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THE MESTA
both parties, with due regard for royal interests and prerogative.
At the same time, his appreciation of the Mesta, as a power
working for, and dependent upon, centralized authority, was
emphatically expressed in the charter of 1347. In this document,
as well as in the earlier decree of 1328, the use of the royal entre-
gadores as the enforcing agents showed clearly the intention to
draw the Mesta closer to the crown.
Thus did Alfonso XI carry out the ideals of his great-grand-
father, the royal sage. The Ordenamiento of 1348 made real the
Partidas of the previous century, and the decree of 1347 gave
substance to the theories and principles of the charter of 1273.
Local montazgos were accepted as just, when based upon custom.
Over and above this conclusion, however, stood the greater one,
that the Mesta, in its security against unjust town taxes, was
under the special protection of the king. This theory found ef-
fective expression in the confiscation by Alfonso of all montazgos
collected by towns on his demesne, the justification of this meas-
ure being rightly based on the ground that such taxes went with
the ownership of the land. With such effective royal patronage
as this, it was only natural that the Mesta should soon feel itself in
a position to bid defiance to its ancient enemies, the towns and
the agrarian interests. Thenceforth the pastoral history of Castile
involved less and less the question, How much will regional pre-
rogative and local jurisdiction concede to this nationalizing pas-
toral organization ? The problem thereafter stood out more and
more clearly as, How far will the Mesta permit the exercise of
local autonomy in fiscal and agrarian affairs ?
Twelve decades and more elapse from the death of Alfonso XI
(1350) to the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella (1474), and all
but two or three of the twelve were given over to the disordered
and enfeebled reigns of weaklings or perverts. The few brief
respites are all the more conspicuous because of their isolation —
the reign of Henry II (1369-79), the years of Henry Ill’s ma-
turity (1393-1406), and the regency of Ferdinand, grandfather of
Isabella’s husband, for the youthful John II (1406-12). Lying
like barren wildernesses between and about these isolated
periods were the troubled years of Peter the Cruel (1350-69);
TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA
193
the weak, mild sway of John I (1379-90), made more dreary by
the disastrous defeat at the hands of the Portuguese at Aljubar-
rota in 1385; the turmoil of Henry Ill’s minority (1390-93);
and then the long years from John Il’s accession (1412) till the
death of Henry IV (1474). It was an epoch of meaningless civil
wars, intrigues and wrangles of nobles, and shrewd schemings of
the favorite Alvaro de Luna, all of which reached a climax in the
pitiable helplessness and debauchery of Henry IV, the Impotent,
— a bleak picture, the dreariness of which was intensified by its
contrast with the brighter years which stood on either side. It is,
therefore, not to be expected that any material advance should
have been made during this long period toward the further regu-
lation and standardization of the local sheep taxes. Nevertheless
certain important decrees were introduced during the wise re-
gency of Ferdinand. Furthermore, during the reign of Henry IV
the rising strength of the Mesta, under the able leadership of
powerful nobles, asserted itself in some notable constructive
measures intended to curb the local tax collectors and to concen-
trate under the crown all of the financial obligations of the sheep
owners.
This process of concentration exactly suited the Acunas and
Orozcos, the great families whose proprietorship of the entrega-
dor appointments gave them control of the Mesta. In the pre-
vious period, royal weakness meant the unhampered extension
of local sheep tolls. The strong rule and effective reforms of
Alfonso XI ha'd materially modified the situation, and had given
the Mesta a commanding position which it had hitherto not en-
joyed. The industry had been aided by other circumstances as
well, among these being the Black Death, the effects of which
upon the increase of available pasture lands will be discussed in
a later chapter. The decrees of Alfonso XI, by which the admin-
istration of local sheep taxes was placed in the hands of the en-
tregadores, soon became a decided check upon the zeal of the
towns. More especially did this step result in the enhancement
of the prestige of the Mesta and its judiciary. When, in later
reigns, the sovereign was incapable of effective action against the
local authorities, the Mesta and its entregadores, led by the titled