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Urban growth and royal interventionism in late medieval Castile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2009

Isabel Del Val Valdivieso
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Abstract

Throughout the late Middle Ages, Castilian towns underwent a process of rapid economic and political growth which the monarchy sought to control. Accordingly, the monarchy reoriented its policies towards the towns. It attempted to impose the figure of the ‘corregidor’, the representative and defender of royal interests; it intervened wherever possible in the appointment of local government offices; it played its part in urban conflicts, alternately supporting opposing factions in an effort to take advantage of the situation and secure its own interests; and finally, the state established regulations governing economic activity. The process of royal intervention culminated under the Catholic monarchs (1474–1504) with what can be considered as a royal triumph.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , August 1997 , pp. 129 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

1 Until the end of the fifteenth century no steps were taken to promote the development of local textile industries and to improve on the quality of its products: Iradiel, P., Evolución de la industria textil castellana en los siglos XIII–XVI (Salamanca, 1974)Google Scholar; Ladero, M.A., ‘Economía y poder en la Castilla del siglo XV’, Realidad e imágenes del poder a fines de la Edad Media (Valladolid, 1988)Google Scholar. García de Cortázar, J.A., Arízaga, B., Rios, M.L. and Valdivieso, M.I. del Val, Vizcaya en la Edad Media. Evolución demográfica, económica, social y política de la comunidad vizcaina medieval, vol. 3 (San Sebastián, 1985).Google Scholar

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5 This is illustrated by the case of the wife of Sancho Díez, a regidor at Medina del Campo. She used to walk about the town surrounded by fifteen or twenty other women: the wives of butchers and grocers whom her husband protected from his office. (General Archive of Simancas (AGS), Consejo Real, leg. 11, fol. 9–II pp. 7r–11r).Google Scholar

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