Ordenamientos dados a la Villa de Peñafiel, 10 de abril de 1345 1569540527

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JUAN MANUEL

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ORDENAMJENTOS DADOS A LA VILLA DE PEÑAFIEL JODE ABRIL DE 1345 A RECONSTRUCTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT TEXT WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND ANNOT ATED ENGLISH TRANSLA TION

BY

RICHARD P. KINKADE

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Manuel Alvar Samuel Armistead Jerry Craddock Alan D. Deyermond Charles Faulhaber Regina af Geijerstam Wilhelmina Jonxis-Henkemans Paul M. Lloyd Ian Macpherson Harvey Sharrer Juan C. Temprano Copyright © 1996 by Toe Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Ltd. Spanish Series No. 112 ISBN 1-56954-052-7

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FOR JOHN ESTEN KELLER

"Namet secundas res splendidioresfacit amicitia, et adversas partiens communicansque/eviores. " (Cicero, Laelius, 6.41)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE......................................................................................

Vil

NOTES......................................................................................

Xll

1

INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................

1

HISTORY OF THE ORDENAMJENT0S ............................................

THEORDENAMJENT0S

AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF MEDIEVAL CASTILE ...................................................................

6

STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE ORDENAMJENT0S ............ . 10

THEORDENAMJENT0S

AND THE WORKSOF JUAN MANUEL .... 13

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT .........................................

15

CRITERIA OF THE RECONSTRUCTED TEXT ...............................

17

NOTES ......................................................................................

26

.33

TEXT OF THE ORDENAMJENT0S DE PEÑAFIEL .............................. PLA TE OF FOL. 6R ...............................................................

43-44

PLATE OF FOL. 18R .............................................................

64-65

TRANSLATION OF THE ORDINANCES 0F PEÑAFIEL. ......................

65

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE ORDINANCES 0F PEÑAFIEL ............

61

NOTES ......................................................................................

91

APPENDIX

A: INDEX OF PROPER NAMES ...................................

114

APPENDIX

8: INDEX OF ÜCCUPATIONS .....................................

115

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................

116

GLOSSARY .................................................................................

128

ANAL YTICAL INDEX ..................................................................

13 8

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PREFACE While on sabbatical leave during the spring of 1989, I had occasion to consult with ever increasing frequency the documents collected by Andrés Giménez Soler in bis biography and critical study ofthe life of Juan Manuel. In the course of my numerous forays into this invaluable work, I carne across the so-called "Ordenanzas dadas a la Villa de Peftafiel por Don Juan, hijo del infante Don Manuel" (655-671) which Giménez had placed in an appendix with the following comments: Publicó estas ordenanzas, copiándolas del original existente en el Archivo parroquial de Peftáfiel, Don Saturnino Ribera [sic] Manescau. Y las reproduzco por reconocer como su primer editor su gran importancia para el conocimiento del personaje, de la vida municipal y del idioma. Hay, en efecto, en esas ordenanzas una parte redactada por el propio Don Juan, y otra por el Concejo o seis jurados establecidos por él para el gobierno de la villa. La primera encierra la segunda y se reconoce no sólo por la manera personal en que manda, sino por su mejor estilo y su mayor claridad. At about the same time, I had received notice of the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy scheduled to be held in April, 1990 in Vancouver with a special session to be chaired by Constance Wilkins on "Human Relations in Spanish Literature." This, I reasoned, would be an ideal forum for a presentation and discussion of the only work of Juan Manuel not yet included in the Manueline corpus nor even recognized by most medieval scholars as a document of value for our understanding of the life and turbulent times of this incredibly prolific and complex nephew of Alfonso X, el Sabio. 1 Following Prof. Wilkin's acceptance of my proposal, I began to investigate the ordinances in earnest and quickly discovered that exceedingly few bibliographical references had been made to Saturnino Rivera Manescau's edition of the codex which had been reviewed by Agustín Millares Cario in 1927 and later listed by Daniel Devoto, Introducción al estudio de don Juan Manuel (1972: 204-205), who had marked the reference with an asterisk to indicate he had not personally consulted the work. Several important lacunae and inexplicable editorial emendations and markings in the Giménez edition indicated a clear need to seek out the Rivera transcription which I suspected Giménez may not have accurately reproduced. In spite of my best efforts, it soon became apparent why Devoto had been unable to consult the original Rivera

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edition. Though the Millares Cario review appeared to cite a 46-page monograph published in Valladolid in 1926, subsequent efforts to identify and secure the publication through ali available printed and electronic resources carne to naught. In order to fully appreciate the scope and importance of the ordinances, I felt the Medieval Academy audience would need to see the entire document to which I intended to refer during the course of my discussion. However, faced with the difficulty of having to cite what I then thought to be an erroneous transcription of the Old Spanish text by Giménez Soler and having been unable to locate the original Rivera edition, I decided to translate the ordinances into English with the objective of both opening the document to a broader audience of nonSpanish speaking scholars and simultaneously avoiding any textual errors which might have crept into the Giménez copy. At the meeting I distributed a handout of the ordinances consisting of an annotated translation into English and subsequently published an expanded version of the paper as an article without the text.2 Though I was anxious to publish an edition of the ordinances themselves, this was clearly impossible until such time as I could both secure the original Rivera edition and gain access to the original manuscript document. In the fall of 1992, I had occasion to correspond with my colleague at Cleveland State University, José Julián Labrador, who was preparing to leave for a semester in Madrid, and requested his assistance in identifying the appropriate individual to whom I might write for further information conceming the ordinances document. Through colleagues in Spain, Labrador was able to respond with the address of the mayor of Peftafiel to whom I then wrote with the request that he forward the letter to the person or persons responsible for the Archivo Parroquial de Peftafiel. My letter was never answered. Nevertheless, Labrador persevered and finally, in January, 1992, managed to obtain through the good offices of María Jesús Urquijo, Directora del Archivo Histórico Provincial de Valladolid, a Xerox copy of Rivera's original edition of the ordinances. When it arrived in March, 1992, I was surprised to note that it was not the edition published in 1926 by the Casa Social Católica and subsequently reviewed by Millares Cario. In fact, the original edition of the work which I now had before me had been brought out in two separate issues of the Revista Histórica (Facultad de Historia de Valladolid) ( 1925): 167-176 and (1926): 193-206. The 1926 edition must have been limited to very few copies and apparently did not mention that it had been previously published in the Revista Histórica. Otherwise, Millares Cario would most likely have noted it in bis review and this, of course, would

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have rendered the search for the edition considerably less complicated than it tumed out to be. In addition, and to my great satisfaction, the Revista Histórica edition also contained two photographic plates of the original manuscript fols. 6r and 18r. In bis introduction to the edition (167-200), Saturnino Rivera Manescau ( 1893-1957) also chronicled bis involvement with the 3 ordinances. He had been appointed on 13 May 1924 by the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública y Bellas Artes to a commission charged with investigating the current state and holdings of ali archives in the Province of Valladolid not then incorporated into the Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros Bibliotecarios y Arqueológicos de la Provincia de 4 Valladolid. His investigations subsequently led him to Peflafiel where he discovered the ordinances in the parochial archives of the church of San Miguel de Reoyo. A skilled archeologist, librarian and historian, Rivera was immediately aware of the significance of the ordinances for both the history of municipal legislation in Castile and the life and times of Juan Manuel, feudal lord of Peflafiel, and wasted no time in publishing them. From bis edition, one would naturally suppose that the original manuscript of the ordinances was still housed in the parochial archive of San Miguel in Peflafiel where Giménez Soler assumed it to be when he copied Rivera's transcription in bis own 1932 publication. Such, however, is not the case. In the meantime, I had also importuned my deparbnental colleague, Prof. Karl Gregg, a member of the Asociación Espaflola de Bibliografia and at that time Director of the University of Arizona Program in Spain, to see if he could establish any further contacts with Spanish bibliographers who might be able to help me locate and obtain a copy of the original ordinances document. He spoke to Julián Martín Abad of the Biblioteca Nacional who, in tum, communicated with Prof. Germán Vega García-Luengos, of the Departamento de Literatura, Universidad de Valladolid. Prof. Vega made extensive inquiries with regard to the location of the manuscript and wrote me conceming bis findings in July, 1992. Consulting with bis colleague, Pascual Martfnez Sopena, who was at that time directing the doctoral dissertation of Salvador Repiso on "Peflafiel en la Edad Media," he found that both Repiso and Martfnez had been searching for the original document for several years without success. At some point, according to Prof. Vega, the manuscript had apparently been removed from the parochial archives of Peflafiel by Rivera Manescau and bis younger colleague, the paleographer Filemón 5 Arribas Arranz (b. 1903). Together they had managed to have the manuscript transferred along with several other codices to the Museo Arqueológico de Valladolid from whence they were later moved to the

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Archivo Histórico Provincial where most of these same documents now reside with the notable exception of the ordinances. Vega believes the manuscript may have been misplaced in the Museo Arqueológico or that it may still be among the papers of the heirs of Rivera Manescau or 6 Filemón Arribas. Given the fact that we have two photographic plates of the manuscript, it is not unreasonable to assume that either Rivera or Arribas may have photographed the entire codex from which folios 6r and 18r were then selected for reproduction in the Revista Histórica edition. At this point in time, then, I had a legible Xerox copy of the 1925-26 Rivera edition of the ordinances, including two photographic plates of the original manuscript fols. 6r and l 8r with which to collate and judge the accuracy of Rivera' s transcription. While the Xerox copy of plate 6r was perfectly clear, the legibility of the copy of plate l 8r left much to be desired and I was unable to ascertain whether this might be due to either the advanced age and deteriorated condition of the folio itself or simply to the inadequacy of either the original photographic or recent xerographic reproductions. A request to the Archivo Histórico Provincial y Universitario de Valladolid in January, 1995, evoked a rapid response from the Ayudante del Archivo, Dfla. Margarita Candau Pérez, who sent on two glossy prints of the Rivera edition photographic plates within weeks. Fortunately, the photo of the published plate of fol. 18r proved to be much clearer than the Xerox copy, allowing for an unequivocal reading ofthe text. A cursory comparison of Rivera's transcription with the photographic copies of the original reveals a large number of errors of transcription: 72 in fol. 6r alone. Even the title, Ordenanzas, which Rivera took from the parchment binder, is erroneous and was obviously added much later since the term ordenanza itself does not even occur in the text, which always refers to the ordinances as ordenamjentos. Rivera was apparently more intent on providing a legible copy of the ordinances than he was on establishing an accurate paleographical text. In this respect he has modemized the Old Spanish, reducing the characteristic double ff- and ss- to single/- and single s-, replacing ~ with c,j with i, z' with s, and frequently rr- with r. Toe latter are several of the more consistent alterations made by the editor which can be verified by reference to the photographic plates of the original manuscript. Elsewhere throughout bis transcription, however, one encounters troublesome instances of inconsistency in bis use of square brackets and parentheses which Rivera ali too often uses indistinctly whereas a modem editor, for example, would always employ square

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brackets to signal an editorial inclusion and parentheses to indicate an editorial exclusion. Clearly, then, a new edition of the ordinances would be desirable for several compelling reasons: Rivera's 1925-26 edition published in the obscure and practically inaccessible Revista Histórica is demonstrably inaccurate, largely unavailable and mostly unknown to medieval historians; Giménez Soler's 1932 copy of the Rivera transcription, while widely available, has gone unnoticed precisely because it is a copy of a copy and does not provide either a study of the archaic language or a history of the ordinances, both of which are necessary for a proper understanding ofthe document and its author. Having set forth an adequate rationale for a new edition, an editor, with no access to the original document, is immediately confronted with the inherent difficulty of establishing an accurate text based on an inaccurate transcription and only 2 fols. of the original manuscript available with which to collate and establish the necessary editorial criteria and reconstruct the text itself. It might be argued that the safest route would be simply to republish the Rivera edition with variants from the two manuscript folios. This would, however, ignore both the textual evidence which the manuscript folios provide and the orthographic tradition embodied in the "letra de albalaes" script which the notary who penned the ordinances carefully followed in fols. 6r and 18r. In spite of these obvious impediments, the intrinsic value of the manuscript, its historical significance for the life of Juan Manuel and its importance as a social contract which at once defines its author and the people he ruled, transcend the initial objections many scholars will voice in this respect. In fmal analysis, one could reasonably argue that any text edited and annotated according to exacting contemporary standards of scholarship would be an improvement on the extant text. ludicet lector. To avoid overburdening the reconstructed OSp text with its over 395 variant footnotes, I have opted to append the extensive historical, legal and textual commentaries as footnotes to the English translation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleague Dana A. Nelson for bis careful reading of the OSp text and translation to both of which he made numerous suggestions for change and improvement. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dean Charles Tatum of the College of Humanities and Richard F. lmwalle, President of the University of Arizona Foundation, for their financial support of this publication.

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NOTES 1

It is significantly abscnt from the recent authoritative list of regional and local Spanish legal tcxts by Ana M. Barrero Garcfa and Maria Luz Alonso Martín, Textos de derecho local espaffol en la edad media (Madrid, 1989). l¡"Guardándoles en justi~ia': Juan Manuel's Social Contract with the Town of Peflafiel in the Year 1345," Anuario Medieval 2 (1990): 102-123. 3 Rivera Manescau was an influential and well-connected scholar, who during the period under consideration was employed by the Biblioteca Universitaria de Valladolid and was, at the same time, Profesor Auxiliar de Historia de la Universidad de Val lado lid. In 1930 he was appointed Director del Museo Arqueológico de Val lado lid and in the coursc of bis life was variously Jefe de la Sección de Arqueologfa del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueologfa de la Universidad de Valladolid, Académico correspondiente de la Real de la Historia and Jefe de los Servicios Universitarios de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos; see bis extensive entry in A. Ruiz Cabriada, Bio-Bibliografta del Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arqueólogos (13.243-13.300, pp. 826-829). 4 See A. Ruiz Cabriada, Bio-Bibliografta (13.243) where the date of bis appointment is given as I O July 1916. 5 See bis entry in A. Ruiz Cabriada, Bio-Bibliografla ( 1.609, p. 11O) where he is described as professor of Paleogratla y Diplomática de la Universidad de Val lado lid y secretario general de la misma, Académico correspondiente de la Real de la Historia and Inspector de Archivos zona Centro-Norte, among other titles and positions. 6My colleague, Jesús Rodríguez Velasco of the Universidad de Salamanca, recently undertook a search for possible papers either Rivera or Arribas may have left in library collections in Vallado lid but was unable to discover any such items. I most am grateful to him for bis efforts in this regard.

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INTRODUCTION 1.0

HISTORY OF fflE ORDENAMJENTOS.

1.1

TeE ORDENAMJENTOS AND JUAN MANUEL

0n 10 April 1345, Juan Manuel bestowed upon the inhabitants of Peftafiel a set of municipal ordinances or regulations constituting a fonn of social contract in which he affmned the reciproca} obligations and duties ofboth feudal lord and faithful vassals. 1.2

DATE AND HlsTORICAL CONTEXT OF fflE ORDENAMJENTOS.

Though Juan Manuel and bis thirteen-year-old son Femando signed and placed their respective seals upon the Ordenamjentos on 1O April 1345, this was not the first time that the master of Peftafiel had set down rules and regulations within bis domain. In the same document, Don Juan states that he had previously provided bis knights with specific ordinances: "Furthermore, so that the town and its jwisdiction may be better kept and defended and I may be better served by them, I deem it wise that they be given [monies] from my rents for certain knights with which they may have mounted men-at-arms with horses and arms fumished in the manner prescribed in the ordinances which I gave for my demesne in matters of knights' fees. And furthennore, with regard to the other ways which I found that they might be better maintained, I gave them in writing. And they saw them and considered them good and profitable, and they approved them. They showed me a register which they had made before and seeing that ali these things were greatly beneficial, I deemed it wise and authorized them" (§Intro.). 1 These particular ordinances, promulgated for the benefit of bis knights and the town, most probably do not constitute the famous lost Libro de la cavallería to which Don Juan refers in bis prologue to the Conde Lucanor and the Prólogo general. Certainly the very brief notice accorded them here is quite unlike the three references to the Libro de la caballería found in the Libro de los estados (caps. LXVII, LXXXVI, XC) where it is characterized as a work much like the Libro del cavallero et del escudero with its "razones... dichas por muy buenas palabras et por los muy fennosos latines que yo nunca oí decir en libro que fuese hecho en romance" (cap. XC). More to the point, however, Don Juan always refers to the Libro de la cavalleria as a "libro" whereas here in the Ordenamjentos he speaks only of other ordinances previously given to bis knights. 2 In any event, Don Juan also declares in the Introduction that "the offices of the magistracies and sheriff which I formerly held, I now willingly concede to the knights and those who

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hold my land in knight's fee to discharge as they used to" (§lntro.), 3 indicating that at some undetennined point in time he had taken upon himself certain municipal responsibilities, most often held by as many as five or six officials, duties which he is now retuming to the collective control ofthe town council. If indeed Juan Manuel had inherited the town and castle of Peftafiel from bis father who died in 1283 when Don Juan was scarcely 4 a year-and-a-half old, why had he waited 62 years to promulgate these municipal ordinances which he considers to be of such paramount importance and why was he now retuming to the town the various magistracies and office of the sheriff which he had at some point assumed? lndeed, what circumstances could have compelled him to exercise the numerous judicial and administrative duties nonnally assigned to the several alcaldes or magistrates within the jurisdiction of Peflafiel? In any case, the very nature of these daily responsibilities would seem to require Don Juan's presence and that fact in and of itself will necessarily restrict our answer to those infrequent periods when we have documented evidence ofhis extended residence in Peflafiel. Throughout bis life, the son of Prince Manuel was preoccupied with regaining and maintaining those lands, title and authority of the Adelantado or Govemor of the Frontier in Murcia which had belonged to bis father and which had been seized at the death of Sancho IV of Castile in 1296 by Jaime II of Aragón. Much of the political intrigue and overt power plays into which the young nobleman eagerly thrust himself during the troubled reign of Sancho's son, Femando IV (1296-1312), and later during the regency (1321-1325) and monarchy of Alfonso XI (1325-1350), were due in large part to a strong conviction that bis 5 Murcian patrimony had been unjustly usurped. In the Libro de las armas he truculently recalls that "King Don Femando gave the king of 6 Aragón that land that was mine. " Contrary to popular opinion, Juan Manuel did not spend a great deal of time in Peftafiel. No doubt the prologue to the Conde Lucanor, listing nine of bis works which he says may be found in the "monasterio de los frayres predicadores que él fizo en Peftafiel," has led man y to assume that the works which were kept there were also composed there. We must remember that Don Juan was bom in Escalona' and that bis father had only received the feudal domain of Peftafiel from Sancho IV 8 in April, 1283, nearly a year after his birth. Don Juan's mother, Beatrice of Savoy, died in Escalona in the year 1290 when he was only eight years old, a good indication that the hoy must have spent most of these early years in this same location in the province of Toledo. At the age of 14 in 1296, he received a large but undetermined sum of money from his royal cousin, Sancho IV, to construct the castle

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of Peftafiel, as he recalls for us in a passage from the same Libro de las 9 armas. However, most of the hundreds of letters and historical documents which are either written by Juan Manuel or refer to him do not place him in Peflafiel but rather in bis domain of Villena and it is certain that following bis marriage in 1312 to Constanz.a, daughter of Jaime II of Aragón, the same king who had earlier appropriated bis father's lands in Murcia, Don Juan took up residence in the castle of Garci Muftoz in Cuenca, near Murcia and the Aragonese border and at a considerable distance from Peflafiel in Castile. 10 In fact, we do not know what Juan Manuel did with the original funds given to him by Sancho in the fall of 1294 to fortify Peftafiel. His brief Latin chronicle says only that he began to build the walls of Peftafiel in the month of July, 1307, but the chronicle also mentions six other castles or strongholds which he undertook to erect or fortify in the nine years between 1315 and 1324.11 The massive and imposing edifice which today occupies the hill above the town was constructed by Pedro Girón, Master of the Order of Calatrava (m. 1466), during the reign of 12 Juan 11(1406-1454), sometime after 1431, and was never so large or so impressive during the lifetime of Juan Manuel. Like most nobles of bis day, the lord of Peflafiel had many castles and residences and moved from one to another with a frequency most often dictated by the constantly shifting political boundaries and alliances which characterized this extremely unstable period in Castilian history. Clearly, Juan Manuel during this interval preferred to stay rather close to bis primary interests in Cuenca and the southeast rather than Valladolid and the northwest, where bis constant nemeses, Femando IV and the dowager queen, Maria de Molina, most frequently held court. He would not return to anything like a permanent residence in Castile until after the unusual and ominous demise of the regent Infantes, Pedro and Juan, both of whom died on the same day during the siege of Granada in 1319. And he certainly would have found it more convenient to be in Castile during bis own brief regency over the young Alfonso XI from 1321-1325. Upon Alfonso's full assumption of power in 1325 at the uncommon age of fourteen, Juan Manuel found himself faced with a number of important adversaries who now surrounded and advised the young monarch with disastrous results for our author. There followed four years of nearly constant conflict between the young monarch and bis former regent. 13 When bis wife, Constanz.a, died of tuberculosis three years later, followed in November of the same year by her father, Jaime 11, Juan Manuel lost much of the support he had enjoyed from the court of Aragón. To make matters worse, Alfonso XI's sister, Leonor, was

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manied to Jaime's son and successor, Alfonso IV, a weak and vacillating monarch who was thoroughly dominated by bis wife and brother-in-Iaw, the king of Castile. Juan Manuel, now forty-five and without a male heir, desperately sought an alliance with bis former enemies, the de la Cerda's, whose line of inheritance through Alfonso X's first-bom, Femando, had been cut off by the rebellion of Alfonso's second son, Sancho IV, and bis descendants. Sometime in the first half of the year 1329, Juan Manuel manied Blanca Núftez de la Cerda, allying himself in the process with the perennially disgnmtled pretenders to the throne of Castile and swom enemies of Alfonso XI. His new brother-in-Iaw, Juan Núftez, Lord of Lenna, now joined him in open conflict against a frustrated Alfonso XI who was unable to retaliate effectively because of the war he continued to wage in Granada with the Maghrebi Muslims. Confronted with this new and powerful political alliance between Juan Núftez and Juan Manuel, Alfonso sued for peace that same year and, if only temporarily, became reconciled with bis rebellious vassal. Between 1321 and 1333, then, Juan Manuel leda haz.ardous but charmed existence. During this same period he wrote the Crónica abreuiada (1320-25), the Libro de la caza, the Libro del cauallero et del escudero (begun in Seville before November, 1326 and finished in the Castle of Garci Mufloz before October, 1327), the first part ofthe Libro de los estados (finished on 22 May 1330 in Pozancos), the now lost Libro de la cavallería and the first part of the Conde Lucanor ( 133 11333).14 Following the armistice with Granada in 1333, king Alfonso XI now commanded the necessary resources to settle old seores with the rebellious nobles in Castile and soon Juan Manuel and bis brother-inlaw, Juan Núftez, found themselves once again embroiled in constant skirmishes with their royal nemesis. By April, 1334, Juan Manuel was in residence in Pefl.afiel from whence he wrote to king Alfonso IV of Aragón conceming bis good intentions to maintain peace in Castile: "me vinia para Pennafiel para faser y el bien que pudiese... Et sed cierto sennor que fare yo todo el mio poder porque en la tierra haya sesiego." 15 We may also surmise that the peace Don Juan now sought was not motivated by bis kinder instincts alone but primarily due to the straightened economic circumstances occasioned by the incessant armed 16 hostilities with king Alfonso XI. It is most probable that he decided at this point to take control of the municipal government of Pefl.afiel, vesting ali dominion and authority in bis own hands. Furthermore, bis actions were eminently practical: the campaigns against Alfonso XI had cost him dearly and bis coffers were severely depleted. The town of Pefl.afielhad provided an

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INTRODUCTION

effective source of income for a number of years with its profitable trade in linen and wool cloth, cattle, sheep, wheat and wine. By assuming total control over ali of these industries, the master of Peftafiel could effectively encourage production while maximizing the collection of 17 taxes and other pertinent revenues. Don Juan himself seems to confirm this strategy for us in §77 of the Ordenamjentos when he declares that "I deem it appropriate and I command the Council and the knights and good jurymen that, henceforth, they shall collect each year from the Council rents such an amount as I used to give to the others who were magistrates before I took their offices." The death of Alfonso IV of Aragón in January of 1336 must have seemed particularly fortunate for Juan Manuel. The new king, Pedro IV, bore an intense dislike for bis stepmother, Leonor of Castile, sister of Alfonso XI, and Don Juan was quick to recognize that bis friendship with Pedro could form the nucleus of an important source of support for bis ongoing struggle with Alfonso XI. Precipitously and somewhat foolishly, perhaps, Juan Manuel revoked bis feudal allegiance to Alfonso in July of 1336. Alfonso's response was immediate and determined. He promptly marched on Peftafiel and besieged the recalcitrant vassal in bis own stronghold. Where a few months earlier Alfonso had attempted to lay siege to Juan Núftez in bis castle at Lerma, though with little success, Juan Manuel was forced to abandon Peftafiel and flee for bis life to Valencia. It was not until April of 1337 that Alfonso would be reconciled with the renegade in an uneasy troce which would prevail until Juan Manuel's death eleven years later in 1348-49. In the summer of 1337, the terms of Don Juan's capitulation were negotiated: he would surrender the towns of Escalona and Cartagena and raze several castles, including Galbe in Peftafiel, a humiliating defeat for the proud nephew of Alfonso el Sabio. His precipitous flight from the king and subsequent abandonment of Peflafiel were to have serious consequences. He had lost face in bis own feudal domain and perhaps the allegiance of a number of bis knights who might well remember the wrath of their vindictive monarch, Alfonso XI. The new situation was a far cry from the circumstances which had prevailed ten years earlier when the citizens of Zamora and Toro had refused to welcome the young king until he had put a stop to 18 the rapacious incursions of the nobility. Alfonso was now a powerful and respected figure to whom Juan Manuel was clearly subordinated and his reconciliation with the king had also cost him the trust and friendship of bis wife's family, the powerful Núftez clan. Significantly, Don Juan would not retum to Peffafiel until January, 1342. We must assume that during·· the intervening six years between 1336 and 1342 that the

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municipal govemment of the town reverted to local control in Don Juan's absence. Meanwhile, Don Juan assiduously, if unenthusiastically, accompanied bis monarch in the southem campaigns of El Salado (1340) and Algeciras (1344). Here, on 26 March, at the age of 62, Juan Manuel entered the town of Algeciras at the head of a victorious Castilian army. He had acquitted himself with honor against the combined forces of Yusuf I of Granada and Abu-1-Hasan, the Merinid Sultan of Morocco, and perhaps in some measure had even redeemed himself in the eyes of King Alfonso. Furthermore, during the course of the year 1345, Don Juan had actively negotiated with Pedro IV of Aragón conceming the marriage of bis son Femando Manuel to Johana Desgina de Romania, the daughter of Pedro's uncle, Ramón Berenguer. A secret document dated September 1345 informs Pedro IV at great length of both the marriage and Juan Manuel's suspicion that the king of Castile intended to appropriate lands in Murcia and elsewhere for the illegitimate children 20 he had fathered with Leonor de Guzmán. Juan Manuel once again felt himself to be an indispensable element in the ongoing intrigue between Castile and Aragón and a staunch ally of Pedro IV against bis old rival Alfonso XI. Confident of bis manipulative potential and imminent return to power as a royal confidant and future father-in-law to the cousin of the king of Aragón, Juan Manuel no longer needed the burden of either the magistracy or sheriffdom of Peflafiel, offices which at this point in time he cheerfully remitted to those of bis knights in the jurisdiction whom he could trust. Unlike the disastrous summer of 1336, the Spring of 1345 must have found Don Juan with a large number of faithful retainers in Peflafiel, especially among those who had accompanied him on the successful campaign against the Moors in Algeciras. These, then, are the probable circumstances surrounding the promulgation of the Ordenamjentos on 10 April 1345.

2.0

THE ORDENAMJENT0S MEDIEVAL CASTILE.

AND

THE

LEGAL

SYSTEM

OF

The Ordenamjentos, though they include several feudal privileges, are primarily municipal regulations reflecting common prohibitions designed to maintain law and order by defming misdeeds and imposing fmes. Neither violent crimes, serious felonies nor capital offenses are treated here. In fact, the majority of these infractions are misdemeanors dealing with the protection of private property against simple theft or fraud. These are laws which belie the Latin dictum "Lex non curat de minimis." Feudal privileges granted by the Ordenamjentos

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to knights and landholders were most certainly extracted from another codex no longer extant to which Juan Manuel refers in bis introduction: "Délles cauallos armados et ahorrados en la fforma que está ordenado en los ordenamjentos que yo ffize en rrazón dessas cauallerías." Throughout the years, Juan Manuel undoubtedly provided the Council of Peflafiel with explicit rules meant to deal with bis own particular views conceming the welfare of the inhabitants and their various commercial activities within bis jurisdiction. For their part, the members of the town Council would have observed existing local traditions, writing ordinances from time to time as they became necessary for the proper maintenance of law and order, but always referring them back to Juan Manuel for bis ultimate approval. While Don Juan' s word was law in bis own domain, bis actions must necessarily have been subordinated to both royal review and appeal based on existing legal codes in Castile and elsewhere. That he was aware of and no doubt possessed copies of various legal statutes is evident from the large number of parallels and even one verbatim passage in the Ordenamjentos taken from the major legal works of bis uncle, Alfonso X, el Sabio, compiler of the Fuero real and the Siete Partidas. 21 Nevertheless, the most salient feature of the Ordenamjentos is most certainly their dependence upon the /ex communis or common law as opposed to any specific body of rules which may have been inherited from Roman jurisprudence. The legal system in force during the life of Juan Manuel had its roots in the reign ofhis grandfather, Femando 111,el Santo (1217-1252). Femando had translated the Visigothic Liber iudiciorum into Romance as the Fuero juzgo, granting it first to the defeated city of Córdoba in 1236 as a local charter and later bestowing it in similar circumstances upon Seville in 1248 and thenceforth upon other cities in Andalusia as 22 they were wrested from Muslim rule. Femando also granted afuero to Peflafiel on 23 July 1222 specifying the manner in which the town magistrates were to be ch osen, the nature and extent of the knights' fee 23 and other taxes and how they were to be collected. This particular fuero or privilegio, however, does not appear in the Ordenamjentos but is alluded to only incidentally in §74: "Mando que les ssean guardados los priuileios que an de los Reyes et las cartas que de mj tienen en esta rrazón. Et que ayan parte en los offi~ios et que non pechen pecho ninguno ssegund sse contiene por los priuilleios et cartas que de los Reyes et de my tienen." During the first few years of bis reign, Alfonso X (1252-1284) had developed the Fuero real ostensibly for towns in bis kingdom which had no charters but in reality as an attempt to replace the Fuero juzgo and both centralize and standardize existing law throughout Castile.

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Thus on 19 July 1256, Alfonso X granted a privilegio, essentially the Fuero real, to the town of Peftafiel even though it had already received a 24 goveming charter from his father Femando thirty-four years earlier. During this same year, Alfonso X set to work on what was to be his greatest contribution to jurisprudence, the Siete Partidas, a massive, synthetic compilation which he hoped would become the exclusive legal standard for Castile. There is sorne debate conceming the extent to which the Siete Partidas served as other than a reference work before the second half of the fourteenth century but a verbatim passage taken from the Partidas and incorporated into the Ordenamjentos indicates that at least in one instance this codex had been utilized to establish a 25 working municipal ordinance. Other legal codes which have recogniz.able similarities with the Ordenamjentos are the Leyes del Estilo (c. 131O) which constitute a group of 252 laws meant to clarify and expand upon the statutes contained in the Fuero real and the Siete Partidas, and the Fuero viejo de Castilla or the Fuero de los fijosdalgo (second half of 13th cent.). In fact, Ley VIII of the Leyes del Estilo is cited quite nearly verbatim in §64 where the rights of individual Council members to appeal a Council 26 ruling to the king are set forth. In addition to the many obvious parallels between the Ordenamjentos and the major Castilian legal codices in force during the first half of the 14th century, there were also numerous regional fueros, codes of law most often reflecting local usage and custom whose rules regulated the daily life of the inhabitants in those areas where they had been in force for hundreds of years. To discover what fueros may have been operative in Peftafiel both before and during Juan Manuel's feudal tenure in this domain, we have only to refer to his introduction to the Ordenamjentos in §Intro. where he states that "Sso muy tenido de onrrar et de Aprouechar quanto pudiere la villa de pefta ffiel et Atodos los que enella biuen et en ssu tennjno Sseftalada mjente por quanta onrra les dieron el conde don ssancho que la poblo de muy buenas gentes et muy onrradas." Sancho García, grandson of Femán González and Count of Castile (995-1 O17), conquered the Leonese town of Peftareal which he renamed Peftafiel for its loyalty to his cause, sometime following the death of al-Mansur in 1002 when the Almoravid invaders were obliged with the loss of their leader to relinquish much of the territory they had previously held along the Duero. Toe Primera Crónica General relates that "el conde don Sancho, ... gano Pennafiel, et Sepuluega, ... Este dio 27 los fueros de Sepúlveda. " In fact, Sancho García was known as "el conde de los buenos fueros," and his name is linked with, among others, 28 the local laws of Peftafiel and Sepúlveda. Juan Manuel was, of course, quite familiar with the Primera Crónica General having utilized it for

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bis own highly abridged version, the Crónica abreviada, where he 29 summarizes this particular event. Rivera Manescau cites Gutiérrez de la Bacera, Descripción general de la Europa (Madrid, 1782), as the earliest mention of the Ordenamjentos attributed to Juan Manuel though neither he nor Gutiérrez provide any bibliographical data or page references to support such a claim. 0n the other hand, Fray Liciniano Sáez, archivist of the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, stated in his Demostración histórica (Madrid, 1796) that he had personally seen a Spanish translation of the fueros given to Peflafiel blo Count Sancho in the 0 "Ordenanz.as antiguas de aquella Villa" (361). This is, of course, the title inscribed on the vellum binding of the Ordenamjentos at a date much later than the original promulgation of 1345 and serves to lend credence to Sáez' observations. Rivera also cites a "Memoria histórica" by José de Pazos y Vela Hidalgo (Salamanca, 1880) who recorded the first few Latin lines of a "fuero de Peftafiel" granted by Count Sancho in "947," lines which Rivera reproduces and which correspond to the brief mention and translation ofthefuero published by P. Sáez in 1796.31 Rivera, however, was understandably skeptical about the date of the work cited by Pazos, noting that it did not coincide with the lifetime of Sancho García but rather with that of his grandfather, Femán González (169, n. 2). Surprisingly, Rivera was unaware that Fr. Alfonso Andrés, Benedictine monk and archivist of the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, had published the Latin text in 1915, over twelve years earlier, from among the papers of his predecessor, Fr. Liciniano Sáez.32 From the first few lines of the manuscript which Pazos published in 1880, it is clear that both he and Alfonso Andrés were referring to the same document which Rivera believed was "hoy perdida" ( 169). In spite of the confusion surrounding the Latin fuero and its supposed importance as a precursor of and source for the Ordenamjentos, even the most cursory comparison of the text published by Fr. Alfonso Andrés with the extant Ordenamjentos reveals little if any correspondence. Toe Latinfuero is a diminutive record of scarcely 9 paragraphs dealing primarily with the boundaries of Peftafiel. Its dubious authenticity was seriously challenged by Rafael Urefta in an article that accompanies Fray Andrés' original publication of the document in the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. 33 0n the other hand, the Latin Fuero de Sepúlveda, promulgated by Alfonso VI of Castile on 17 November 1076, contains sorne 35 articles and clearly and unequivocally states that "Totas las uillas que sunt in termino de Sepuluega, sic de rege quomodo de infanzones, 34 sedeant populatas ad uso de Sepuluega." Given the close proximity of

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Peftafiel, at the confluence of the Duero and the Duratón, and Sepúlveda, also on the Duratón sorne 50 km. to the southeast, it is reasonable to assume that both towns were probably govemed by similar documents. In fact, the Romance version of the Fuero de Sepúlveda, 35 dating from 29 April 1300, is an extensive legal codex containing 254 titles of law, many of wbicb bear a demonstrably close relationsbip to the Ordenamjentos. Indeed, approximately one third of the Ordenamjentos find nearly exact parallels in the Fuero de Sepúlveda, ali of wbicb bave been duly identified in the notes to the Englisb translation of the ordinances. Furthermore, several of the older twelfth- and thirteenth36 century cbarters, and most especially the Leonese Fuero de 31 Salamanca, bear a striking resemblance to the Ordenamjentos in many respects nor is this remarkable in any sense since most of the smaller municipalities in Castile and Leon were agricultura! communities with essentially similar economies. Again, these textual similarities bave been duly recorded in the notes to the Englisb translation. Thus the Ordenamjentos are a peculiar blend reflecting both Juan Manuel's knowledge of the major Castilian legal codices of bis day and a familiarity and respect for the local rules and customs of common law wbicb bad always prevailed in the daily life of bis vassals in Peflafiel.

3.0

STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE ORDENAMIENTOS.

Toe Rivera transcription of the Ordenamjentos consists of 80 38 sections numbered i-lxxx wbicb I bave retained, though with Arabic numerals 1-80, in order to facilitate the many comparisons wbicb bave been made throughout this study between the Rivera transcription and the reconstructed text. At the same time, bowever, I bave cbosen to recognize Juan Manuel's introductory paragrapbs and bis final admonitory conclusion as separate entities wbicb I bave labeled "Introduction" and "section 81", respectively. Of the 82 sections comprising the reconstructed text of the Ordenamjentos, the Introduction and §81 are explanatory rather than regulatory wbile the remaining 80 sections often contain ref eren ces to one or more misdemeanors so that no clear correlation may be said to 39 exist between the number of sections and the number of ordinances. Toe notable use of the first person singular in parts of the Ordenamjentos leaves no doubt that Juan Manuel directly dictated 18 sections (§§Intro., 1-9 and 73-81) or 22% of the wbole. Toe remaining 62 sections (§§10-72), or 76% of the wbole, are the work of the members of the town Council wbo speak in the first person plural and submit their rules to their liege lord for bis approbation. Toe preamble,

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or Introduction, and the first 9 sections represent the express wishes of Don Juan empowering the Council to act on bis behalf and, variously, to appoint its own members from among the knights and good men of the jurisdiction, to apportion taxes equally among the villages and the town, to carefully supervise the sale of foodstuffs, to support the woolen industry and pave the town streets, and to control the interest rates which Jewish moneylenders may charge. At this point, the six jurymen chosen to represent the Council are listed by name. Four of the six must be knights and the other two, "ornes buenos de la villa" (§2). They are required to serve for one year, if asked, and may not easily avoid such service: "et que sse non escussen Ssopena de la mj mer~ed et de los cuerpos et de quanto an" (§4). They and an unspecified number of alcaldes or magistrates together with the sheriff constitute the town Council of Peflafiel whose duties and responsibilities in the Ordenamjentos (§§1-8) constitute roughly 10% of the entire document. Toe next block of regulations, sorne 63 in number, represents the work of the Council and deals primarily with three principal groups: agriculture in the rural areas of Peflafiel (23§§ or 37%), commerce in the urban center of the town (32§§ or 51%) and rules of personal conduct (8§§ or 13%). At the end of the document, Juan Manuel again intervenes personally by dictating the last 8 sections (§§73-80), upholding the privileges he had previously granted to bis feudal retainers and their families. Statistically, the most important areas addressed by the Ordenamjentos are theft (18 ordinances or 26%), fraud involving weights and measures (9/13%), and control of the local wine trade (7/10%). Twenty-five separate occupations are listed: Juryman (15 times or 22% of ali occupations); Knight (12/17%); Butcher (5/6%); Sheriff (4/6%); Notary, Shopkeeper, Arrendator, Magistrate (3/4%); Innkeeper, Regrater, Shoemaker (2/3%); Bailiff, Clerk, Gatekeeper, Gleaner, Laborer, Moneylender, Reaper, Salter, S~ire, Tanner, Town Crier, Vineyard Guard, Vintager, Yeoman (1/1%). Fines in the Ordenamjentos range from ½ maravedí for allowing a pig to do damage in a madder field (§26) to 100 maravedís for Jewish money lenders who make loans in other places but not in Peflafiel (§9), for setting up a tannery within the town limits (§43), or for selling wine, must or grapes in town without being a citizen of Peflafiel (§69). The severity of the fine often depended on whether the perpetrator committed the offense by day or by night in which case the fine was doubled. The average fine for over sixty offenses is 15 maravedís, though in order of frequency a five-maravedf fine is assessed

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in more than 35% of the violations. Short term unsecured loans to pay the fines could be had at interest rates as high as 175% per year (§9). 0n any given day, the Ordenamjentos provide us with a broad spectrum of activities throughout the town and surrounding areas of Peflafiel: Taxes were collected on a variety of individual enterprises such as notary service, the sale of bread, meat, wine, tallow or cloth, by arrendators whose offices were sold each year to the highest bidder (§§10, 52-54). Town streets were to be kept clean and anyone with a dunghill on bis property was liable to a ten-maravedí fme (§30). Pedestrians in Peflafiel's narrow lanes had to be careful of trash and sewage which might be thrown at any time from an open window but the guilty were subject to a fme of 5 maravedís (§31 ). Butchers were a constant problem for the town Council and were required to provide specific types of meat at certain times of the year under penalty of losing their license for ten years (§33). Peflafiel was justifiably proud of its wild game and fish and any game taken within the jurisdiction had to be sold there (§35). Jews were not allowed to purchase anything at ali in the town until after the noon hour "Por que en todas las ~ibdades et villas ovieron ssienpre esta mejoría los xristianos" (§36). Olive oil dealers were warned that they should not mix their wares with linseed oíl (§37) and tanners were advised not to remove tanned goat- or sheepskins from the town so that the shoemakers might always have enough hides to provide the inhabitants with footwear (§40). No one was allowed to carry a long knife or sword and strangers were to be advised of this regulation by the innkeeper who, failing to do so, would be Hable for the fine himself (§42). Fishmongers were not to dispose of fish water in town on pain of a two-maravedí penalty (§44), while butchers were cautioned not to throw animal homs into the street from the slaughterhouse because they were a danger to passersby (§45). Day laborers in the vineyards were required to be at work at sunrise and not to retum to town until the tolling of the vespers bell on pain of losing a half-day's wage (§47). Ali citizens of whatever rank or privilege were warned that no person not directly related to the bride and groom was to be allowed to eat at their wedding feast; the fme for doing so was a prohibitive 60 maravedís (§49). The same 60-maravedf fme was to be paid by any moumer so bold as to scratch bis face, tear bis hair or weep and wail after the cross had been placed on the house of the deceased (§51 ). Pefl.afiel must have had a small but significant silk industry because there is an ordinance assessing fmes against those who would filch mulberry leaves (§55). Apparently even the town officials were not above reproof since the sheriff, magistrates, town criers and gate keepers are cautioned not to sample the wares of those who come to sell in the town marketplace and to refrain from taking more than a handful of salt

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from th~ salt dealers (§58). Regrators or retailers are cautioned from any collusion with fruit dealers in an effort to raise prices (§60) while wine dealers are wamed not to sell wine with measuring jars broken at the mouth or other than those certified and sealed by the town Council (§62). Auctioneers and notarles are prohibited from auctioning or notarizing any goods sold after darle (§63) while Christians are advised to keep the Sabbath except during harvest time when the wind blows, making it imperative to gather in the sheaves (§66). Among the many rules goveming the wine industry, grape pickers are admonished not to carry home grapes from the vineyards (§67). Wine was one of the most important commodities in Peflafiel not only for the consumer and the vendor but for Juan Manuel and the members of the Council who attempted to control both the supply and demand of this most lucrative trade. To that end, the town itselfwas divided into three quarters each of which was required to have its own tavem (§72). Though the Council did not decree it, we know that each quarter also had its own parish church. 4.0

THE ORDENAMIENTOSAND mE WORKS OF JUAN MANuEL.

The Ordenamjentos open another window on the life and works of our author, providing us with a glimpse of the daily lives and affairs of those who surrounded him toward the end of bis own life. From among the citizens of Peflafiel, the Ordenamjentos cite nineteen individuals by name, five of whom may quite possibly be connected with Don Juan and bis works: Diago Femándes, a juryman, knight and perhaps Don Juan's emissary to the courts of Aragón and Castile (§9);41 Don