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THE MESTA
parts of Castile, and effectively refutes the assumptions that
either the sheep industry or the Moorish wars had already de-
vastated the forests by that time.1 It is highly probable that
deforestation did not become widespread throughout Castile
until the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, when, as will be pointed
out below, the ravages of the greatly enlarged and royally pro-
tected Mesta flocks contributed to the desolation.2
The second of the two points regarding pasturage in the
charter of 1273, namely the limitation of the size of town ox
pastures, shows the sheep owners in a less aggressive attitude
than that assumed with reference to their grazing rights in the
unclaimed forests and waste lands. It will be recalled that in
the vicinity of enclosed fields, whether pastures or cultivated
land, the highways of the flocks had a carefully prescribed width
of about two hundred and fifty feet.3 From the beginnings of
the Mesta until the close of the Middle Ages the chief occupa-
tion of the itinerant entregadores was to maintain that width
and to prevent the intrusion of local enclosures, especially ox
pastures, upon the canadas, a purely defensive policy for the
protection of the sheep-walks. In fact, there was no change in
this attitude, no attempt to take the offensive and to violate
enclosures, until the growing strength of the Mesta under the
Catholic Kings and Charles V had inspired an increased audacity
in its officials. Its opponents, the local agrarian interests, there-
upon recalled in the courts the centuries when enclosures had
been respected by the herdsmen. Finally, during the eighteenth-
century agrarian reforms, which brought about the destruction
of the Mesta, the sheep owners were reminded that their ancient
recognition of the limited width of canadas between enclosed
town pastures implied that such fields, though commons for the
local flocks, were not open to the migrants.4
It is evident, therefore, that the charters of 1273 and 1276
established a fundamental precedent regarding the respect of the
ɪ A. Cânovas del Castillo, Historia de la Decadencia de Esparia (2d ed., Madrid,
1910), p. 43, attributed the deforestation to the wars of the Reconquest; and his
opinion has been followed by many others.
2 See below, pp. 321-322. ’ See above, pp. 18-19.
4 Concordia de 1783i ii, fols. 300 ff.
EARLY PASTURAGE PROBLEMS
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Mesta for enclosures which was carefully observed throughout
the later Middle Ages. It is true that occasionally a few of
the bolder entregadores ventured to assume some degree of
authority over the local pastures, and that they sometimes con-
doned the broadening of the canadas at the expense of town
lands. Such instances occurred, however, only during the periods
of corrupt misgovernment of the fifteenth century, and the
Cortes promptly reported them to the monarch.
The latter was usually quite ready to take measures against
the itinerant judges, not only to secure the good will of the
towns, but also to curb the troublesome nobility, who profited
from the receipts of entregador condemnations and fines.1 A
further and even more potent check upon illegal extensions of
canadas across enclosures was the fact that all mojonamientos,
or verifications of boundaries of the sheep-walks, had to be carried
on jointly by entregadores and town officials. Furthermore, the
only evidence which the entregador was authorized to accept in
his hearings on the subject was the testimony of six omes buenos
or ‘ good men,’ the oldest residents of the town.2 This practice
was strictly observed until the close of the fifteenth century,
when the assurance of powerful support from the Catholic
Kings encouraged the entregadores to make bold departures.
In the main, then, the entregadores of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries were not unmindful of local pasturage rights.
Occasionally they even rendered decisions against the members
of their own organization for trespassing upon local enclosures.3
Their exceptional opportunities, however, to observe and take
advantage of any local laxity in the administration of land laws,
frequently tempted them to counsel illegal measures. When
they secretly advised the herdsmen to evade the local ordinances
1 Cories, Burgos, 1315, pet. 32; Valladolid, 1322, pet. 63; Madrid, 1339, pet. 32.
s See above, pp. 102-103; Cortes, Valladolid, 1351, pet. 44.
s Arch. Hist. Nac., Docs. Calatrava, Particulares, nos. 166, 187 (1307, 1309):
entregador decisions against Mesta herdsmen who trespassed on enclosed pastures
belonging to the Order of Calatrava. The concession giving title to the enclosures
was dated 1183 and bore such interesting signatures as “Don Mahomat Aben,
Rey de Murcia, vassallo del Rey; Don Aben Monfont, Rey de Niebla, vassallo del
Rey.”