264
THE MESTA
accepted the crown of that kingdom (1412). In fact, his concern
over the income from this tax was one of the provocations for his
high handed treatment of his weakling cousin John II, who
ascended the Castilian throne in 1419 when he became of age.1
These reforms and the substantial foundation thus given to the
sheep servicio set precedents which were followed for more than
a century. In fact, it was not until the sheep owners secured the
friendly aid of the sixteenth-century Hapsburg monarchs that
they were able to secure any modification in these exacting regu-
lations.2
When the grasping and sagacious ‘ Great Constable ’ Alvaro de
Luna, brilliant courtier and greatest of mediaeval favorites at the
court of Castile, succeeded Henry in the grand mastership of
Santiago,3 he too was not long in appreciating the possibilities of
the servicio y montazgo as a means of increasing his already
large fortune. Furthermore — and this evidently appealed very
strongly to his love of dominance — here was an opportunity to
curtail the revenues and therewith the prestige of his jealous
rivals among the nobility, most of whom were either important
members of the Mesta or the possessors of long cherished sheep
tax privileges of their own.
In 1442, therefore, when at the height of his power, Alvaro
promulgated a full confirmation of the various sheep tax regula-
tions of his predecessor, the Infante Henry. In addition to this
he ordered his collectors to go into the local markets and to levy
the servicio upon all sheep whose owners could not prove that the
royal dues had already been paid on the animals. With these and
similar measures the ambitious favorite insisted upon the pre-
1 Henry seized John at Tordesillas soon after the latter’s accession and forced
his consent to Henry’s marriage with John’s sister, Catharine, evidently with the
object of strengthening his Castilian prerogatives, including his right to the royal
sheep tax. Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuentiduena, 1418 ff., gives various decrees issued
by Henry while Infante of Aragon, regarding the Castilian sheep tax.
2 Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 40. The tax on rebujales, which had borne heavily upon
small owners, was not modified until 1541. The albala fee was thenceforth col-
lected from transhumantes not only by royal officials but later by town tax col-
lectors as well, in spite of repeated protests from the Mesta ,s attorneys.
3 Femandez Llamazares, Historia compendiada de las Cuatro Ordenes (Madrid,
1862), p. 45-
MEDIAEVAL ROYAL SHEEP TAXES
265
cedence of the royal servicio y montazgo over the tax privileges of
towns and nobles and upon the complete cooperation of local
officials with his collectors and lessees.! This he commanded
“ in the name of justice, the most noble, highest virtue, which
pleases the Lord of Heaven and ought to please the lords of the
earth and in order that these terrestrial lords should not be
tempted to obstruct justice, he personally supervised an annual
audit of accounts and a careful revision of restrictions and rules.
By discreetly placed leases of the servicio 2 and a few ostentatious
bestowals of exemptions from the tax upon certain grandees and
rich monasteries whose support was highly useful to him3 that
crafty statesman made the ‘ royal ’ sheep tax one of his most
valuable financial and political assets.
The accession of the last and feeblest of mediaeval Castilian
monarchs, Henry IV (1454-74), brought power to other and far
less able courtiers than the ill fated Alvaro. Two sordid figures
stand out in this period of disgrace : the magnificent and shame-
less Beltran de la Cueva, soon to be Count of Ledesma,4 and the
equally unworthy and insatiably avaricious Juan Pacheco, later
Marquis of Villena. Upon each of these notorious favorites in
turn was bestowed the lucrative grand mastership of Santiago and
with it the title to the royal sheep servicio.
Once more the tax was recodified, this time upon a more elabo-
rate scale than ever before. The famous Quaderno, or compi-
l Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 65. The rates of assessment were still the same as that
of the old serιιicio de ganados, namely 5 sheep, or their equivalent in money, for
every 1000, 3 cows per 1000, and ɪ pig per ɪoo.
3 The leases usually ran from four to six years, sometimes covering the servicio
throughout Castile and sometimes only the amounts collected at certain toll gates.
Arch. Osuna, Béjar Mss., caj. 7, no. 16 (1446). Arch. Simancas, Diversos de
CastillajMs. 117 (1453), has a full record of servicio ymontazgo regulations, leases,
and exemptions from the time of Alvaro de Luna onward. For curious reasons
explained below (p. 404), certain documents on this tax form almost the only ma-
terial on the Mesta in the Simancas Archive.
3 The diezmo del mar, or royal import and export tax at the seaboard (see above,
p. 256), had also been transferred to the great Constable and his family and was
employed by that astute politician in the same manner. This diezmo remained in
the hands of his heirs for a century; Philip ɪɪ bought it back in 1559.
4 He was widely acknowledged as the father of the Princess Joanna, who is
usually known in history as La Beltraneja, the unhappy rival claimant to the throne
against her supposed aunt, the great Isabella.