190
THE MESTA
judicial tone: “ Any one who has a complaint should lay it be-
fore us and we shall settle it as we ought.” 1
The most significant step in the reign of Alfonso XI in the
matter of local sheep taxes was contained in the royal privilege
issued at Villa Real in January, 1347.2 This decree stipulated
that no tax, royal or local, should be collected from the sheep in
the demesne of the king unless it were by a crown officer. This
checked a considerable number of illicit local dues levied by town
authorities whose bailiwick lay in crown lands. It was, in fact, a
sequel to the royal decree of 1343, which secured the king’s title
to the montazgos in the towns on his demesne.3 This measure is
of vital importance in the history of the crown’s pastoral incomes
because, though it was not the first royal sheep tax, it was the ini-
tial step whereby certain local montazgos, especially those levied
on the old basis of tolls on passing sheep, instead of as pasturage
dues, were taken over by the crown. From this arose the semcio
y montazgo, the royal tax collected at toll gates along the sheep
highways.4
The decree of 1347 also provided that the seizure of shepherds
by town collectors, in default of taxes, was to be prohibited, ex-
cept for the personal debt of the one seized, or for a forfeiture of
bond by him.5 The exemption from taxes on grain and other
provisions, as expressed in the charter of 1273, was reiterated,
and extended to include the right to cut wood for the construction
of pens, without the payment of local taxes.6 The shepherds
1 Cortes, Madrid, 1339, pet. ɪɪ. See also Alcalâ, 1348, pet. 43.
2 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, no. 7.
, Part of these newly acquired montazgos were farmed out to the military Order
of Calatrava, which was given permission to collect 700 sheep each year, at the
usual montazgo rate of i per 1000, along the canada leading from Orgaz (near
Toledo) across La Mancha to Baeza. This privilege was granted in recognition of
its services in suppressing the golfines. Bull. Ord. Milit. Calat., pp. 201-202, con-
firmed in 1477, pp. 276-277.
4 See below, pp. 26τ ff.
6 This declaration was later made the basis of the decree that the Mesta was not
to be held responsible for the debts of any of its members, nor were the members
to be seized for any obligations of the organization. Quad. 1731, pt. ι, pp. 59-60
(provision of 1594).
β This was later extended to allow the unrestricted trimming Iramonear) and
felling of trees for fodder in times of drought. Quad. 1731, pt. ι, pp. 65-67 (1529,
TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA ləl
were also be to exempt from the quinto, a form of penalty for
trespass.1 This charter of 1347 was, like the decree of 1328, to be
enforced by the royal entregadores, a provision which gave the
final touch to a measure intended solely as a renewal of the royal
patronage over the Mesta.
In general, the chief contribution in the field of local sheep
taxes during this important reign may be summarized as an
emphatic demonstration of the royal powers and prerogatives
over local fiscal privileges. The outstanding characteristic of
this period was the greatly enhanced prestige of the sovereign.
Whether we ascribe this to the personal merits of the king, or to
the position achieved by him through his two great victories
over the Moors,2 is of little importance. His military triumphs
may have been as much the result as the cause of royal supremacy
over local interests and the old forces of separatism. Alfonso Xi’s
great work, as one authority has correctly observed, was “the
political and administrative organization of the country, in con-
tinuation of the intention and effort of his great-grandfather,
Alfonso X, with better fortune than the latter and on a much
larger scale.” 3 No better proof of this could be desired than
Alfonso Xi’s attitude and accomplishments in his dealings with
local sheep taxes. As an initial measure he renewed the mon-
tazgo rates of the code of 1253. Furthermore, as his reign pro-
gressed he assumed an attitude on the taxation complaints made
in the Cortes on behalf of the Mesta which was eminently fair to
1539, and 1638). Abuses of this privilege resulted in serious deforestation. See
pp. 306-308, 320-322.
1 See below, p. 237, n. 4, on the later history of the quinto or quinta. The name
was sometimes used with reference to the disposition of parts of an estate. Cf. Nov.
Recop., lib, 10, tit. 20, Ieyes 8, 9; Fuero Real, lib. 3, tit. 12, ley 7, and tit. 5, ley 9;
Leyes de Toro, Ieyes 28, 30.
2 The battle of Rio Salado, 28 Oct., 1340, said to have been the first European
conflict where cannon were used (but cf. Stephens, Portugal, p. 113, with a refer-
ence to the battle of Aljubarrota, 1385), and the victorious siege of Algeciras, 1344,
which so stirred Christendom that warriors came from all sides to participate in it.
ɪt even attracted Chaucer’s “ verray perfight, gentil knight ” who “ in Gernade
atte siege hadde he be of Algesir.” Canterbury Tales, Prologue, verse 57.
3 Altamira, Hist, de Espana, i (ed. of 1909), p. 596. This policy reached its
climax in the Ordenamiento de Alcald (1348), which put into force Alfonso X’s
Partidas {ca. 1256).