David Bernabé Gil. University of Alicante
The segregationist process carried out by local communities that managed to become independent from the municipalities to which they had been belonging presents, in its already extensive and sometimes unfinished historical development, various modalities and unequal rhythms. The institutional framework and legal regulations, under whose cover such dismemberments have occurred, have determined at all times the specific characteristics of said process, depending on its location and degree of diffusion of other conjunctural circumstances.
The purpose of this paper is to point out some aspects of the municipal segregation process that took place in the royal territories of the old kingdom of Valencia during the 16th and 17th centuries.. Without prejudice to the fact that some of the issues analyzed may be applicable to later times, the legal effects of the implementation of Castilian legislation and the abolition of fueros advise, for now, differentiate the treatment of the subject; so it does not pass, in this case, the foral period. But, on the other hand, the growing link between the kingdom of Valencia and the fate of the Hispanic monarchy that emerged from the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs, the development of new bodies for the administration and government of the territory that brought about the emergency process of the state institutionalization of the Viceroy, of the Royal Audience and creation of the Council of Aragon and the attempts to adapt certain elements of Castilian political practice, also introduce differentiating factors in the institutional dynamics of the Kingdom during the foral period.
If the chronological period chosen, the 16th and 17th centuries, can thus be justified, The limitation to the royal field is due to the desire to avoid the presumed complexity that the subject acquires when several instances of jurisdictional power overlap.; thing that happens in stately territory, and especially in that of baronial jurisdiction if, At the same time, as is frequent in Valencia, it includes stately categories of lower rank. (1). By circumscribing the observation framework only to the realengo field, the phenomena of municipal segregation that we can detect are sent exclusively —but only in theory— to the instance of power corresponding to the Crown (2).
But speaking of royalties in modern foral Valencia requires, However, of some previous clarification. Apart from some changes in the jurisdictional assignment of the territory, produced by the incorporation of estates into the royal patrimony or in the opposite direction by express granting of estate jurisdiction by the Crown, there is another way of unidirectional jurisdictional transfer, more widespread in modern times and which had the effect —among others—of converting into stately territory, without intervention of the monarch, an appreciable part of the traditional realengo field. We are referring to the use made by some owners of large estates and farmhouses of a famous privilege or privilege granted by Alfonso II in the courts of 1329, which granted full civil jurisdiction and low criminal jurisdiction to anyone who populated their domains with a minimum of settlers (3).
Since not all those who were to take advantage of the Alfonsino privilege in the future had been enjoying some jurisdictional level over their domains, by proceeding to colonize and invoking the privilege they were sometimes turning from simple owners into lords (4). This automatic route of jurisdictional acquisition meant, when it had not occurred in domains already subject to another lord, the manorialization of the territory, once royal. And among the various consequences that followed, not the least important was also becoming a municipal segregation procedure. Indeed, the founders of alfonsino manors not only rose up with the jurisdictional powers defined in 1329, but, in fact and so it is, at least, for those who lived in royal territory, they managed to grant municipal rank to what until then was only a private domain.
It is interesting to highlight this way of constitution of municipalities in realengo territory because it is developing, even in late times, apart from the intervention of the Crown. and it is detected, to check, in the population chapters granted by Mr., the creation of municipal magistrates with jurisdiction: civil and criminal justice and juries. Likewise, It is customary for the lord to provide the new neighborhood community with oven public services, bakery, bar, Butcher shop, etc. whose exploitation is reserved under a monopoly regime (5), and even that intends to delimit the territorial scope of the new municipality; which will frequently provoke the opposition of the matrix to which it belonged.
It is convenient to insist, However, in which this type of segregationism was partial and incomplete, since the higher-ranking municipal entity in which it was registered continued to hold, or intended to assert, certain rights; some of them debatable and subject to frequent disputes. that he would not be a party but a mercenary of the Party, for example, the right of the metropolis, generally a town or city, to receive certain municipal levies in the lordship, or the prohibition that it tried to impose to close and pasture the manorial term, because in theory it should be open to the free use and exploitation of "amprius" for the benefit of the association of neighbors to which it belonged (6).
If the conflicts to assert these rights occurred with relative frequency, and in some cases the lords got the royal courts to support their claims (7), it turned out to be less problematic to discern where the high criminal jurisdiction lay, held without a doubt by the corresponding city or town. problems got complicated, but nevertheless, when some of these lords of Alfonso managed to buy from the Crown the mere empire or the jurisdiction "gubernatorio nomine", thus seeking to reinforce jurisdictional control over the territory to the detriment of the parent (8).
The scope and repercussions of the strategy of the Alfonsino lords that has just been summarized in broad strokes, as well as its chronology and location, are not yet well known. But it has been necessary to mention them not only because the origin of a good number of Valencian municipalities that emerged during modernity is due to it, but also because in certain aspects it was the model on which the municipal segregation process carried out by other traditional royal communities was based., desirous of emancipating themselves from the guardianship exercised by the cities or towns on which they depended.
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In the Valencia of the first half of the XVI, the cities and towns constituted the only municipal categories of royalty with full legal personality. It was common to each and every one of them to have been endowed with their own municipal regime, with some magistrates and government bodies whose highest authority the justice held the mere and mixed empire. The royal cities and towns were, Likewise, heads of territorial demarcation and independent of each other, they had general terms over which they exercised jurisdiction by express concession of the monarch, They usually had voting representation in courts and their neighbors used to enjoy certain franchises and different privileges in each case. (9). The cities seem to be distinguished from the towns in the higher jurisdictional rank of the justice, what, In the first case, was not limited to hearing criminal cases in the first instance, but also encompassed other degrees of appeal (10).
In the territorial and jurisdictional scope of the towns and cities of Realengas, other population centers also coexisted., stately and/or royal. In the first case, the degree of subordination of the manor with respect to the city or town in which it is located is quite complicated, giving rise to very different situations according to the jurisdictional level obtained by Mr., the municipal category reached by the community of vassals or other acquired rights. Apart from the already mentioned Alfonsino manors, It may be the case of stately villas located in the terms of a royal city (11). More frequent is, but nevertheless, find in these places without category of villa but subject to baronial jurisdiction. If we add to this the particular privileges that some gentlemen held, regardless of jurisdiction reached, to close or pasture the seigneurial territory; or the concords that in many cases signed with the cities and towns on issues of a territorial nature such as the perception of sisas, for example; or situations imposed by means of faits accomplis and sanctioned by prescription; the complexity presented by the coexistence and superposition of royalty and lordship will be understood, and the difficulties involved in its systematization. But this is not the topic that is intended to be developed here..
It has been previously indicated that in the territorial and jurisdictional scope of the towns and royal cities, non-manorial population centers also proliferate.. But such communities cannot be considered, as usual, like perfect municipalities, but as places dependent on those others in almost all its manifestations. In the documentation of the time they appear as "llochs", sometimes as "villages", and it is not uncommon for the word "university" to be used. But in the latter case, and until the second half of the XVI, no reference to any municipal category is being made, but simply to the group of individuals that make up the community and to which perhaps a certain legal personality is recognized, although quite limited. That is why the term "university" is also sometimes applied to the group of residents of towns and cities. The origin of these settlement nuclei —the places— must have been very diverse and in some cases they were old jurisdictional lordships recovered for the Crown by the cities or towns themselves. (12). The places of privileges and exemptions usually participate, but also tax obligations, military, etc. to which the residents of the towns and cities to which they belong are subject. They are considered as streets of these, although they may have a particular term, sometimes coinciding with the tithing itself or division for tithe collection. Its inhabitants can become "consell", but in the event that there are magistrates, they only exercise jurisdiction by delegation of those of the corresponding city or town. In consecuense, nor do they constitute a municipality per se, They do not have administrative or financial autonomy. But more than inventorying their deficiencies and degree of subordination, not always well known, It is interesting to mention the powers that were recognized when they undertook the segregationist path.
It can be suspected that the desire for emancipation and to establish themselves as autonomous municipalities on the part of these communities remained latent in many cases., especially when the favorable demographic evolution, economical, or other factors of various kinds, encouraged the desire for self-government. But nevertheless, It does not seem likely that until the decade of 1570 These aspirations led to a legal formula that would allow the demands for municipal emancipation to be met., without the need to grant the full independence that came with the privilege of villazgo. The response to the segregationist aspirations and the legal procedure through which it was channeled consisted of the creation of a new municipal category called precisely university., whose acquisition could only be obtained by express privilege granted by the Crown.
Before commenting on the meaning of this path of municipal dismemberment that entailed the acquisition of the privilege of university, It is worth insisting that it was a late formula, Probably no earlier than the 1990s 1570. From 1574 dates the granting of the oldest university degree that we know of, and was obtained by the place of Algemesí, belonging to the term of the town of Alcira. But in the following years the example was followed by other places, and only in two decades more than a dozen university privileges were issued in favor of as many communities that were thus able to take a first step in the process of municipal segregation. As reflected in Table I, This movement develops in several places belonging to the cities of Orihuela, Alicante and Játiva, and to the villas of Alcira, Jijona, To the bridge, Onteniente and Bocairente. And since the list does not claim to be complete, It is likely that it will also affect other municipalities (13).
TABLE I
ROYAL PLACES THAT ACQUIRE UNIVERSITY PRIVILEGE (14)
MUNICIPALITY / UNIVERSIDAD / YEAR / NEIGHBORS IN 1609 / PRICE IN POUNDS /
(What.) Orihuela / Callosa – Almoradí / 1579 – 1583 / 530 – 250 / 8.000 / (a) (b)
(What.) Alicante / Muchamiel – S. Juan Benimantell / 1580 – 1593 / 400 – 230 / 8.000 – 4.000 / (c)(d)
(What.) JÁTIVA / Pottery – Algemesí / 1583-1574 / 430-480 / 8.000-8.000 / (e)(f)
(Villa) alcira / Carcagente-Guadasuar / 1576-1581 / 420-240 / ¿?-¿? / (g)(h)
(Villa) Jijona / there / 1578 / 310 / 6.000 / (i)
(Villa) To the bridge / the plaster / 1583 / ¿? / 5.000 / (j)
(Villa) Lieutenant / sharp / 1585 / 270 / 5.000 / (k)
(Villa) Bocairente / Tubs – Alfalfa / 1628-1632 / (100)-(60) / 4.000-¿? / (l)(m)
can be stated, on the other hand, that almost all the royal places that managed to gather a number of residents greater than the 200 reached between 1574 Y 1593 college degree. some communities, like Bañeres and Alfafara, they had to wait, However, some time. If you look at the neighborhood of 1609 and the case of the villages of Morella is excluded, is checked, indeed, the relationship between population volume and municipal dismemberment, Well, there are hardly any real places with more than 200 houses that did not obtain university privileges
(15). The demographic and economic expansion of the Quinciento would partly explain the concentration of segregationist activity among 1574 Y 1593, precisely when the ceiling that would mark the change in the situation is being reached (16).
Since obtaining the privilege entailed a relatively high cash consideration, in favor of the crown, not all places that aspired to municipal dismemberment were in a position to assume the cost, the attempt being frustrated in some case. This is what happened with the place of Catral, dependent on Orihuela, when in 1604 applied for separate university degree offering only 2.500 pounds. As the Crown demanded 4.000 in exchange for the privilege, the sparse neighborhood of Catral wavered and ended up withdrawing the offer (17). The small places had, so, less likely to join the municipal independence train.
According to the available data, the price paid by universities in exchange for the degree ranged from 4.000 and the 8.000 pounds. More than a downward trend, as might perhaps suggest the lesser amount paid for later privileges, the differences had to be established above all in relation to the volume of population of each one. How the sale of university privileges represented a source of income for the Crown, It is understood that the expedition was not denied to those who could pay for it, despite the logical opposition that the affected cities and towns used to display. The difficulties of the property of Felipe II also contributed, so, to encourage the segregationist process in Valencia, as happened in Castilla with the exemption of places (18).
But the determining factor must have been the advantages that the neighborhood obtained from the dismemberment and, particularly, the most influential sectors of the community, called to convert, albeit on a small scale, in a new municipal leadership group.
Of the ten university privileges that we have been able to consult, all — except for Bañeres, of later date—are virtually identical, except for some matter of detail that at no time alters the meaning of the concession. They consist of 34 chapters, drawn up in the form of a petition submitted by the trustee of the community, to which the monarch grants his "placet", individualizing each chapter and introducing the appropriate modifications in each one
(20). The fact that in all the privileges both the text of the request and the specific responses of the Crown are repeated literally, suggests, evidente¬mente, the configuration of a first form, later adopted as a common model.
The first aspect to highlight of the content of university privileges is the jurisdictional level that is granted. Despite the claim of the new universities to extend their jurisdictional powers, the royal courts insist on various chapters of the 24 al 32 in strictly granting Alphonsine jurisdiction, always denying the demands of some specific attributions that exceed this scope and referring again and again to "what is available per lo fur del Rey N'Amphos" (21). The high criminal jurisdiction and the powers inherent to it for the town or city to which it had belonged are also expressly preserved..
The adoption of the jurisdictional level developed in the Alfonsino privilege, to configure the new municipal category that represents the university, is partly due to the character of intermediate jurisdiction that defines the applied model. The choice of model indicates, so, that what tends to, for now, it is not to a total and complete segregation; so this formula, although it seriously harms the interests of the parent municipality, still allows you to exercise some dominance: the one that derives from the possession of the mere empire. but indirectly, the virtuality of the privilege of 1329 as a generating instrument of municipalities. This was something that the Alfonsino lords had already tried to impose on their domains and from now on it is possible that some doubts about it began to be cleared up.. The proliferation of alfonsine colonizations that it is possible to detect during the last decades of the Five hundred and first of the XVII (22) must have been related, well, with the appearance of the university as a municipal category in the royal. Y, at the same time, This must have been inspired by the municipalist practice developed in the Alfonsino manors.
But the acquisition of municipal rank by means of the university degree entailed, also, other aspects of interest. The staffing of magistrates and their own governing and administrative bodies, as well as the election procedures, They are also collected in various chapters of the privilege, configuring the municipal regime that is granted. In addition to civil and criminal justice, three or four juries are created —depending on the case— (23), attorney, receiver, almotaxen, clavary, rent collectors and a nouncio of the juries; exercising all of them independently. The justice could name, at the same time, his adviser and a lieutenant, as usual in towns and cities. The powers of all these officers are regulated in jurisdictions, expressly indicating some in these privileges, and they do not need further comment here. Likewise, two "councils" are created: a private one, composed by 9 oh 10 individuals; and another general, but closed, integrated to 25 oh 30 members, according to the universities in question.
It is of interest to observe, at this point, how the form of election of municipal positions and the comparison between the demands of the universities and what the Monarch finally concedes reveals broad levels of electoral autonomy; but also a, maybe premeditated, imprecision as far as procedures are concerned. All municipal officials, except for the clerk, They will be chosen annually by the juries and the "consell", corresponding to the dance or another royal official the first election of juries. Except in the appointment of notaries, that the Crown reserves in what begins to be configured as a habitual practice, similar to selling trades— (24) in everything else the new universities and the Monarchy coincide. But, if we except the case of Bañeres, at no time is any of the parties alluding to the specific election procedure, Therefore, it must be assumed that it is left to the discretion of the electoral bodies or to a subsequent negotiation with the Crown.. no allusion, well, in the insaculatory system, already by then quite widespread in the royal cities and towns (25), nor to any other formula that regulates channels of representation in local power of the various social groups that make up the community. It could be argued, "first", that the social differentiation within some communities with modest neighborhoods should not have been very pronounced, perhaps making such distinctions unnecessary. But this is not what is observed in places like Callosa or Almoradí, to cite two cases that are better known to us and that present different population levels (26).
On the other hand, the privilege chapter that establishes the composition of the “consell”, decisive body in the election of officers, leaves the door perfectly open for the formation and consolidation of local oligarchies. To the proposal submitted to the Monarch to refer the number and annual designation of "consellers" to the decision of the juries, is answered by creating two "tips", but both closed and their members chosen by the juries. This is, both parties clearly reject the possibility of the general "consell", open-ended, more typical of medieval times. further, to control the debates that could arise, It is stipulated that only the juries may propose the topics to be discussed in the "consells"; and if any "concellor" wanted to discuss any matter "ab que no sia contra la fidelitat de V. majesty", he would have to notify the jury beforehand "understanding that the notification made by the councilor must be before convening the Council, and what must be proposed in general is first deliberated in particular for the most part".
Something different from this general model, extendable to all universities erected during the last quarter of the Five Hundred, is the one that is observed in Bañeres in the composition and election of its municipal positions; and perhaps due to its late character and the influence of the procedure followed in the town from which Bocairente dismembered and in which it participated (27). With the degree of university, Bañeres is granted the insaculation, establishing three bags or sacks for the annual lottery of positions: a bag for the extraction of justice, where six individuals would fit; another for jury first, with six other names; and another for second and third jurors, with twelve names. Each triennium would proceed to the insaculation of new subjects, if there was any loss, to complete the quota; or to change bags, always proposed by the jury. Here, too, two “consells” are constituted: a private one made up of nine neighbors, who will be appointed for the first time by the dance and the juries, and subsequently extracted by lottery from among those unsaculated in the three bags and from the nine mentioned components. Of these 33 individuals also raffles the mulotacén. There is also a general "consell", but in this case it is open and the assistance of 30 neighbors so you can hold sessions. Except in the composition of this "consell", also in Bañeres you attend, so, to the configuration of a closed group in a position to monopolize the governing bodies and control their self-reproduction. But let us return to the analysis of the common model that operates in the last quarter of the Five Hundred.
Essential aspects of the municipal regime are those related to financial administration. Directly responsible for the local treasury were, in the foral law, the jurors; and in the proposal for the university degree it is requested that each year the outgoing jurors give an account to the incoming ones of the management carried out, corresponding only to these to acquit and define the first. Also here it is interesting to highlight the response of the Crown, that it did not consist only of entrusting the clavario with the management of public funds, in line with the institutional reinforcement that this municipal office was receiving (28), but, contrary to what the universities had pleaded, expressly reserved the power of real control: "and that His Majesty, as long as it is useful, can hang or cause to hang the accounts to the sworn and nailed fingers". This reserve is not found in the privilege of Bañeres, but the provision is inserted in the policy of control over local treasuries that the royal administration was promoting at that time; how it seems to come off, for example, of the gradual introduction of the figure of the rational in other Valencian cities Orihuela and Alicante in very close dates (29) The, even more, of the tests to implement the procedure of "residence visits" in the municipalities of the Kingdom(30).
And the reservation of royal control over local estates went even further.. The granting of university privileges was also taken advantage of by the Crown at the end of the 16th century —not so in the case of Bañeres to spare the autonomy that, in the tax field, granted the fueros to the municipal entities. The Crown responded to the request of the universities to be able to freely impose the taxes they considered appropriate.: "It pleases His Majesty that they can impose charges for community debts, and so that they pay among themselves and that they cannot impose taxes without His Majesty's license". And then it was specified that for the charging of censuses —public debt— by the university, a license from the general dance was required. The subordination to the royal authority of the municipal fiscal capacity to impose taxes of an indirect type —the sisas— did not necessarily have to translate into a stagnation and fossilization of taxes. And this was revealed in the case of Orihuela, that it lost its fiscal autonomy precisely in 1569, or in the capital of the Kingdom, since in 1612 the Crown also claimed the granting of licenses to impose new levies (31). But it seems to confirm the trend towards a strengthening of royal authority in this matter..
Continuing with the analysis of university privilege, the creation of a local dance is also observed, as representative of the royal administration in the municipality, with their own functions. This increases the number of royal officials in the royal.
Other faculties requested by the university and granted by the Crown are the creation of a municipal grain exchange, for the regulation of the market and the supply of wheat "and that they can put prices on the forms and other grains that among themselves will come and distribute and do all the other things necessary for the conservation of said chamber". Likewise, the market is authorized one day a week, being curiously adopted as a model, when it comes to franchises, the one granted to the place of La Alcudia; repeating this explicit reference in all privileges. Is attended, through these concessions, to the logical demands for the development of its own market and to favor the supply of the community, priority objectives of the municipal administration. In the privilege of Bañeres is still granted, also, royalties and monopolies—shops, taverns, ovens, inns— which, until then, had been exploited by the parent town.
To the defining elements already indicated that confer municipal rank with legal personality — jurisdictional level, magistrates, financial administration, etc. the delimitation of the territorial term is added. But this is a question that does not appear definitively resolved in the privilege, since to the proposal of the universities indicating the milestones, it is answered that "the term and part of the following terms will be indicated by His Majesty or by his Lieutenant General and the Royal Audiencia of Valencia to which His Majesty from now on commits it". Y, indeed, Some time has elapsed since the issuance of the privileges, the Royal Court used to send a commissioner judge to delimit the territory of the university, with the assistance of the trustees of the surrounding municipalities; issue that usually generated immediate lawsuits, when the royal cities and towns understood that the terms assigned were excessive and harmed their interests, so sometimes they ended up in concords (32).
No less complex and problematic was the distribution of rights and obligations that had belonged to or fell upon the town or city., when having to assume a part of them the new university. Regarding tax rights, each municipality would collect and take charge of those corresponding to its own neighborhood, but in the case of "peitas" or other direct taxes on real estate, it would be contributed where the taxed object was located.
While the rights were distributed, also in the charges and obligations —generally census— the university had to assume an aliquot part, which would be determined by the general ballot once the municipal accounting has been recognized and the allegations of both parties have been heard. The debt that, thus, corresponded to assume the university was generally materialized in an annual perpetual pension in favor of the town or city —with the possibility of redeeming the capital at will, since the creditors did not always agree to recognize the new debtor entity, given his preference for the largest mortgage guarantee that —much to his regret— offered, in theory, the cities and towns.
But the segregation involved in obtaining the privilege that has been discussed did not mean, As has already been said, complete independence. In addition to the already mentioned partial jurisdictional subordination, the commonwealth was maintained in relation to the use of pastures and "amprius". It was the claim of the new universities “that the terms generals of the vila (or city of M) and from the place of (N) they are and remain as they are common to all the neighbors and inhabitants of (M) Y (N) and of all the other places that are located within the said general terms of (M) to graze, wasps, and use those seconds that until now have been practiced and are being practiced and observed (…) and according to and in the manner that for the purposes and privileges of the Kingdom of Valencia is disposed" (33). And so it was granted by the Crown, as long as these community practices were supported by custom.
Finally, Belonging to the aforementioned general terms of the city or town was also explicitly manifested when the continuity in the enjoyment of "all the privileged" was recognized to the residents of the university., franks, thanks, immunities, exemptions, and all and any things that the neighbors and inhabitants of the town enjoy and are happy about (or city of M)”, granted so far, also granting the juries of the university powers to issue letters of frankness to their neighbors.
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But the emancipatory movement that developed in the Valencian royal house during the reign of Felipe II, unprecedented in earlier stages, did not stop at the acquisition of this new municipal legal category that conferred the title of university.
Despite the logical opposition that this process aroused among the cities and towns affected, some newly created universities and even other places that, apparently, they did not reach that privilege, They also managed years later to complete the segregation by acquiring the title of royal villa. At least seven universities and two places obtained villazgo rank during the reigns of Felipe II, Felipe III y Felipe IV, according to the information we have, collected in Table II (34).
TABLE II
UNIVERSITIES AND PLACES THAT ACQUIRE THE PRIVILEGE OF VILLA REAL (1585-1645)
PARENT MUNICIPALITY / VILLA / YEAR / PREVIOUS CATEGORY / PRECIO /
Orihuela (What.) / Callosa / 1638 / Universid. / 4.500 / (a)
Alicante (What.) / Muchamiel-Ollería / 1628-1587 / Universes.-Univers. / ¿?-¿? / (b)
játiva (What.) / Castellón de Vilanova-Benigánim / 1587-1602 / ¿?-8.000 / (d)(e)
alcira (Villa) / Carcagente-Algemsí / 1588-1608 / Universes.-Univers. /¿?-8.000 / (f)(g)
Jijona (Villa) / there / 1629 / Universid. / 4.000 / (h)
To the bridge (Villa) / the plaster / 1587 / Universid. / ¿? / (i)
And to this list could be added, before the abolition of the fueros, segregation, with title of royal villa of the place of Guardamar, separated from Orihuela in 1690; and nine villages of Morella Forcall, catí, Villafranca, Cinctorres, Castellfort, door, Olocau, La Mata and Ballibona, who did the same in 1691, after several unsuccessful attempts. But both Guardamar and the villages of Morella were linked to their respective matrixes under somewhat special conditions., what probably conditioned his late emancipation (35).
As can be seen, most of the privileges of villazgo to which TABLE II alludes were obtained by municipalities that had previously managed to gain access to the category of royal university, highlighting on some occasion the immediacy with which both titles followed one another (see TABLE I). These are the cases of Ollería and La Yesa, who in only four years went from place to university and, to reach this rank, to the villa. This haste to complete the emancipatory process is even more visible in the cases of Castellón de Vilanova and Benigánim, that directly acceded to the rank of villazgo from its condition of place, without mediating university privilege. Although this practice was not widespread, It is surprising that the Crown allowed this direct access since it implied giving up the income provided by the granting of the intermediate privilege, whose price was not exactly lower than that of villazgo.
Unlike the university degree, that of villa real is of older origin and although its legal personality does not essentially present major changes over time, if their historical connotations do. In this way, village privileges were granted in medieval times to municipalities of a certain importance called to become heads of territorial demarcation and bastions of royal jurisdiction.. But when, from the end of the 15th century, concessions began to multiply, it is essentially a question of responding to the emancipatory demands of the communities that have already begun this path through their conversion, First, in university. And the difficulties of the royal treasury also facilitated, as in Castile, this late proliferation of villas, although this is not the only reason that can be attributed to the Crown to meet the demands that were raised.
As has already been said, jouissance characterizes all villas, In the first instance, of civil and criminal jurisdiction, high and low, mere and mixed empire, that falls on justice (36). His acquisition meant, so, the culmination of jurisdictional independence with respect to the parent municipality, even if it held the title of city.
The remaining aspects that are regulated in the privileges of villazgo are not always shared, but nevertheless, for each and every one of them, Contrary to what happened in the case of universities, created according to a common model. When requesting the erection in villa, Municipalities usually take advantage of the occasion to include a series of demands that, in each case, they respond to local peculiarities and echo some disputes that they had been having with the metropolis. Actually, It is a type of direct negotiation between each municipality and the Crown, which is established through the villazgo petition.
And the very process through which the definitive text of the privilege is configured responds to this characterization..
We know the specific way in which the title of Callosa was created and it is possible that in the other cases a similar procedure was followed.: The municipality proposes, in this case, 41 chapters to Monarch; and the representatives of the royal administration —Procurador Patrimonial, Royal Court of Valencia, Council of Aragon issue separate reports on each chapter in particular. The amendments to the initial offer are returned by the Council of Aragon to the municipality for its consideration., but he responds by reiterating his initial requests and still adding a new chapter. The royal administration still requests from Callosa clarification of several obscure points and exhibition of legal instruments that prove certain rights claimed by the municipality. Finally, the final text is given, which in this case constitutes a compromise solution very favorable to Callosa, when compared to the first amendments (37).
The analysis of the content of the villazgo title of Callosa and its confrontation with the partial information we have about the remaining privileges granted in favor of other royal villas, allows to detect some common elements; and others of a private nature (38). as it has already been repeated, is the granting of civil and criminal jurisdiction, high and low, mere and mixed empire, what really defines villainy privilege; reason why almost all the aspects to her directly referred to is usually a common place: A) Yes, the express mention of the crimes whose knowledge in the first instance conforms, the erection of gallows, or the way of proceeding in the administration of justice. In order to avoid any dependence on the metropolis, Callosa also reaffirms the pre-eminence and jurisdiction of his local dance, comparable to those of the homonymous oriolano.
The superior municipal rank obtained by the villas is also a matter of translating into the political sphere, through the unanimous request to attend the offices of the Provincial Council of the Kingdom and to obtain representation, with vote, in cuts. These political aspirations only at first seem to have been recognized by the Crown., other times postponing its entry into force to what is decided in the next courts. Thus, the villas of Carcagente, the pottery, Castellon de Vilanova, Benigánim and La Yesa already participate in the courts of 1604, but those who obtained the privilege of villazgo after this year were not admitted in the future in the sessions of the royal arm. Algemesí is not listed, villa from 1608, in the courts of 1626, nor in those of 1645; and neither to Muchamiel, Ibi and Callosa had their vote recognized in courts in 1645 (39). The pressures of the municipalities that until then had exercised the monopoly to rise up as the only spokespersons for the territory they represented must have been decisive.. And this is the case in the case of Orihuela, when in cuts of 1645 the trustee of said city opposed the admission of the trustee of Callosa(40).
Aspects that are also usually present in villazgo privileges, at least in the later, are those related to municipal power bodies. Thus, the towns of Ibi and Callosa coincide in claiming the notaries of the juries; aspiration raised repeatedly by other municipalities of the Kingdom in the courts of the seventeenth century. But the other claims regarding local government are peculiar to each municipality.. there, for example, obtains authorization to create the position of rational, Corresponding their choice to the jurors. The office would be performed on a triennial basis., period that is intended to be made obligatory also for the trustee. The salaries corresponding to some positions are also regulated, but it's hardly about the insaculation, system by which access to local power had been regulated, according to concession granted years ago (41). And this is a subject that does occupy a long articulated, instead, in the privilege of villazgo de Callosa, although it already alludes to a privilege of the "new regiment" after the university; both explicitly confirmed now.
The local oligarchy takes advantage of the negotiation channel established with the Crown to introduce important reforms in the electoral procedure, that confirm their dominance over municipal power. The number of unsaculated will remain in Callosa limited to 30, from which will be drawn each year the justice, the three jurors, almotaxen, sobrecequiero and clavario, leaving the rest as "consellers". This indicates the consolidation of a perpetual elite made up of 30 members distributed each year by all government bodies. In the event of death or termination of any, the juries will choose individuals to complete the thirty. They are essential conditions to aspire to be part of the insaculate, Submit documents proving possession of own property valued at more than 1.000 pounds and, for the exercise of major trades, have own horse. Thus, control of local power is reserved for the better situated sectors. Debtors to the municipal coffers will not be able to hold any position and those who incur three times a year in lack of attendance at the "consell" without duly justifying it..
With regard to financial administration and matters relating to local supply, faculties granted with the title of university are generally confirmed to all towns. But new ones are also requested, such as the granting of royalties and monopolies. This is usually the case with the real weight, and in some certain cases, with the carnage (Benignim), with shops and taverns (there) or with the construction of mills (Callosa), but in exchange for acknowledging the direct rule of the King and paying the census and corresponding quindenio. Likewise, A license is usually requested to charge censuses for the value of the price of the privilege and, sometimes, the concession of an annual fair, without the Crown responding to the request in this case, putting it off for another time.
There seems to be greater unanimity in the insistence of the villas to maintain separate terms, as they were assigned after setting up in universities. But the specific territorial delimitation that is adopted as a reference will not always be accepted by the parent municipality, the lawsuits in this regard continue (42). Concession or confirmation of a private "boalar" is also usually requested for the grazing of the town's cattle and the meat supplier, and "round" for lease to individuals. In some case, as it happens with the request of Callosa, It even goes so far as to request the partial rupture of the traditional commonwealth of pastures and "amprius":
"inasmuch as experience has shown that being the common terms between the City of Oriola and the town of Callosa for grazing and impoverishing and weeding comes to have great damage and harm to the said town because of the City as a powerhouse that it is or the victualler of that town hosting many foreign cattle farmers who only serve to cut down the vegetable garden and the herbs of that town causing a lot of damage to the farmers of that town and the victualler's cattle have nowhere to graze, per ço begs Vra. wench. since the terms are divided, or they are also in the herb garden, so that in this way the victualler of the City of Oriola does not go up to enter to grass in the said term, and with greater ease the said town finds someone to supply that town with meat".
They proliferate in villazgo privileges, Finally, chapters referring to various topics and generally related to local affairs, in an attempt to take advantage of direct negotiations with the Crown to obtain, via privilege, the appropriate response to some particular claims. We meet, A) Yes, with which the town of Castellón de Vilanova will deal, unsuccessfully, to include in its term and jurisdiction certain Alfonsino manors belonging to the terms of Játiva. Ibi's villazgo privilege collects, for his part, the claim —also denied— to exempt its neighbors from providing military aid outside the city of Alicante. And among those raised by Callosa, it is worth noting the request to seize the lots and vacant land, the impossibility of executing the villa in assets of the pósito, nor to its neighbors in instruments of labor as it was granted to the city of Orihuela in the jurisdiction 170 of the courts of 1604— except for debts to the town. callous insists, on the other hand, in which the sequestration of municipal income decreed in 1620, that forced the kidnapper to give an annual account to the municipality, and an order of 1629 by which foreign landowners were forced to pay the breasts on the patrimony. It should be added that the real response to these requests by Callosa was in some cases affirmative and in others it referred to the provisions of the jurisdictions..
In view of the foregoing, it should be noted that the content and meaning of villazgo privileges far exceed the specific reference to the jurisdictional category granted. Unlike college privilege, adjusted to a common and unique model, where the municipal regime that is endowed to the local communities that request it and the institutional rudiments for its quasi-independent operation is designed, the villazgo privilege essentially includes two issues. On the one hand, the aspirations for concrete emancipation expressed by certain municipalities; on the other —and this is where their diversity lies— the peculiarities that each of them tries to introduce, depending on the particular needs that have arisen. The differences presented by the villazgo titles, apart from the common substrate that defines them, it is nothing but a reflection of the very diversity that characterizes the development and configuration of the Valencian municipal regime during the foral period; perfectly verifiable, on the other hand, in the private requests —increasingly numerous— of the representatives of the royal arm in courts, or in the privileges and concessions that each municipality will try to negotiate separately with the Monarchy throughout the period.
by the crown, there is no doubt that the chronic lack of financial resources suffered by, especially since the reign of Felipe II, led to the development of the segregationist process; as it happened in Castile, where the exemption of places was added to the sale of vassals, the latter being more difficult to implement in Valencia. But the ease with which emancipation privileges were granted, Despite the opposition shown by the affected cities and towns - all of them with a vote in courts - it also points to a possible political background.
could be argued, without the need to attribute to the Monarchy the development of a strategy directed against the territorial power of the traditional municipalities of the Kingdom, that the multiplication of municipal entities and the expansion of representatives in courts contributed to cracking the already precarious unity of the royal arm; although this was not the essential reason (43). Y, indeed, if the requests expressed in courts are met, it is observed how, in those held after 1585, claims of a local nature predominate over those that affect the entire arm. The 17th century courts will end up becoming, for the municipalities represented there, little more than a new opportunity to express particular requests. And this strengthened the position of the Crown in the negotiations.
On the other hand, the emancipatory process contributed to reinforce the authority of the royal courts, not only because they extended their intervention in the local regime, in the consistorial causes and in the frequent inter-municipal disputes that were generated, but also because all this provided a support base to undermine other jurisdictions. A) Yes, Since the end of the 16th century, the Court of Valencia had already made the principle of its exclusive competence prevail to plead “university” causes and to grant villazgo privileges in territory subject to seigneurial jurisdiction., As Primitivo Pla has pointed out (44). And in 1596, in a "Pragmatic and seat between the jurisdictions of His Majesty as King and as Master of Montesa", expressly stipulated the royal reservation of said attributions over the territory of the Order (45).
The slow —and sometimes winding— process of emergence of the state that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries is not incompatible with the fragmentation and multiplication of jurisdictions, but it demands the strengthening of the authority of the Crown and its courts against all other. By encouraging the emancipatory movement of local communities, the Monarchy sought to increase its resources but, at the same time, continued to gain positions against the municipal power.
* * *
as an epilogue, We will now briefly mention some aspects of the trajectory followed by the communities that led the independence process. Although not much data is available, in its internal regime it is quite probable that it tended —as in the rest of the Kingdom— to the consolidation of local oligarchies, Counting for this with the approval of the Crown (46). So it follows, This year we have two important events to celebrate, of the government system already designed in the privileges of the university. And the subsequent and gradual implementation of insacculatory procedures must also have led to a certain secrecy of the groups that controlled local power.. Callosa's case, already mentioned, or that of Baneres, they are exemplary in this regard; but also in Ibi it seems that a similar procedure existed: in 1583 certain chapters were granted, probably at the insaculation, among which was the power to proceed with a habilitation of candidates every three years, in order to make up for the absence of the deceased in the major and minor bags. In 1597 Said university requested authorization from the Viceroy to replace the number of insaculated, because due to absence and old age some had requested their exclusion. And in the privilege of villa de 1629 it was requested that those who complied with the 70 years, to make way for new individuals (47).
in cuts of 1645 there are references to the existence of insacculatory procedures in the town of Muchamiel and in the university of Agullente, and its implantation in Benigánim was requested (48). And that same year Almoradí requested that the number of insaculates for government bodies and "consell" be limited to only 24, and a minimum patrimony of 400 pounds (49). Apparently, this request was not answered, but years later, in 1672, the surrogate of the Governor of Orihuela reported on municipal corruption in said university in terms that presuppose the existence of a restricted oligarchy: "the cause (is) because some of the government get together and at the time of the extractions they do not give rise to obtaining the job to which they raffle but the people who are their "partial" and thus this job for a few years is perpetuated " (50). The new municipalities that emerged at the end of the 1500s seem to reproduce and in some aspects —as in the disappearance of the open councils— to lead, even, the oligarchic and restrictive trend that is prevailing in Valencian local governments.
Nor does it seem likely that they could shake off the financial problems that plagued, throughout the Six Hundred, to a good part of the Valencian municipalities (51). The economic cost of the segregationist operation was, certainly, high for the population contingent that had to bear it; but not ruinous, In exchange, they gained the exemption from contributing to the metropolis and the independence to create and organize their own resources.. Said cost was determined by the price of the respective privileges, the maintenance of the new administrative infrastructure with which they were endowed and the obligation to assume an aliquot part of the debt of the municipalities to which until then they had belonged. The price of privileges fluctuated, as already indicated, between the 4.000 Y 8.000 pounds, to which must be added other important management expenses. And regarding the participation in the debt of the parent municipality, it is also possible to offer some significant data..
Throughout the seventeenth century and according to the judgment of 1585, Callosa paid Orihuela annually for this concept a pension of only 147 pounds; and Almoradí did it in 208, as stipulated by judgment of 1589 (52). Capitalized at 5 percent supposed, so, 2.940 Y 4.160 property pounds, respectively. Greater was the commitment that Castellón de Villanova had to assume with respect to Játiva, stipulated in 520 annual pounds, according to judgment of 1623, what it meant 10.400 pounds of capital. By judgment of the Royal Court of 1633, Benigánim had to take charge 16.145 pounds of capital in favor of the same city and according to agreement signed in 1639 translated into an annual pension of 807 pounds. A judgment of the Court of 1586 forced Ollería to satisfy Játiva 300 annual pounds, but the arrears must have accumulated, well in 1640 a concord was signed raising the pension to 600 pounds per year —12,000 pounds of capital— (53). The new municipalities, indeed, they did not always meet their commitments to the parent company and in courts of law 1645 Alcira requested that the dismembered villas be forced to satisfy the assumed census (54).
The quantities indicated are, evidently, important, if one considers the scarce neighborhood of these populations, that decreased a lot, also, during the first half of the seventeenth (55). But they are still modest when compared to other expenses that some of these municipalities promised to attend to.. In 1645 Benigánim affirmed that the construction of the parochial temple had cost more than 60.000 pounds and that in levies and services to the monarchy he had spent in recent years 14.000 pounds. And the situation described that same year by the receiver of Castellón de Vilanova, with only 189 neighbours, it's even more dramatic: the construction of a new ditch had cost 31.500 pounds, and to this expense was added other 50.000 pounds "to rebuild and preserve said cequia and pay pensions of said censuses charged for the purpose of that". Only in census pensions did he have to pay more than 5.000 pounds than, capitalized, exceeded the 100.000; and to this was added other 6.000 pounds in exchange plus the corresponding interest (56). And in 1649 the town of Callosa affirmed that the ordinary pensions of the debt amounted to more than 2.650 annual pounds, equivalent to 53.000 pounds of capital (57).
The cost of municipal dismemberment was, definitely, an important factor of indebtedness, but not the main one and perhaps not the most directly responsible for the deficit that reached a large part of the local corporations. Proof of this is that the indebtedness spread, in reality, to almost all the traditional cities and villages of the Kingdom (58). draw attention, but nevertheless, that in the face of a situation of chronic and progressive insolvency, some of these recent municipalities saw no other solution than to request their reincorporation into the matrix from which they had dismembered years ago. In 1619, the universities of San Juan and Benimagrell were reabsorbed by the city of Alicante, due, apparently, to the inability to meet its corresponding share of the expenses that the construction of the Tibi reservoir had caused (59). and years later, in 1653, the then town of Muchamiel had to take advantage of a similar expedient, becoming dependent again on the city of Alicante (60). A similar attempt was made by the University of Almoradí when in 1656 proposed his reincorporation to the city of Orihuela, alleging its inability to cope with a chronic annual deficit of 700 pounds. But in this case the Oriolano "council" dismissed the offer "because at present the present City finds itself with its incomes so attenuated that they are not sufficient for the satisfaction of the ordinary carreches it has beyond what it currently owes to its creditors backlog census takers (…) from which it follows that if there is no strength to lift one's own burdens it will not be reasonable to assume the stranger's and that others must satisfy. Therefore all unanimously and in agreement agreed and released that it is not convenient for the present City to accept said aggregation (…). And that they are together for how things come to better fortune" (61).
But the reincorporation to the parent municipality was exceptional and was only one of several possible alternatives available to the affected communities to deal with the deficit.. the others were, logically, the usual ones in any municipality of the Kingdom, and made reference to the sources of municipal resources and the adoption of compromise solutions with creditors. In order to increase the income of the local treasury or avoid its depreciation —caused by the demographic decline and the economic contraction of the first half of the 17th century— an intensification of the fiscal pressure and the request for grace measures so that the Crown could transfer certain rights that he had been receiving.
Files of this last type were requested in the courts of 1645 through the villas of La Yesa, Castellon de Vilanova, freighter, Benignim, Muchamiel and the University of Agullente (62). The problem was that its economic performance was sometimes quite limited and, especially, in the Crown's refusal to part with any of these rents. They were such a third-tithe, the municipal clerks, the real weight and the emphyteutic and quindenian censuses.
There is evidence that an increase in the municipal tax burden was resorted to through marks on the property in Castellón de Vilanova y Callosa and, of indeterminate type, in Almoradí (63). Agullente also applied for a license in 1645 to impose new armholes and studs, while Muchamiel requested authorization to stall the sale of certain items (64). But all this was insufficient to address the deficit, and there was no shortage of extraordinary solutions that would allow creditors to collect at least a part of their credits. A) Yes, in 1620, the rents of Callosa were kidnapped (65), the procession began in Valencia 1649, when the annual budget deficit was estimated at about 2.000 pounds, The town requested that the same file be repeated, or that an agreement be established with the creditors, declaring insolvent (66). In 1663 a bankruptcy proceeding was reached in Castellón de Vilanova (67) the procession began in Valencia 1677 Almoradí negotiated an agreement with the census takers, for it was impossible for him to satisfy all the ordinary pensions (68).
As expressed by A. Dominguez Ortiz, in his study on the Castilian case “out of debts or other circumstances, some of the exempted villages, instead of finding in his new state prosperity and increases, They fell into a pitiful decline." (69). But it must be insisted that it was not a phenomenon peculiar to segregated municipalities, since the economic cost of the dismemberment could have been compensated with the independence obtained to arrange and organize their own resources. And the aspiration to this autonomy, headed by local potentates, was one of the reasons that promoted the segregationist process.
ABBREVIATIONS
A. C. A.: Archive of the Crown of Aragon.
C. A.: Council of Aragon.
A. R. V.: Archive of the Kingdom of Valencia.
A. M. O.: Municipal Archive of Orihuela.
A. M. A.: Municipal Archive of Alicante.
NOTES
(1) An exemplary analysis of the jurisdictional interrelationships in these stately areas offers P. PLA ALBEROLA in her doctoral thesis: “Jurisdictional conflicts in a great Valencian manor. The County of Cocentaina before the consolidation of absolutism”, Modern History Department, University of Alicante, 1985 (in press).
(2) As pointed out by Primitivo Pla, the Valencian barons could demonstrate that immemorial custom protected their right to grant villazgo privileges, although this prerogative was falling into disuse as the Royal Court made the principle of reserving exclusive jurisdiction to hear the consistorial causes prevail., from the end of the 16th century (Ibid, II, ff. 616-620). This traditional attribution of the Valencian barons does not seem to be contemplated in Castile (Cf. I. ATIENZA HERNANDEZ: "Aristocracy, power and wealth in modern Spain., XXI century, Madrid, 1987, p. 203).
(3) The minimum number of settlers was 15 if it was about old christians. In the case of Mudejars, three were enough if it was populated in royal term, and seven if the domain was already under the jurisdiction of another lord. The text of the Alfonsino privilege can be consulted in "Furs de Valencia" (Edition. de G. COLUMBUS and A. GARCÍA), Barcelona, Barcelona, vol. III, 1978, lib. III, rub. V, I will be 78. On the circumstances in which the concession is framed, at. Sylvia ROMEU ALFARO: "The fueros of Valencia and the fueros of Aragon: Alfonsina jurisdiction”, "Yearbook of History of Spanish Law", n. ” 42, ¡972, pp. 75-115. For an overview, A. GIL OLCINA: "Land ownership in Alfonsina jurisdiction manors", "Geographical Investigations", n.° 1, Alicante, 1983, pp. 7-27. About the meaning, scope and development of the alfonsino jurisdiction, the most finished study in P. ALBEROLA PLAN: Op. cit., II, ff. 762-993.
(4) Sometimes the Alfonsino colonizers already held some type of lower jurisdiction, like the civilian, before purchasing alfonsine. This probably occurs in the case of the gentlemen of Cox, Redone, Benferri, Rafal and Jacarilla, in the term of Orihuela. But it is not less frequent that this colonization proceeds from large estates formed sometimes even by aggregation of several plots, over which no stately domain was held. This is how the lordships of Benejúzar are formed, Benijof, Formentera, Molins and Bigastro, in Orihuela; Villafranqueza in Alicante; and Lloch Nou by En Fenollet, in term of Játiva. and the list, obviously not complete. Details about the foundation of these late lordships — well, with the exception of Cox and Redován, the rest falls between 1592 y 1701— in D. ZAFORTEA AND MUSOLES: "History of the foundation of the New Place of Fenollet and its manor", Saitabi, 27, Valencia, 1948, pp. 5-47; J. MI-LLÁN AND GARCÍA-VÁRELA: “Rentiers and Peasants. Agrarian development and political traditionalism in the south of the Valencian Country (1680-1840)”, Juan Gil-Albert Institute of Studies, Alicante, 1984, pp. 96-112; G. MARTINEZ CHANNELS: “Creation of the ecclesiastical dominion of Bigastro (1697-1715)”, “Land ownership in Spain”, Alicante, 1981, pp. 65-73; A. ALBEROLA ROME: "Jurisdiction and ownership of land in Alicante (ss. XVII-XVIH)”, City Council-University of Alicante, 1984, pp. 451-477; D. BERNABE GIL: “Land and society in Bajo Segura (1700-1750)”, University-Provincial Savings Bank of Alicante, 1982, pp. 130-136, 206-216; "The formation of a noble patrimony in the Valencian Six hundred. The first Marquis of Rafal”, Modern History Magazine, n.° 5, Alicante, 1986, pp. 26-43; “Evolution of land ownership and factors of social differentiation in the irrigation area of the Azud de Alfeytami during the 17th century”, communication presented to // Col.loqui d'História Agraria, Barcelona, 1986 (in press); “The Santangels, gentlemen alfonsinos. Aspects of a stately colonization in royal territory”, communication presented at the International Congress Lluis de Santángel and his time, Valencia, 1987 (in press).
(5) The population chapters of some of these new dominions or a summary of their content can be seen in the works cited in the previous note..
