Jurisdiction, property and lordship in the castilian pilgrim route to Santiago in the 11th and 12th centuries

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the nature of feudal power that took root in Castile along the Pilgrims’ Route to Santiago during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is based upon a series of private seignoral documents and town statutes, and uses analytical categories such as «jurisdicción» (jurisdiction), «propiedad» (property) and «señorío» (seignorage). Royal intervention in the promotion and support of Santiago’s institutions through the concession of political rights and land grants enables us to observe the role of both jurisdiction and property in the development of private lordship as well as introducing the question of the origins of the royal lordship and the free lordships («behetria») as basic and primary seignoral forms. That the Pilgrims’ Route was a power structure no different to neighbouring territories places this article in a wider context than the title might suggest.