310 THE MESTA
against trespass by buying up town lands, the Cortes gave sharp
warning of the ancient laws of the realm against absentee owner-
ship.1 Similarly, the entregadores abetted the Mesta’s efforts to
establish exclusive title to unclaimed waste lands in parts of the
public domain remote from populated regions. Such encroach-
ments were soon discerned by the Cortes, however, and were
promptly checked, upon petition of the deputies, by royal de-
crees which declared that such lands were under the sovereign’s
control and were open to all without restriction or tax.2
Perhaps the most convincing evidence that the flocks were not
yet allowed to trample unhindered over enclosures and com-
mons, and that the Mesta, even under the protection of one of
its most able and aggressive patrons, dared not trespass upon
local pastures, is found in the reign of Alfonso XI (1312-50).
Two famous decrees had been issued, in 1325 and 1329, forbid-
ding enclosures in the town commons, whether made by towns
or by individuals. These lands, it was explained, were for “ the
benefit of all ” and were not to be sold by the towns to private
individuals nor were they to be reserved for any save public
purposes? Opponents of the Mesta have been inclined to regard
the edicts of 1325 and 1329 as the beginning of that organiza-
tion’s long and aggressive campaign against enclosures and
settled agricultural and pastoral life.4 The texts of the decrees
would seem to bear this out, since they pointed to the êxidos and
heredamientos (types of waste lands) as being “ freely accessible to
all.” The actual application of the laws to concrete cases, how-
ever, revealed that this freedom was only for local peasants and
shepherds. Alfonso repeatedly denied to Mesta members any
right of access to town commons, pastures, enclosures, or waste
lands.6 He was, in fact, the first monarch to incorporate in the
1 See Colmeiro, i, p. 286, and Concordia de 1783, ii, fol. 109 v, with Cortes
references for the year 1293 and after.
2 Cortes, Palencia, 13r3, pet. 4; Burgos, 1315, pet. 3.
, Nueva Recop., lib. 7, tit. 7, ley ɪ; confirmed and extended in 1490 (leys
13-14). i Concordia de 1783, ii, fol. 112.
, Arch. Hist. Nac., Docs. Reales Calatrava, nos. 198 (1331), 219 (1327, T34i),
2io (1342): royal decisions in disputes between the Mesta and various southern
pasturage towns. UUoa, Privilégias de Cdceres, pp. 196-198: a similar decision
protecting the town lands of Cficeres from Mesta intrusions.
EARLY PASTURAGE PROBLEMS ɜɪɪ
usual royal confirmations of the Mesta privileges a -warning that
the five cosas vedadas, the town enclosures, were to be respected.1
This able administrator thus confirmed with characteristic vigor
and emphasis the traditions regarding the sanctity of enclosures,
whether for cultivation or for pasturage, and the impressions of
those confirmations seem to have become well fixed in the minds
of Mesta officials. It took more than a century for those impres-
sions to wear off and for the sheep owners to feel that they could
claim access to the local lands in question.
Save for a few abuses of their powers by entregadores, there are
practically no instances during the later reigns of the Middle
Ages of any trespasses by the herdsmen upon forbidden local
pastures. In fact, the impregnable defence of the latter was
strengthened by new concessions of enclosure privileges to loyal
towns by Peter as a means of securing much needed support
in his war for the Castilian crown against Henry of Trastamara.8
The troubled times of the fifteenth century brought similar con-
cessions to many towns, together with renewed guarantees that
their earlier enclosures were in no way to be violated by the pass-
ing flocks? Even the disturbances along the western border,
after the disastrous defeat of the Castilian army by the Portu-
guese at Aljubarrota in 1385, were not enough to upset these
firm assurances. The crown decreed that any changes made
necessary in the routes of the migrants, as the results of the
Portuguese raids, were in no way to cause trespasses upon the
town enclosures.4
There was, then, a fairly well defined respect for enclosures,
on the part of the Mesta, and for canadas, on the part of the
ɪ Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 53.
2 Acad. Hist., Mss. 25-ι-C 14, fols. 191 ff.: privileges from Peter to Cordova
allowing extensive enclosures of public land “ to raise funds for the construction of
the church ” and as a recognition of loyalty. Similar concessions by Peter to
Seville are found in Zûfiiga, Annales de SeviUa (1677), p. 207.
s Acad. Hist., Docs. Monast. Suprim., Nra. Sra. de la Vid, no. 194 (1410) :
concession of a dehesa to this monastery with the privilege of leasing it to the
Mesta members if desirable. Arch. Osuna, Docs. Arcos, caj. 3, no. 36 (1427,1442),
and Cortes, Madrigal, 1438, pet. 47 : reservations and extensions of ox pastures.
4 Cortes, Segovia, 1386, pet. 3.