Alfonso X and the Theoretical Apparatus of the Royal Power in the Crown of Castile during the 13th Century (original) (raw)
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Narratives of Power: Royal History and the Language of Legitimacy in Medieval Castile
2016
by Bretton Sigfredo Rodriguez Narratives of Power: Royal History and the Language of Legitimacy in Medieval Castile offers an interdisciplinary analysis – utilizing the skills of both literary criticism and historical inquiry – of the evolution of royal history and historians in medieval Castile between the reign of Alfonso X and that of the Catholic Monarchs. To address such a large topic, it focuses on the works of three historians – Alfonso X, Pero López de Ayala, and Fernando del Pulgar – who wrote on behalf of the Castilian crown following periods of immense political and social upheaval in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. I argue that legitimizing political power became an increasingly critical part of historical narratives in late medieval Castile, which determined the evolution of these texts while forming a lasting connection between history and legitimacy. I also assert that royal histories evolved into a prominent literary genre as well as a space for litera...
On the 12 th of March 1376, while preparing his discourse for the Courts in Monzón in a letter to the abbot of San Victorián de Sobrarbe, King Peter the Ceremonious wrote, bien nos miembra que vos nos dixestes que·l rey d'Aragó qui fue heredado del regno por su madrastra no era bort, antes era legítimo, e su madre era estada reyna, e esto sabredes vos por privilegios e otras escripturas que son en el vostro monasterio, and asked him to send them to Monzón por que nos podamos clarament mostrar que la dita madre del dito rey era estada reyna et muller del rey padre del dito rey d'Aragón 2 . The whole text for the inauguration of the Cortes has not survived so we cannot know what he did with the information for the making of his elegantem proposicionem per verba pulcherrima compositioneque ornatus perspicui decora in lingua seu idiomate cathalano, nor how he solved this lack, as we only know that per ordinem recitavit et declaravit nomina et gesta illustrium omnium regum Aragonum et comitum Barchinone usque ad ipsum et presens tempus successive fuerunt 3 .
Church History and Religious Culture, 2022
The definition of the term 'Royal Site' covers a wide spectrum. It refers, writes José Eloy Hortal Muñoz in his introductory paper to Politics and Piety at the Royal Sites of the Spanish Monarchy in the Seventeenth Century, "to properties that belonged to the ruling dynasty where the ruler and other members of the dynasty lived, had lived or where there was an expectation of them being able to stay there for longer or shorter periods of time." But it also covers "forests, gardens, agricultural spaces, factories and urban centres" associated with the palaces, as well as "the royal monasteries and convents, to which royal apartments or pantheons were attached or where certain members of the ruler's family-usually female members-could profess religious vows." The fourteen papers in this book are mainly concerned with those sites which had an essentially religious significance, churches, convents, monasteries and, above all, especially in the first part, the royal chapels, the capillas reales. The royal chapels were one of the main channels through which the ruler could express his power in confessional matters. They involved a complex hierarchy and an even more complex jurisdiction which frequently led to conflict with the local ecclesiastical authorities. The system is described generally by José Eloy Hortal Muñoz, and is analysed in detail in the cases of Madrid (by José Martínez Millán), Palermo (by Fabrizio D' Avenia), Barcelona (by Fernández Terricabras), Valencia (by Emilio Callado Estela), and Lima (by Guillermo Nieva Ocampo and Ana Mónica González Fasani). The capillas reales, however, are a single aspect of a far broader historical situation which emerges clearly from José Martínez Millán's excellent article and from the second part of this book. The context is the rivalry between the Spanish monarchy and the papacy. It went back to the regency of Ferdinand of Aragon (1507-1516) and to the early years of the reign of his grandson Charles v when the Spanish monarchy adopted the idea of Monarchia Universalis. This took true political shape after the Sack of Rome in 1527. With the imprisonment of the pope the Catholic Church found itself without a leader. The emperor, Charles v, assumed the responsibility of reforming and defending it. This state of affairs continued under Charles's son, Philip ii, who succeeded him as king of Spain, but what had once been a united empire was now divided between two branches of the Habsburg dynasty, the Spanish branch of Philip and the Austrian branch of Charles's brother Ferdinand, who followed after him as Holy Roman Emperor.
This dissertation is a new historicist approach to studying the cultural legacy of the medieval queen María de Molina of Castile-León (1284-1321). In this study, works of literature are examined alongside historical accounts-such as chronicles and official documents-which are read as literature and analyzed for the political rhetoric which they contain. This study is focused on two things: First, understanding María de Molina's exercise of queenship, with an emphasis on how that queenship is constructed and represented in texts, and second, evaluating the impact of her queenship and its connection to the so-called cultural movement of molinismo in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In this study, Queen María's queenship is understood as the combination of her exercise of power in the discursive space of the court, as well as her representation in royal documents and histories. The first chapter explores the origins of what some literary critics have dubbed "molinismo" in thirteenth-century Castile-León, and the explanation of molinismo as a conservative movement back to orthodoxy, contained in literature produced in the court of Queen María's husband, Sancho IV. This chapter provides an overview of Sancho's cultural production, but it focuses on an analysis of the king's cultural politics and the only work that Sancho claimed credit for as an author, Castigos del rey don Sancho IV. Chapters two and three examine María de Molina's queenship as it is constructed in the royal chronicles written by the archdeacon of Toledo, Jofré de Loaysa, and Alfonso XI's chancellor, Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid, as well as in other official documentation, such as royal charters, privileges, and ordenamientos from the medieval iv political institution of the cortes. These chapters consider the gendered construction of the queen's image, the extent of her participation in shaping that image, and the political motivations for her portrayal in these texts. The last chapter returns to the topic of molinismo in Castilian literature produced in the first half of the fourteenth-century. Through an analysis of three works that are connected to the cultural movement of molinismo (Libro del caballero Zifar, Poema de Alfonso XI, and Libro de buen amor), this chapter attempts to measure the queen's influence on molinismo and poses the question of whether or not molinismo should be considered a unified cultural movement. v This project is the product of more than two years of work and it would not have been possible without the assistance and support of professors, friends, and family members. First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation director, Michael Gerli, for introducing me to María de Molina and the topic of molinismo and for generally being the best advisor a graduate student in my position could hope for. I needed an advisor like you, supportive and thoroughly knowledgeable in all things medieval, to help guide me through this process. I sincerely appreciate your enthusiastic encouragement and lightning-fast feedback. To my second and third readers, Allison Weber and Randolph Pope, thank you for your advice in helping me limit the scope of this study to something manageable and humble and for your suggestions on how to approach the topic. I am especially grateful to Professor Weber for her advice to be careful in attributing Queen María's voice to any of the documents she had a hand in composing, which has been a guiding principle throughout my writing process. To my outside readers, Theresa Earenfight and Deborah McGrady, thank you for lending your time and considerable expertise to this project and for your kind words of encouragement and suggestions. I would also like to thank Duane Osheim and Deborah Boucoyannis, for their suggestions of references on this period in Medieval Spain at the beginning of this project. I also need to thank the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Virginia, as well as the Clay Foundation, who generously funded my archival research for this project. vi I could not have completed this project without the support of my friends and family. I would like to thank my "dissertation support group," Natalie McManus, Ashley Kerr, and Allison Libbey, who helped me through all aspects of the dissertation writing process, both academic and emotional. I would have been lost without you. I would also like to thank my sister, Emily North, my adopted sister, Susan Eger, and my fiancé Michael Hortesky, all of whom listened to my theories and ideas about medieval queenship, patiently acting as sounding boards at different points during this process. Also, I want to thank my family and friends for their support and encouragement, not only during the period which I was writing this dissertation, but throughout my graduate studies. Chapter 4 Molinismo in the Literature of Fourteenth-Century Castile-León Conclusion Works Cited This study examines the cultural legacy of the medieval Castilian queen María de Molina (1284-1321) in an attempt to appreciate the impact of her rule on the cultural politics of Castile at the turn of the fourteenth century. We sometimes talk about
This chapter surveys queenship in the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. Even though legal codes and didactic texts written by men mapped out gender norms and stereotypes regarding women, and tended to limit the role of queens as rulers, many queens took active roles in politics, whether they were queens in their own right, royal consorts, regents and lieutenants, queen-mothers or dowagers. In the Middle Ages, rulership and kingship were not synonymous, and monarchical power was a broad enterprise in which other members of the royal family participated, particularly the queen—especially given the fact that the government and the court were very much integrated, and that there was little distinction between the public and the private spheres in royal circles. This chapter analyzes how power was conceived and used by queens, and also surveys the pillars of medieval queenship: the role of the family, the networks of power and patronage (religious, political, artistic, etc.) created by queens to wield authority and influence, and how piety and ceremonial functioned and were entwined. Particular historical contexts, the evolution of the legal tradition and canon law, and the constitution of broader and more complex realms all affected the model of queenship and made it evolve. In sum, this contribution emphasizes the queen’s role in medieval monarchy.