SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN SPAIN, 1252-1479
_Castile_
[Sidenote: Social changes of the era in Castile.]
As regards social organization this period represents merely an
evolution of the factors which had already appeared in the preceding
era, and its chief results were the following: the end of serfdom; the
advance of the middle class and its opposition to the lords, principally
through its jurisconsults and the _caballeros_ of the towns; an increase
in the privileges of the clergy; and additional landed wealth for the
nobles through the donations of the kings or private conquests. The
principal social struggle was no longer that of the serfs against their
lords, but rather of the middle class, as represented by the wealthier
citizens of the towns, against the nobles and clergy for legal equality,
especially as regards taxation and other duties to the state. The
disappearance of serfdom did not bring economic well-being to the
agricultural laborers; their fortunes in this regard were often as
vexatious and hard to bear as their former personal dependence had been.
At the same time, the poorer people of the towns became a fairly
numerous class, but they were in a position of inferiority as compared
with the wealthier citizens.
[Sidenote: Social and political prestige of the nobility.]
[Sidenote: Primogeniture and _latifundia_.]
Through civil wars and the weakness of the kings the power of the
nobles, both socially and politically, appeared to increase. They did
not confine their strife to opposition to the king, but fought one
another incessantly, not for any political or other ideal, but mainly
for personal reasons. Such was the nature of the wars, for example,
between the Guzmán and Ponce families of Seville. As time went on,
these intra-class struggles increased, being more numerous than ever in
the fifteenth century. The nobility would have destroyed itself if the
kings had known how to take advantage of the situation, but most of them
failed to appreciate their opportunity. Sancho IV, Alfonso XI, Pedro I,
and Henry III tried to reduce the nobles by direct attack, and Henry IV
gave special attention to the development of a new nobility as a
counterpoise to the old, but usually the kings dared to fight only
indirectly, as by granting the petitions of the towns which involved a
diminution of seigniorial authority. Two circumstances in addition to
their political victories tended to secure the position of the nobles:
the adoption of the law of primogeniture with regard to the succession
to both their titles and their lands; and the increase in the
territorial domains in the possession of the nobles. By the law of
primogeniture the wealth of the family and the lustre of its name were
given in charge of the eldest son, maintaining in this way the powerful
position of the particular noble house. The second sons (_segundones_),
in large measure disinherited, sought a career as members of the clergy
or as soldiers. Henry II himself was partly responsible for the
introduction of this new practice of the nobility, and he and later
kings usually required that the lands granted by them to the nobles
should be inalienable and subject to the law of primogeniture. The royal
donations, which were especially great from the time of Henry II on,
were usually of two kinds: _honores_ (honors), or grants of the fiscal
rights which the king had in a specifically named place; and _tierras_
(lands), or grants of a fixed rent on a certain town or towns. Both
forms were termed generally grants in _encomienda_. The nobles increased
their holdings yet more by usurpations and private conquests. Early in
the reign of Henry IV, for example, the Duke of Medina Sidonia and other
nobles conquered territories of vast size from the Moslems, and these
_latifundia_, (broad estates) have influenced even to the present day
the economic life of Andalusia.
[Sidenote: Decline of the military orders.]
The _caballeros_ of the military orders were a notably important
element. A noble of high rank was usually chosen as grand master, and
this gave him a preponderantly strong position. The vast power of these
orders was the cause of their downfall, the impulse for which came from
without, through the joint action of the French monarchy and the popes.
The order of the Templars, the strongest of all, was abolished by the
pope in 1312, and this reacted to cause a decline of the other orders.
Furthermore, the reason for their existence ceased with the entry of the
Turks into Europe and the cessation of the Spanish crusades. Except as
concerned the military orders the nobles seemed to have reached the
height of their social ambitions, conducting themselves in a lawless
manner with a more or less complete lack of loyalty, high ideals, or
moral sense, but (as will be pointed out in the following chapter) their
authority appeared to be greater than it actually was.[35]
[Sidenote: Social importance of the clergy.]
The personal immunities of the clergy were not only extended, but were
also made applicable to a greater number than formerly, and the wealth
of the church was increased. Not only priests, but also their servants
and the members of the religious orders, including even those of the lay
orders, acquired the so-called “benefit of clergy,” which exempted them
from certain financial obligations to the state and to the towns, and
secured them the privilege of being subject judicially to the
ecclesiastical courts only. Furthermore, entry into religious orders
became so comparatively easy that the number of ecclesiastics proper
increased greatly, although many of them continued to be business men,
lawyers, administrative officers, and even jugglers and buffoons,
frequently leading a licentious life. Similarly, the mendicant orders
had lost their early ideals of poverty and self-sacrifice, and besides
being lax at times in their mode of life were devoting themselves to the
acquisition of wealth, especially by procuring inheritances. These
conditions were cited in complaint after complaint of the national
_Cortes_, asking the king for their redress. Finally, Henry II issued a
law, confirmed by Juan I, that clergymen should contribute to the funds
applied on public works, and that lands which had been tributary should
continue to pay taxes after their acquisition by the church. These laws
seem not to have been complied with, for the complaints were renewed in
later meetings of the _Cortes_; it was charged that the clergymen
excommunicated the tax collectors. On the other hand the right of the
church to collect the _diezmo_, or tithe (not precisely a tenth), of the
produce of lands not their own, a right which had already existed in
some jurisdictions, became general. The king profited by this
arrangement, since a portion called the royal thirds (_tercias
reales_)[36] went to him for expenditure for public charities or pious
works, such as the building of churches, although the kings did not
always so employ it.[37]
[Sidenote: Advance of the middle class.]
The same causes which had conduced to the development of the middle
class in the preceding era were accentuated to procure a corresponding
advance in this,--such as the increase in population, the growth of
industry, commerce, and agriculture, the freedom of the servile classes,
the prominence of the jurisconsults and secondary nobility, or
_caballeros_ (proceeding usually from the towns, and living there allied
with the middle class against the greater nobles), and the great
political importance which the towns acquired. The basis of the middle
class was the town, partisan of the centralizing, absolutist tendency of
the kings so far as it related to the nobles and clergy, but strenuously
insistent on the retention of its own local charter. The middle class
had control of production and was the nerve of the state, but was
virtually the only element to pay taxes, despite the fact that the great
bulk of territorial wealth was in the hands of the nobility and the
church. The term “middle class” began to refer more and more clearly to
the wealthier, free, but untitled element, for the laboring class became
more prominent in the towns, sharing in the charter privileges of their
richer neighbors, but with certain limitations on their economic
liberty. There was no social conflict of consequence between the two
classes, however, for the laborers were not yet very numerous, and the
evils of their situation were not so great as they later became, besides
which, self-interest united them with the middle class against the
nobles and clergy. Such strife as there was between them was of a
political, and not of a social, character. The so-called popular element
of the _Cortes_ represented the middle class only. The practice of
forming leagues (_hermandades_) of towns and _caballeros_ against the
abuses of the higher nobility was much indulged in, for it was not safe
to rely solely on the king. The victory in the end lay with the towns,
although they were far from obtaining their specific aims at this time.
Nevertheless, the fourteenth century was characterized by the
transformation of society from its earlier basis of chivalry and war,
when the scene had been laid in the castles of the country, to the
bourgeois life of the towns, devoted to industry and commerce.
[Sidenote: Improved basis of rural society.]
[Sidenote: Slavery.]
The rural servile classes, which had all but won complete personal
liberty in the preceding period, attained both that and nearly complete
economic liberty at this time. Thus the ordinance of Valladolid, in
1325, prohibited the lords from retaining either the realty or the
personalty of any man who should move from seigniorial to royal lands,
preserving the owner’s right to cultivate or sell his lands, and to
make any use he saw fit of his personal effects. The ordinance of
Alcalá, of 1348, took a step backward, limiting the owner’s freedom of
sale, lest the lands fall into privileged, non-taxpaying hands, and
requiring him to keep somebody on the land, so that there might always
be a taxpayer there. Finally, the ideal of the ordinance of Valladolid
prevailed. At the same time, the old servile relation whereby the lord
procured the cultivation of his own lands changed to one of landlord and
tenant, based on the payment of a stipulated rent. The fact that there
were no social struggles in Castile in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries is evidence of the comparatively satisfactory condition of the
rural classes. Naturally, there were abuses of an extra-legal character
by the nobles, such as the forced loans exacted by them, the compulsory
marriages of rich widows to members of a lord’s following, and outright
robbery, but the real interests of the lords called for them to use
conciliatory measures to attract population, and some of them at least
did follow that policy. Personal slavery still continued, but the number
of slaves was very greatly diminished and gradually got smaller,--a
tendency which was favored by the laws.
[Sidenote: Treatment of the Mudéjares.]
The free Mudéjares continued to receive lenient treatment, and their
numbers increased greatly; many of the Moslem faith preferred to leave
Granada and live in Christian Castile. The legislation of Alfonso X put
them under the royal protection and allowed them to have their own
courts and their own law. They were permitted to retain the mosques they
already had, but were forbidden to build new ones; they could not
worship in public in places settled chiefly by Christians, but otherwise
no objection was made; the obligations of former times as regards
taxation, mode of dress, and dealings with Christians were also
retained; and the gathering of Mudéjares into the cities, despite the
greater number of restrictions imposed upon them, went on, caused by the
abuses of an unofficial character to which they were subjected at the
hands of the Christian population in the country. In later reigns the
restrictions were increased, but many of them were not enforced. In
fact, the Mudéjares enjoyed greater prosperity in the last reign of the
era than at any other time of the period, being a wealthy and important
social element, represented at court even, and enjoying a number of
advantages which for a long time had been denied them.
[Sidenote: Harsh measures against the Jews.]
[Sidenote: The Marranos.]
For a while the legal situation of the Jews was comparable to that of
the Mudéjares, but the Christian clergy was particularly vindictive
against the former, and popular sentiment was bitterly hostile to them,
due not only to the influence of the church, but also in part to hatred
of the Jewish tax collectors, and partly to the avarice awakened by the
wealth of the Jews (fabulously exaggerated as a rule). This enmity was
evidenced in more and more restrictive laws and in the open insults and
violence of the Christian populace. Popular feeling began to make itself
more rigorously felt from about the year 1391. In 1391 a great massacre
of the Jews took place in Seville, and this was a signal for similar
massacres in other parts of Spain. Shortly afterward the Jews lost their
separate law courts; they were forbidden among other things to engage in
commerce with Christians, to rent the taxes[38] or hold public
positions, to be artisans, to carry arms, or to have intimate relations
with Christians; and they were even compelled to listen to sermons
preached with a view to their conversion. These laws were not always
enforced, but the position of the Jews was far from equalling that of
the Mudéjares. Great numbers of them were converted, but it was
believed, probably with truth, that they continued to practise the
Jewish faith in secret. The converts were insulted by their Christian
brethren, even in the name “Marranos” (pigs) applied to them as a class.
They were also envied because of their industry and wealth, and were
accused of diabolical practices of which they were almost certainly not
guilty. In the last years of the reign of Henry IV the massacres of Jews
began to be extended to them as well as to the unconverted element.
[Sidenote: Changes in the laws of marriage, the family, and property.]
Two forces combined to change the former type of family life: the Roman
civil law (of tremendous importance); and the doctrines of the church,
which indeed in their judicial expression were influenced profoundly by
the Roman law. They were able to strike a death-blow at the marriage _á
yuras_; henceforth the law required the sanction of the church.
_Barraganía_ still maintained a legal though restricted standing. Cases
of marriage and divorce were taken away from civil jurisdiction and
turned over to the ecclesiastical courts. As an illustration of the
individualistic tendencies springing from the influence of Roman
jurisprudence it may be noted that up to twenty-five years of age a
daughter had to have her father’s consent in order to contract marriage,
but could dispense with his permission after that time. The most
important reform in family life was the establishment of the rule of
primogeniture, a practice which rapidly became customary. The Roman law
was equally influential in its effects upon property. Whereas formerly
the wealth of Castile had been based on agriculture and stock-raising,
with the land concentrated in few hands and cultivated by serfs, now
urban lands and personalty, based on industry and commerce and adapted
to Roman principles, became the more important; and despite the
_latifundia_ of the era a large part of the former seigniorial lands was
now given over in small lots to free proprietors protected by the law.
The Roman formalism appeared to some extent also in the law of property,
contract, and wills, especially in the legislation of Alfonso X.
[Sidenote: Survivals of medieval collectivity.]
The collectivity of medieval times had a survival in the lands common of
the towns, and appeared also in the industrial guilds and the
semi-religious _cofradías_, or fraternities. The latter included various
classes of people organized into a group for the accomplishment of some
social object, such as to perform acts of charity or hold funerary
dinners, as well as to provide mutual aid; the law forbade associations
for political, immoral, or illegal purposes. The guilds were far more
important, and were greatly favored by the laws. At first they were
closely dependent on the municipalities, which intervened to regulate
the trades, even in technical respects, but at length the guilds began
to receive charters directly from the king. The new charters, too, in
keeping with the practices of the era, were minute in their directions
with regard to the conduct of the various industries. By the fifteenth
century the guilds were paying little attention to the social matters
which formerly were their most important function,--these had passed
over to the _cofradías_,--and had become almost wholly economic and
professional, although their members marched together in processions,
and the guilds as a body rendered public service of one kind or
another,--as, for example, maintaining some public charity. They were
also a factor in the political life of the towns.
[Sidenote: General social customs.]
[Sidenote: Dress.]
[Sidenote: Superstition.]
[Sidenote: Sports.]
In general social customs, so far as they relate to the upper classes,
for the practices of the humbler elements are less well known, this era
was marked by great immorality, license in expression (even when
referring to matters of religion), luxury, a desire for honors and noble
rank (even to the point of falsely pretending to them), the mixture of
an appetite for knowledge with the pursuit of superstitions, and the
exaggerated practice of chivalric principles (professed more as an
affectation than with sincerity). The luxury of the times manifested
itself in the usual ways, and it is worthy of note that members of the
middle class were now able to vie with the nobles. Women painted and
powdered and used exaggerated effects in their dress, and men wore
high-heeled boots, employed various devices to correct the natural
defects of the body, and used perfumes. Foreign influences entered to
modify clothing so that it tended more to fit the body than before, with
a resulting abandonment of the flowing garments of earlier times. Men
often wore stockings of different colors, a feather in their hat, and a
much-adorned, variegated cape. Color, too, was equally prominent for its
diversity in women’s dress, but the dress itself allowed greater freedom
of movement than the earlier styles had done. Superstitions were
prevalent, from the alchemy and astrology of the learned, to the various
forms of divination and ancient practices--such, for example, as the
mass for the dead dedicated to living persons--of the common people.
Jousts and tourneys and attempts to imitate the warlike feats of the
heroes of fiction in such works as _Amadís de Gaula_ (of which later)
formed a part of the chivalric customs of the day. Bull-fighting was
clearly in existence by the time of Alfonso X, and thenceforth enjoyed
great popularity.[39]
In social and political institutions Aragon proper, Catalonia, and
Valencia still differed from one another sufficiently to merit separate
treatment. While in many ways their customs were like those of Castile
there were certain variations worthy of record.
_Aragon proper_
[Sidenote: Social differences in Aragon proper.]
Prior to the reign of Pedro IV the nobles increased their authority both
with respect to their rights over the lower classes and in the exercise
of political power, but if Pedro reduced their privileges in the latter
respect neither he nor his successors did anything to prepare the
emancipation of the servile classes. The nobles retained their social
privileges even to the extent of procuring a law in 1451 doing away with
the royal practice of granting titles of nobility of the lower grades.
Feudalism continued, though in a modified form, for if the nobles could
receive lands from the king and reissue them to vassals of their own
they were obliged to return them to the king whenever he should ask them
to do so, and were not allowed to build castles without his consent;
moreover, there were various other limitations on their former nearly
absolute sway. They collected taxes for themselves, and were exempt from
paying them to the royal treasury, but were under the necessity of
rendering military service when called upon. The clergy gained increased
social importance just as it did in Castile, and the middle class became
a prominent factor with the development of the towns, though far from
attaining to the high place of the same element in Castile. The towns
followed a divided policy, for those of the north were feudal in type
and allied with the nobility, while those of the south were more
democratic and royal. The condition of the servile classes was even
worse than before, and no serious attempt was made either by them or
the _Cortes_ to relieve their hard lot.[40] The laws continued to
recognize the lord’s right to deal with them as he pleased, and even to
kill them, and lands were still sold with the men and women both
Christians and others who dwelt thereon. The history of the Jews and
Mudéjares followed the same course that it did in Castile. Not merely in
Aragon proper but in all the dominions of the crown the Jews were
subjected to exceedingly harsh treatment. The Mudéjares of both Aragon
and Valencia were protected by the kings and the nobles with a view to
keeping their lands occupied so that they might not fail to yield rents
and taxes, and in both regions the rural population was principally
Mudéjar. The Roman law exercised a powerful influence in Aragon as
elsewhere. Thus freedom of testament was introduced, and primogeniture
attained to a predominant place. The guilds did not advance to the point
reached in Castile, existing rather for purposes of mutual aid, and
lacking the technical regulations of the Castilian guilds.
_Catalonia_
[Sidenote: Revolts of the serfs.]
There are two prime facts in the social history of Catalonia in this
period: the uprising of the serfs; and the outstanding importance of the
cities, especially Barcelona. The first marked the decline of the
nobility and the appearance of a new social factor; the second indicated
the direction which modern social organization was to take. Having lost
their political power the nobles concentrated their interest on getting
wealth out of their lands, especially through the tributes of their
serfs. In this respect they had the enormous advantage of possessing the
greater part of Catalan territory.[41] The serfs were subject to a great
number of annoying personal services, and (in a typical case) to as many
as thirty different tributes, most of them in kind, besides the
ordinary rental for the land. They had already won a right to redeem
themselves for money, and Juan I, Martín I, and María (the wife and
regent of Alfonso V), as well as many jurisconsults, made some more or
less ineffectual attempts to better their condition. The plagues which
swept Europe in the fourteenth century were a greater aid, since
laborers became scarce and therefore more desirable. By the time of
Alfonso V the serfs had become sufficiently emboldened to formulate
demands, on the threat of a general uprising. Alfonso accepted a sum of
money from them, granted what they asked, and then withdrew his promises
when the nobles also bribed him. The revolt was delayed, however, to the
year 1462 in the next reign, when it formed one of the complications in
the wars of Juan II against the deputation of Catalonia and the city of
Barcelona. Both sides sought the aid of the serfs, but Juan was able to
win them to his support, although their military operations were
directed primarily against their own lords. The peace of 1472 did not
solve the social question; so there was another uprising in 1475, and it
was still going on at Juan’s death, in 1479, being left for solution to
the reign of his son, Ferdinand.
[Sidenote: Decline of the nobility.]
[Sidenote: Persecution of the Jews.]
As a result of these troubles the nobles declined even in social
prestige, for they had received very little in the way of tributes from
the serfs since the reign of Alfonso V, and had aggravated the situation
by their wars with one another or against the towns. Meanwhile, the
_caballeros_ and others of the secondary nobility, natural enemies of
the great lords, had advanced in importance, and in the reign of Pedro
IV had won a right to law courts of their own, free from the
jurisdiction of nobles of the upper grades. On the other hand, the great
nobles continued to receive donations of land from the king, with more
or less complete jurisdiction, since the existing needs of the royal
treasury usually seemed greater than the ultimate evil of the grants;
often the kings gave away towns which they had previously pledged their
word never to alienate. It is to be noted that the mere ownership of
land did not entitle the lords to exercise civil and criminal
jurisdiction without a specific grant of those powers from the king. In
addition to the serfs and the kings, the nobility had a third element
against it, the very powerful bourgeoisie, or middle class, which in
this period attained to the greatest splendor. The history of the
Mudéjares at this time was unimportant, for there were not many in
Catalonia. The Jews suffered as they did in Castile. The year 1391,
which witnessed the massacre in Seville, was marked by a similar event
in Barcelona, where the Jewish quarter completely disappeared. From that
time on, harsh measures were taken in Catalonia, and as a result the
Jews came to be regarded as sharing with slaves (of whom there were
still a considerable number) the lowest level in the social hierarchy.
[Sidenote: Catalan guilds.]
The modifications of family life arising from the influence of the Roman
law were as notable in Catalonia as in Castile and Aragon. The guilds
were developed to a point even surpassing that of Castile. As early as
the fourteenth century they were already organizations for technical
objects related to their trade. Every trade had its guild, from the more
important associations of weavers, bakers, and the like, down to the
more humble blind beggars’ guilds.
[Sidenote: Transition from medievalism to modernity in social customs.]
All that has been said of Castile as regards the immorality, luxury,
dress, superstition, and chivalric pursuits of the aristocracy and
middle class applies generally, not only to Catalonia, but also to
Aragon and Valencia. The nobles endeavored to emulate the king in
extravagances, with the result that many were ruined, and their attempts
to avoid paying their debts to the Jews were one cause of the massacres
of the latter. The luxury in dress brought in its train the development
of tailoring to such an extent that the Catalan modes were well-known
even in foreign countries. In many of the amusements of the
period,--dances, illuminations, pantomimes, processions, masquerades,
and others,--one sees the influence of Renaissance tastes, which were to
lead to modern civilization, although these same diversions were also
tainted with the rudeness of earlier times.[42] In fine, the customs of
the period were made up of a curious mixture of passing medievalism and
coming modernity. For example, while some seigniorial castles were
centres of luxury and entertainment, others retained the austere,
military customs of the past. Again, at the same time that there
appeared a veneer of literary and scientific culture, ideas as regards
sanitation, both public and private, were still rudimentary. Laws
continued to be passed forbidding people to wash clothes in public
fountains, to throw water and filth in the streets, and to loose pigs
therein, but they were not very generally obeyed. Even the public baths
which had existed formerly fell into disuse. Thus epidemics were
frequent, but aside from prayers and sequestration of cases not much was
done to check their progress.
_Valencia_
[Sidenote: Victory of Catalan civilization in Valencia.]
The majority of the Christian settlers of Valencia were both bourgeois
and Catalan, while the nobles were mostly Aragonese. Down to the time of
Pedro IV, the latter exerted themselves to deprive the former of the
power which Jaime I had given them, and they were successful to the
point of sharing in administrative posts which had formerly been denied
them, and also procured the application of the Aragonese law in the
land. After their defeat by Pedro IV they declined rapidly, hastening
their fall by partisan quarrels among themselves. The history of the
Mudéjares and Jews followed the same course as in Aragon; here, as
elsewhere, the terrible year 1391 was a time of massacres of the Jews,
followed by increasingly harsh legislation. The influence of the Roman
law in modifying family institutions and the development of the guilds
proceeded on lines analogous to the same factors in Catalonia.