Las comunidades locales contra los infanzones. Conflictos en torno al estatuto jurídico en el Aragón rural hacia 1300

Abstract

In the eleventh century, the peasants’ legal status in northern Aragon started to show a dichotomy between infanzones (free men) and villanos (serfs). These categories were redefined and codified between 1200 and 1350 and they were used to determine each family’s contribution to royal taxation. Rural communities showed two different attitudes regarding these legal changes: while some localities supported their neighbors’ attempts to rise to the infanzonia status, other villages tried to prevent anyone from losing their low condition, thus remaining as taxpayers. This latter attitude explains why some local council fought the royal concession of those privileged status at the king’s court. Using the data originating from the Archive of the Crown of Aragon, this paper will argue that the rural communities’ different political actions were the result of diverging strategies created to relieve the impact of royal taxation on the peasants’ economy.