Studia Historica. Historia Medieval

The Presence of Fishermen and Traders from the Eastern Ports of Biscay in the British Isles (Fourteenth-Sixteenth centuries)

Aitor Leniz Atxabal — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

The Gulf of Biscay was an important location for trading between the Atlantic and Mediterranean markets in the Late Middle Age period. The Basque sailors got involved in the comercial nets, first as carriers and later as traders, and carried out fisheries further and further away of the Gulf of Biscay. One of the destinies of the merchant ships was Great Britain, and on the same way, the sea that bathes de Irish coast constituted to one of the principal fishing grounds were the Basque fleet used to fish. Our purpose on this work has been to outline the development of the relation between the Basque ports, in particular those situated on the eastern coast of Biscay, with the mentioned islands between fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Repopulation in Extremadura: Thoughts on the Research Contributions in Last Decades

María Dolores García Oliva — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

The recent studies on the repopulation of Extremadura have been numerous and have contributed significantly to broadening knowledge on this research topic. However, progress has sometimes been limited because scientific criticism has not always been applied to the book tradition. As consequence, some working hypotheses have been accepted as contrasted facts and the data extracted from written sources have sometimes not been interpreted correctly. These practices have conditioned the results of the studies about some aspects, such as the chronology of colonisation, the origins of the settelements and their forms, questions which are discussed in this work. All these matters are exposed within this essay.

Material Performances: Heroic Threads in the Crónica de Castilla

Marija Blašković — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Medieval courtly culture often relied on corporeality and materiality to structure its social order and indicate its members’ power and prestige. However, these aspects were rarely integrated into the historiographical discourse. This article explores how the Crónica de Castilla (c. 1300) employs material culture as an additional strategy to represent characters and interpersonal relationships. Via carefully selected scenes involving Rodrigo Díaz, the Cid, and two rulers who interact with various him, the study examines the impact of narrative materiality on identity and memory formation in the work. Considering that these semiotically charged displays are intertwined with various contemporary discourses and practices, they also lead to a better understanding of the Crónica de Castilla’s compositional tendencies and the values attached to non-verbal forms of communication.

Social Conflict in Navarre During the Civil Wars Between Agramonteses and Beaumonteses

Iñigo Mugueta Moreno — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

A number of horizontal and vertical conflicts took place during the Navarrese civil wars between the Agramontese and Beaumontese factions (1450-1507). The former took place between nobles on both sides, and the latter between nobles and the communities under their control. This study sets out to examine the latter kind of conflict, based on five case studies in the localities of Peralta, Santa Cara, Arguedas/Valtierra and Cortes. By comparing the problems that arose in these cases we will be able to discern that the conflicts between nobles and peasant farmers revolved around the recognition of seigniorial jurisdiction, and more specifically, to the right of the lords to appoint mayors.

Introduction

Lluís Sales i Favà — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Ayala Martínez, Carlos de, Palacios Ontalva, J. Santiago y Albarrán, Javier (eds.). Violencia interconfesional. Modalidades y percepciones en la península ibérica, siglos VIII-XV

Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Barrett, Graham. Text and Textuality in Early Medieval Iberia. The Written and The World, 711-1031

Ainoa Castro Correa — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Barrett, Graham.

Text and Textuality in Early Medieval Iberia. The Written and The World, 711-1031.

Oxford University Press.

Oxford, 2023. 560 pp.

ISBN: 9780192895370.

Burguera i Puigserver, Victòria A. Entre el negoci privat i la caritat popular: la redempció de captius a la Corona d’Aragó baixmedieval (1410-1458)

Raúl González Arévalo — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Calleja Puerta, Miguel. El monasterio de San Salvador de Cornellana en la Edad Media (1024-1536). Fundación regia, abadía cluniacense, encomienda nobiliaria

Francisco Javier Pérez Rodríguez — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Escalona Monge, Julio, Carvajal Castro, Álvaro y Jular Pérez-Alfaro, Cristina (eds.). Conflict, Language, and Social Practice in Medieval Societies. Selected Essays of Isabel Alfonso, with Commentaries

Igor Santos Salazar — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

García Fitz, Francisco. Las Navas de Tolosa. La batalla del castigo

Juan Manuel Carmona Pérez — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Reseña de la obra mencionada en el título

González Arévalo, Raúl y Peral Bejarano, Carmen. El Castil de Genoveses de Málaga (Siglos XIV-XV). Un barrio comercial fortificado en el Mediterráneo islámico

Alberto Garcia Porras — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Rabasco García, Víctor. La cultura artística del reino andalusí de Toledo: promoción e innovación en la corte de los Banū Ḏū-l-Nūn

Luis Rueda Galán — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Rayo Muñoz, Gema. Una iglesia a la sombra de la monarquía. Dinero y poder en el reino de Granada (1487-1526)

Clara Almagro Vidal — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Book review

Rozas Español, Ángel. Un centro de negocios en los albores de la Modernidad. Toledo y sus mercaderes (1475-1520)

Federico Gálvez Gambero — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Sastre Blanco, José Carlos, Fuentes Melgar, Patricia, Catalán Ramos, Raúl y Martín Viso, Iñaki. El Castillón. Un centro de poder en la meseta del Duero posromana

Carlos Tejerizo García — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Commerce, Marxism, and Medieval History: A Critical Comment on Chris Wickham’s The Donkey and the Boat. Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180

Álvaro Carvajal Castro, Carlos Tejerizo-García — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The Popular Classes and Royal Justice in Medieval England: Evidence from the Derbyshire Eyre of 1330-1331

Chris Briggs — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article investigates the degree to which England’s royal courts of common law were used by the masses (peasants, craftsmen, wage-earners) to prosecute lawsuits of small value. It argues that this issue is important for understanding the institutional framework that supported England’s developing market economy, and for investigating claims about state formation in this period. Using a case study of one particular provincial session of royal justice —the Derbyshire eyre of 1330-31— the article presents quantitative evidence on the social status and subject matter of debt and trespass business heard before the king’s justices. It is argued that the Derbyshire evidence shows that there were limits to the social reach of the common law courts. If we wish to grasp the framework of civil justice we must aim at a more comprehensive analysis of medieval England’s multifarious jurisdictions (royal, communal, urban, seigniorial, and ecclesiastical).

The Gallows of Gotorras. Justice and Politics in a Provençal Village in the Late Middle Ages: Cucuron, 1412-1413

Claire Allen — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article focuses on an early fifteenth century trial involving a group of men from the Provençal village of Cucuron, accused of several acts of rebellion and of having torn down the gallows of a local nobleman. Rare documentation of this trial, rich with thirty-four testimonies, offers the opportunity to view how the community nimbly reacted to and organized against perceived injustices while knowledgeably implementing the legal tools available to protect its rights and privileges.

Royal Justice within the Reach of the Popular Classes. The Uses of the Vicar’s Court of Barcelona (Fifteenth Century)

Lluís Sales Favà — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article examines both the contentious mechanisms and the voluntary acts that were registered in the court of the royal Vicar of Barcelona at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Simultaneously, it seeks to explore the social identity of the individuals who utilized these administrative services. Based on an unpublished body of documentary evidence produced by the institution (and related to civil law), the article describes technical aspects (the procedure, the types of disputes and obligations recorded), before delving into the identities of those who sought justice. The article concludes that the voluntary jurisdiction, of compulsory nature, was accessed by members of the lower social strata, with no legal training, but enough agency in defending their own interests. In contrast, contentious jurisdiction appears as a specialized sphere, in which disputes involved significant monetary amounts.

The Uses and the Users of Rural Jurisdictional Courts. The Case of Sitges (Catalonia, Fourteenth-Fifteenth Centuries)

Carme Muntaner Alsina — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The jurisdictional courts of the small towns were implemented to solve out conflicts that had arisen amongst neighbors. Besides pointing out at some doubts about its mechanics and composition, it is especially interesting to realize the uses that these institutions had by the inhabitants of the towns. We will indicate which were the reasons for attending the court, when did users do so, or how did they demonstrate their rights in the suits. We want to figure out which was the role of the court in the every-day life of the community, and how did the individuals relate which each other in it. We will do so through a case study, the town of Sitges, situated on the Catalan seashore, for which there are some extant court registers issued between 1384 and 1410. These have been preserved in the funds of the Pia Almoina of the Archive of the Cathedral of Barcelona. This small example can serve as a model for understanding many similar places with shared features.

Communities of Non-violence? Justice and Social Integration among Conversos and Old Christians in Fifteenth-Century Valencia: A Preliminary Examination

Guillermo López Juan — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article examines non-violent conflicts between Conversos and Old Christians in fifteenth-century Valencia, challenging the historiographical emphasis on violence and structural discrimination in interfaith relations. Drawing on judicial records, notarial protocols, and arbitration agreements, it explores the mechanisms of conflict resolution and their role in the gradual integration of conversos into Christian society following the mass conversions of 1391. The study highlights how disputes —rooted in familial, economic, and social interactions— were managed through civil courts and private arbitration, revealing a nuanced interplay between coexistence and inequality. By analyzing the socio-professional networks and endogamous tendencies of the converso community, the article argues that peaceful conflict management served as a vital tool for fostering social cohesion and enabling conversos’ participation in economic and institutional frameworks. This integrative process, while paradoxically born of violence, demonstrates the complexities of rebuilding coexistence in late medieval Iberia.

In Defense of Their Rights: Justice and the Rural World in Castile at the End of the Middle Ages

David Carvajal de la Vega — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The intense economic and institutional development lived by Castile at the end of the Middle Ages had a significant impact on urban life and, of course, on the rural world. The progressive reform of institutions such as justice, framed within a complex jurisdictional puzzle, and the development of commercial and financial activities in the Castilian villages favoured that, with certain assiduity, the neighbors of the rural environment turned to the local justice in case of jeopardizing their economic rights. This paper focuses on this phenomenon, the rural conflict over debts at the end of the fifteenth century. As it is a multifaceted reality, issues such as the jurisdictional framework, the composition of the courts, the origin of economic conflicts or the judicial procedure in its different instances will be analyzed. All of the above in order to observe the impact of institutions such as justice or the notary’s office on rural economic development.