214
THE MESTA
There had been previous instances of special royal judges with
jurisdiction over complaints of extortionate sheep taxes,1 but
these inquisitors were never of such high rank as the royal
councillors. The present instance illustrates once more the
skilful application by Ferdinand and Isabella of older practices
to newer needs and the use of long accepted traditional institu-
tions for the aggrandizement of royal prestige and power. Un-
like their predecessors, these newly appointed investigators
came as representatives and sometimes even as members of the
Royal Council, to which body they usually reported their findings
for final decision.2 No ecclesiastic or noble, however powerful,
undertook to oppose their investigations, and even such great
lords as the Constable of Castile, the Dukes of Bejar, and the
grand master of the Order of Santiago 3 discreetly responded
to their summons. Even the Pope was requested to aid them
if their searches made necessary any inquiries regarding church
tolls on the flocks.
Thesejueces pesquisidores, or Comisionados, as they were usu-
ally called, were invariably of the highest social standing; in
jurisdiction were usually made by canadas or by bishoprics and archbishoprics.
A common assignment of the two latter was by western (Coria, Plasencia1 Badajoz,
Le6n, Toledo) and northeastern (Calahorra, Siguenza, Osma, Soria) groups. At
other times the distinguished appointee was asked to hear cases in certain large
towns or in the lands of some one of the great military orders.
ɪ Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 17 (1462) : a decree of Henry IV, empowering the royal
accountants to act as referees in a dispute regarding the sheep taxes of Talavera.
Ibid., T-2, Toledo, 1440: a hearing before a specially appointed royal juez de com,i-
si6n, regarding sheep taxes of Toledo. This official was appointed at the behest of
the Toledo authorities, who were thus able to circumvent many of the Mesta’s
privileges. The sheep owners immediately had the cases transferred to the Royal
Council; and this experience with a special royal inquisitor may well have sug-
gested to them the feasibility of using such an official later on. Similar inquisidores
were Aiejuezes pesqueridores of the thirteenth century described in Part. 3, tit. 17,
Ieyes ι-12,and those of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries noted in
Nov. Recop., lib. 12, tit. 34, Ieyes 1-14.
2 There were occasional instances where the inquisitors took steps on their own
initiative to enforce their decisions without consulting the Council. See below,
Appendix J, for such an instance in 1489.
s The mastership of this order did not come into royal possession until 1499,
though Isabella had already taken measures which insured the ultimate control of
the crown over the organization.
TAXES UNDER FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 215
fact, several of them held the distinguished office of contino or
honorary bodyguard of the king. Among them were such coun-
cillors and dignitaries as Lopez de Chinchilla, the first to be nomi-
nated, Gonzalez de Sepdlveda, Juan de Vinuesa, Gomez de
Agreda, and even the illustrious ‘ Gran Capitan,’ Gonsalvo de
Cordova. They were always appointed at the petition of the
Mesta’s royal attorney and were commissioned to investigate the
local sheep tolls in a given region. Each appointment was for a
special mission and was limited to a brief period, usually four
months, with a salary of 250 maravedis a day to be paid out of
the fines collected as a result of their decisions.
Strictly speaking, they did not sit in judgment upon the cases
brought before them. They determined the authenticity and
age of tax privileges, weeded out any that bore dates of the dis-
ordered decade after 1464, and in general gathered evidence for
presentation to the Royal Council. The latter body then handed
down a decision which almost invariably conformed with the
recommendations of the investigator and therefore seldom went
against the Mesta.
This office of special judge inquisitor served as another power-
ful link between the crown and the Mesta. It marked the begin-
nings of a policy which was to lead directly to the creation of the
Presidency of the Mesta in 1500, with the senior member of the
Royal Council as ex-officio incumbent. With characteristic
sagacity, the Catholic Kings had thus revived a forgotten
office, and out''of it they soon evolved one of their most valuable
though perhaps least known instruments for the use of ambitious
royalty. They and their Hapsburg successors especially appre-
ciated the utility of this office in curtailing the income and
therefore the power of the great nobles, whose opulence, to
which the passing herdsmen had for generations been made to
contribute so heavily, had shamed the penury of many royal
courts. But a new era had dawned in Castile. Thenceforth, if
the new autocracy was to triumph, the prestige, financial as well
as political, of the baronage and of the great cities must be
transferred to the crown. Of the many devices old and new with
which this purpose was eventually accomplished, few proved more