Pleitear contra el señor del castillo y bajo su jurisdicción. Resistencias de los campesinos catalanes frente a la servidumbre de las obras de «castell termenat» (siglos XIV-XV)

Abstract

The attitude of the inhabitants of rural lordships in Catalonia in the fourteenth century and the early years of the fifteenth century regarding the obligation to participate in the reconstruction or reinforcement of the castle illustrates an unusual case of collective resistance or opposition to a seigniorial right. Catalan peasants, who usually did not question the agricultural rents due to the lord of the castle that were fixed by local customs, fiercely and stubbornly resisted a personal servitude which they considered unjust and odious, as a result of the enormous sacrifices and economic harm it caused. Litigating collectively against the lord of the castle, rural communities were able to take advantage of the same seigniorial jurisdiction in favor of their own interests. In the process, they highlighted the legal weaknesses presented by the right of castell termenat, which Catalan jurists based on Pere Albert’s commemoratio Si qui alodiarii, and upon which the lords of the castle based their demand for free peasant labor.