Jurisdicción y solarpoder, rentas y patrimonio de la casa de Grajal en la Edad Moderna

Zusammenfassung

This work is part of a wider Project focussed on fiefs and feudal regime in the kingdom of Leon, that tries to enhance our knowledge of both the different noble houses and the influence that their lordship had in the historical and social development of the communities ruled by councils {Concejos), over which they exercised jurisdictional powers. Thanks to a series of quantitative data and to the information obtained from the records of notaries, we have grasped both the family dynamics and the wealth of the estate of Grajal, as well as the kind and level of income derived from the different mayorazgos held by these overlords, who were later to become Counts of Grajal, until the properties were finally incorporated to the estate of the Marquis of Alcañices in the XVIII Century. The model of lordship in which certain feudal dues are disguised under colour of an alleged territorial freehold �title to which is difficult to prove outside the fief� is defined by two features: the charters {fueros) of the councils, based on the old censo de frutos (tax payment in kind), become tenancy rights; and the confrontation between the jurisdictional power of overlords and the political power of councils, based on customary law, which is still strong in these communities and that, up to a certain extent, justifies the collective action in the frequent conflicts with the overlords.