The Crown and abuse of power

Like early 21st century, the 14th century was also a time of deep economic crisis partly because of the thousands of people killed by the Black Death. In the Kingdom of Castile and Leon, the situation was even more poignant as a result of the political instability and the civil war that gave the Trastámara dynasty the throne.

It also revived the conflict between the archbishop and the city council with the 1317-20 revolt. This uprising meant thetriumph of violence as the problem solving mechanism and this would remain to be so until its culmination with the Great Irmandiño War in 1466.

Galicia experiences two centuries of permanent war: a peripheral kingdom , far from the weakened power of the Crown of Castile and Leon, which was forced to make continuous concessions to local nobility to maintain its sovereignty over the land. The economic crisis encouraged the nobility to do as they pleased while the crown looked the other way with the excuse of compensating their decreased revenues from the taxes levied on their vassals who were accosted by bad cops, droughts and widespread violence.

In Santiago de Compostela

The abuses by the nobility were adduced as casus belli during the first siege of the fortress of A Rocha and managed to unite cities and social classes (bourgeoisie, peasantry and the small nobility) in a Brotherhood of rebels that would bring the castle down. This might be the takeaway lesson of the history of A Rocha Forte. Despite the formidable technological deployment represented by the castle, the pride of a medieval world moving towards modernity, it was brought down by the despair of a people up in arms.

In some cases, castellans appropriated the economic resources of the locals because the economic crisis delayed or suspended the payment of rents. The crisis of the monarchy of Castile and Leon turned Galicia into an open field for those who had the force of arms. The castellans of A Rocha were just some among the many others who were free to misappropriate and abuse the rights of both urban citizens and peasants. This is a witness describing the many kidnappings by the people from the castle:

«Dize este dicho testigo que asimismo vido quel dicho Diego de Prado y otros sus compañeros traxieran preso a un carnicero vezino de la çiudad de Santiago e lo llebaran çerca de Padron e lo traian consigo al monte y este testigo dize que bio que ellos lo sacaban de una casa y lo llebaban a un rio diciéndole que lo aogarian sino le daban çien doblas y después bio que los rescataran por cuarenta doblas de oro las qualeseste testigo las bio pagar en casa del padre del testigo».

«The said Diego de Prado as well as other companions of his saw a butcher of Santiago who was arrested and brought near Padron and then taken to the forest and the witness says that he saw them take him out of his home and to the river. And he heard them say that they would drown him if he did not give them one hundred dobras. And he later said that a ransom of forty dobras of gold was paid as this witness says he saw the payment being made at the home of his own father».

The alliances

The feeling of injustice in the face of banditry is, among others, at the ideological origins of the Brotherhood. Some witnesses to the Tavera-Fonseca lawsuit like stonemason Xoán de Ulla are quite clear on this regard:

«Que oía decir a las personas que andaban en la dicha hermandad que hera porque la dicha gente común del dicho Reino recisbían muchos agravios de los condes, merinos de la fortalezas, porque les comían sus aziendas y les tomaban y les mataban sus vacas».

«That he would hear people belonging to that Irmandade say that it was because common folk from the Realm suffered much grievance from the counts, the owners of the fortresses, because they deprived them of their income and took and killed their cows».

At Rocha Forte there was yet another factor: it was the point of origin for punishing expeditions conducted by the archbishop against the city council of Santiago. The very Castillan Sánchez Dávila played a prominent role by requisitioning bread, firewood and blocking and preventing essential products from reaching the city. The despotism of this castellan is evident from the deposition of a former servant of his, Xoán de Espasande.

The Crown and abuse of power

In Santiago de Compostela

The alliances

Related contents

Holding to power. The civil war and the English invasion

A Brotherhood to break free from the archbishop’s rule

The destruction of the castle: the Great Irmandiño War

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