered “the profit of the king and the kingdom,” the Castilian formulation left service more closed off in political discourse: it was only for the king to decide what contributed to his service. Concluding that the moral discourse of service acted as a powerful force for integration in Castilian politics, this article contributes to a broader debate about the role of political language in shaping the development of late medieval polities.