The distribution of tenancies in León, c. 1200–1250: charter evidence for a history of power

Abstract

In the kingdom of León, royal tenancies – delegations of authority over the royal demesne to noble agents – are thought to have been under royal control in the early twelfth century, and under noble control by the late thirteenth. This paper aims to clarify the crown's authority over tenants and tenancies in the transformative period of the early thirteenth century. It also calls attention to the unusual but invaluable historical source created by the lack of patrimonialization in tenancies during this period – a source that reveals the ad hoc responses of medieval monarchs to contemporary events. The transfer of tenancies from one magnate to another represents the active intervention of the crown, and thus reveals royal strategies and conflicts that are often unrecorded in other contemporary records. If understood as a process that reveals the dynamic of royal will, rather than a static representation of power, the distribution of tenancies can serve as a valuable adjunct to narrative and other sources in the study of relationships between the crown and its magnates.