Patronage, Client relationships, and the Client System according to the Epilogue to don Álvaro de Luna’s Historia

Abstract

This paper examines the client relationships and client structures within late medieval Castilian society through the analysis of the annotated social roll-call inserted into the epilogue to don Álvaro de Luna’s ‘Historia’, on which the status as royal favourite of the Condestable and Master of the Order of Santiago during the reign of Juan II made a significant mark. After a discussion of the creation and function of this epilogue, which has hitherto been either undervalued or dismissed as a historical source due to its literary nature, this paper offers an analysis of its language, which reveals the importance of concepts such as vivienda and acostamiento in the context of both late medieval client relationships and their contractual basis. This lexicometric analysis also highlights the principal foundations of the ‘Lunist’ client system, as it reveals that the social support on which don Álvaro relied in his position as royal favourite derived principally from the middle-ranking nobility.