268
THE MESTA
accosted the shepherds at every crossroad and wayside castle
demanding ‘ servicio y montazgo.’
All the old paraphernalia of long forgotten mediaeval feudal
dues was brought out and used by ‘ the crown and its defenders’
as a disguise for further exactions from the sheep owners. Chief
among these devices were the juros de heredad, or annuities, with
which the crown had in past centuries rewarded the services of
loyal followers in the Moorish wars.1 A common form of such
juros in the fourteenth century had been a privilege to levy a tax
upon the sheep passing a certain point.2 The favorites of the
impotent Henry were not long in resorting to this device as a
means of rewarding their clamoring adherents. The henchmen of
grandees and even of royal counsellors soon appeared along the
canadas, and confronted the Mesta members with juros which
entitled the bearers to parts of the royal servicio y montazgo?
1 The best account of the Juros is found in Brit. Mus., Harleian Mss. 3315,
p. 56: a description of financial affairs of Spain, compiled by an officer of Philip
ITs exchequer in 1577. Thejuro de heredad is there described as “ la renta que el
Rey da cada ano a una persona. ... Ay très ɪnaneras de juros, сото son juro
al quitar juro рог vida y juro perpetuo.” The titles are of course derived from the
different durations of the income. According to A Short Account of the Spanish
Juros, a fifteen-page anonymous pamphlet printed in London in 1713, the name
juro is due to the oath taken by the king to respect the titles of the recipients of
such annuities.
i An example of this is found in the juro de heredad awarded to the town of
Ciceres in 1303 by Ferdinand IV, “ por servicios muchos y buenos que el concejo
de Ciceres fizieron a Ios Reyes onde yo vengo y a mi.” Ronda, a mediaeval tax
to which sheep owners contributed heavily for the maintenance of the night watch
around the town (see below, p. 428), was also extensively revived and falsely de-
scribed as a royal impost. Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres, p. ɪʒɪ.
3 Arch. Osuna, Infantazgo Mss., caj. r, leg. ɪɪ, no. 6 (1467); Arch. Mesta,
Prov. i, 68 !1468). These annuities were promptly taken over and carefully regu-
lated by the Catholic Kings as part of their extensive fiscal reforms, and soon de-
veloped into helpful revenues. During the sixteenth century the juros de heredad
became, like their English counterpart, the benevolences, valuable sources of in-
come to the autocracy.
An illustration of ajuro granted in the shape of a share of the servicio y montazgo
by Isabella in 1481 is found in Brit. Mus., 1321 к ɪ, no. ι. The recipient,
Gutierrez de Cirdenas, “ treue de mi por merced de juro de heredad para si et
para sus herederos et subcessores et para quien del 6 dellos ouiesse causa la renta
del servicio y montazgo travesfo de locos con ganados que inuemasen en todas
dehesas del arçobispado de Toledo.” On the history of the juro de heredad in the
sixteenth century see Ansiaux, op. cit., pp. 534, 542; Piemas y Hurtado, op. cit.,
ii, p. 67; Altamira, iii, p. 261.
MEDIAEVAL ROYAL SHEEP TAXES
269
In vain the Mesta ,s attorneys at court and its lobbyists at the
Cortes presented repeated protests against these incessant and
all-pervading ‘ royal ’ taxes; but there was no one to hear who
had the power or will to act.1 These were days of ignominious
impotence for the monarchy, culminating in the final insult of the
dethronement of Henry in effigy on the plains outside the walls of
Avila.2 At the Cortes of Santa Maria de Nieva in the fall of
1473, only a few months before his death, Henry tried to make
belated amends for the profligacy of his reign. Full assent was
given to the pleas of the deputies that ah annuities, tax privileges,
and exemptions granted since 1464 be cancelled; but as long as
the monarchy continued as it had been, such enactments could
only be futile formalities. It was not until the dawn of a new era
with the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1474 that the long
hoped for reform came.
ɪ Cories, Cordova, 1455j pet. 27; Salamanca, 1465, pets. 16 fi.; Ocana, 1469,
pets. 14, 15, 19, 23; Santa Maria de Nieva, 1473, pɛt- ι8; Quad. 1731, pt. ι, pp.
131 S.
2 Altamira fed. of 1909), i, pp. 605-615.