The ‘common good’ in the petitions and appeals of the medieval towns at the Portuguese Cortes

Abstract

ABSTRACT As in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and wider Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Portugal's main towns and cities were ruled by a small number of men, who made up a power elite. Such power elites were recruited from the bosom of the urban economic, cultural, and social elites. This group, however, was even more restricted, as during that period municipal governance lay in the hands of few officials and homens bons (boni homines). It was from among this restricted group of rulers that the municipal representatives to the cortes were chosen. This article will approach the discourse employed by the elites in the cortes based on the political concept of the ‘common good’ — an ideological concept in which a collective benefit prevails over private interests. In the argumentative rhetoric that was the discourse provided alongside requests and grievances aired on the stage of the cortes, the public good and common good were presented as objectives of good governance and fair decisions required as part of the political process. It is clear, however, that it was an open concept employed by different actors for various practical purposes as it will be explained.