Las ciudades costeras de la Corona de Aragón ante la guerra y los conflictos marítimos: prevención, defensa y respuesta en el atardecer medieval (original) (raw)
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A lo largo de la Baja Edad Media, las ciudades de la Corona de Aragón obtuvieron de los soberanos varios recursos para abastecerse de cereales y, en especial, de trigo. Uno de ellos fue la concesión real generalmente conocida como Vi vel gratia, la cual les permitía apoderarse de los cargamentos de vituallas ajenas en casos de necesidad ex-trema. Dicho privilegio, aplicado al transporte marítimo de cereales, supuso la autorización de prácticas anterior-mente consideradas como piráticas, ahora amparadas por disposiciones reales circunscritas a las épocas de carestía. Aun así, tales actividades fueron la base de conflictos, especialmente entre las ciudades marítimas de la Corona. Palabras clave: trigo, piratería, corso, abastecimiento municipal, conflictividad marítima. Throughout the Late Middle Ages, the cities of the Crown of Aragon obtained by the sovereign several resources to stock up on cereals and especially wheat. One of these was the royal grant generally known as Vi vel gratia, that allowed them to seize shipments of foreign victuals in cases of extreme need. That privilege, applied to maritime transport of grain, involved the authorization of practices previously considered as piratical, now protected by provisions of the King applied only in times of famine. Even so, such activities were the basis of conflicts, especially between the maritime cities of the Crown. This article analyzes the use of this royal grant by the great coastal cities of the Crown of Aragon –notably Barcelona, Valencia and Mallorca– in order to ensure their own supply by sea, particularly during dearth. The strategy deployed to this effect is, in fact, a form of institutionalized violence, legally sustained thanks to the support of the Aragonese kings from the first third of the fourteenth century. As can be seen, the objective that legitimated this type of action carried out by the cities was, ultimately, the need to ensure the supply of consumer goods –and especially wheat– to the population. However, it is difficult to think that the adoption of this type of measures would respond exclusively to the solidarity of the agents of the local power. Rather, we are dealing with coercive formulas used by urban elites to safeguard their interests in a context of conflict, such as the Mediterranean world, during the two last centuries of the Middle Ages. Likewise, the use of these strategies by the urban powers, supported by the officers of the king, became a cause of conflicts between the authorities of Barcelona, Valencia and Mallorca.
Las cofradías del mar en la Corona de Aragón (siglos XIII-XV)
Este estudio trata sobre las corporaciones de los oficios relacionados con actividades marítimas en la Corona de Aragón, durante la Edad Media. Los cuales formaron cofradías con fines religiosos, funerarios y mutualistas. Pero dichos oficios regularon su actividad profesional, en los aspectos económicos y laborales, mediante instituciones diferentes a las cofradías como órgano de previsión. Se trató de los gremios o artes, que además gozaron de cierta potestad política.
DEFENSIVE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN XV TO XVIII CENTURIES, 2015
The historical strong relationship between the eastern coast of Spain and southern part of Italian Peninsula has been a common issue over different civilizations from Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans up to the most recent modern kingdoms. Considering this set of connections based on trade routes and territorial bilateral interests, the western shores of Mare Nostrum have been key-points of a dense network of military and economical strategies. The dynamics of extensive territorial control have left interesting examples of costal watchtowers both in the Sorrento Peninsula, near Naples (Italy) and in the East coast of Valencia (Spain). The process of towers construction begins at early stages of Middle Age and, from the 16th century it runs up into a systemic control of the coastline, thanks to the reuse of obsolete fortified elements and new building-site procedures. In the paper, the authors aim at highlighting the territorial relationships among a number of towers built during the 16th century, as well as they propose a comparison of their construction techniques in order to gain an historical comparative and a contextual understanding of these fortified systems.
The author analyses the beginnings and development of sea ports along the northern border of the kingdom of Castile during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He studies the role played by the king in this area; it helps us to understand the consolidation of a network of ports in the north of the Peninsula. The kings started by granting royal foundation charters ("fueros") to the small villages along the Cantabrian coast, not only to establish their rights and obligations, but also to reinforce, by means of a legal instrument, the royal control over the coast, thus modifying the regional balance of power. Secondly, following the foundation of sea ports, material and logistic structures developed, which promoted commercial relationships and human connections, on the one hand between sea ports on the Atlantic coast of the Peninsula, and on the other between these foundations and their hinterlands and overseas markets, thereby reinforcing the internal urban structure in the north of Castile.