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9780271062891 Academic Inspection Copy

The Fight for Status and Privilege in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castile, 1465-1598

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In the context of legal privileges based on status and class in premodern Spain and Europe in general, investigates conflicts over and resistance to the status of hidalgo in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Castile.


Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

A Note on the Text

Introduction: The Status of Hidalgo as a Social Claim

1 The Constitution of Privilege: Royal Granting, Revoking, and Recognizing of Hidalguía

2 The Economic and Political Value of Status

3 Migration, Resettlement, and Status

4 Anatomy of a Lawsuit of Hidalguía

5 Social Networks and Privilege

6 Justice and Malfeasance at the Tribunal of the Hidalgos

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index


“Michael Crawford’s insightful monograph, The Fight for Status and Privilege in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castile, 1465–1598, offers the most engaging and carefully researched account of the widespread social pressure to reach noble status in late medieval and early modern Spain. Vividly describing the mechanisms to accomplish such aims, he uses the process of ennoblement, and resistance to it, as a lens through which to explore Spanish society. Focusing on Seville, Crawford provides his readers with a clear and compelling portrait of the manner in which conversos, foreigners, and others (most often newcomers to Seville) litigated with municipal authorities as they sought to confirm their status as hidalgos or petty noblemen. This was not an idle aspiration, since hidalgo status led to tax exemptions and privileges. This is an excellent book that clearly portrays the almost obsessive desire to achieve noble rank in early modern Spain, as well as the municipalities’ often failed efforts to protect their tax base. This is an important and first-rate contribution to our knowledge of the social and legal aspects of this conflict and, thus, to our understanding of one of the most critical issues in the history of early modern Spain.”

—Teofilo F. Ruiz, UCLA

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