194
THE MESTA
proprietor of the latter office, promptly applied the training
which Alfonso XI had given them.
This, then, is the real significance of the history of the conten-
tions between migratory sheep owners and local landowners
during the turbulent years from Peter the Cruel to Henry the
Impotent — the Mesta took into its own hands the regulation of
local sheep dues, and the period closed with that organization in
an independent and commanding position, both in its local and
its royal fiscal obligations. The developments of this episode of
local sheep taxes assume a significance beyond the restricted limits
of pastoral history, because they present an unbroken series of
correlated events through a long, confused, and disconnected
epoch in Spanish history. The importance of this period is only
to be understood when it is viewed as a whole, as the Spanish
Wars of the Roses: a long prelude, with occasional interruptions
by brief years of able government, out of which there emerged
the autocratic unified monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella.
The period is replete with royal recognitions of local taxa-
tion rights, just as was the case with the unsettled era before
Alfonso XI; and once more the motives which prompted these
recognitions are interesting because of the explanations to be
found for them in contemporaneous events. The wars between
Peter the Cruel and Henry of Trastamara were productive of
several such guarantees of local sheep taxes or of exemptions for
the sheep of various favored towns. These were awarded in ex-
change for assistance rendered to one or the other of the con-
tending parties.1
The difficulties of Peter the Cruel gave the towns ample op-
portunity to press their claims for a restoration of their montazgo
rights, which had suffered so seriously under Alfonso Xi’s vigor-
ous measures for centralization. In general the larger cities espe-
cially had profited by the perils that threatened the crown, and
through various court πιlings and royal decrees they had secured
at least a limited restoration of the dues which had been taken
1 Privileges to Zamora (1355), Pola de Siero (1370), and Viana del Bollo (1372),
and others, in Gonzâlez, v, vi, passim. Many of these exemptions applied espe-
cially to the alcabala, or royal tax on sales, supposedly created by Alfonso XI to
finance the siege of Algeciras (1344).
TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA
195
from them during the previous reign. Peter had not been on the
throne a year before the towns, in the Cortes at Valladolid in
1351, declared that t their ancient montazgos . . . which were
guaranteed by fueros, privileges, and custom, had been taken by
the king [Alfonso XI], for himself . . . and the said towns had in
consequence been injured.’l Therefore it was asked that these
taxes be restored to the towns. To this the crafty Peter replied
that he would like to examine such town fueros as were supposed
to authorize these montazgos, and then he ‘ would do what seemed
just in the matter.’ Two years later a test case was brought up
in a suit of the town of Cuenca against the royal collectors of
sheep taxes in its vicinity.2 The former contended that the mon-
tazgo was a purely local sheep tax, payable to town officers who
administered the public pastures, whereas the latter based their
claims to “ the montazgos . . . and all other sheep taxes, both
local and royal, in the bishopric of Cuenca ” upon the centraliz-
ing measures of Alfonso XI. The case was carried before the king,
who, after much weighing of the respective advantages to himself
of increased revenues and of local allegiance, hit upon a com-
promise by recognizing Cuenca’s title to the sheep taxes levied
within the town limits, which left to the royal exchequer all local
sheep dues in the rest of the bishopric. This decision was a prec-
edent for others, which acknowledged the claims of the larger
cities but ignored the privileges of the smaller ones.
Henry Il’s first efforts were concentrated upon gaining the con-
fidence and much needed support of the towns.3 Conspicuous
evidence of this policy is found in his early indorsements of the
authenticity of many local sheep tax privileges and exemptions.4
l Bull. Ord. Milit. Calat., p. 201 (1343); Cories, Valladolid, 1351, pet. 60.
2 Arch. Cuenca, leg. 5, no. 6, 1353.
3 Among the measures enacted with this object in view were: first, the admis-
sion of twelve town representatives to his royal council (.Cortes, Burgos, 1367, con-
firmed at Toro, 1369) ; secondly, regulation of wages, prices, and hours of labor in
accordance with the petitions of town members; thirdly, the reduction of the
judicial powers of the nobles and the foundation of the audiencia, which later be-
came the Chancilleria of Valladolid, the highest civil court of Castile; and fourthly,
the destruction of fortified strongholds of the nobility {Cortes, Toro, 137r).
4 Gonzâlez, v, pp. 209-2r2 (137r), 341-342 (i37o)> 354^35δ (1372), 368-370
b379), 357-358 (1372), 649-654 (r373); vi, pp. τ87-r89 (1369), 294-295 (r370-