8o
THE MESTA
the profits of the office, for example, were paid to the king, save
for that part which was retained by the entregador as a salary?
Not until the time of Ferdinand and Isabella does the Mesta
appear as the recipient of a one-third share in the proceeds from
certain entregador cases.2
The entregador acted as the protector of the interests of the
Mesta in all of its external relations. It should be noted, how-
ever, that he performed that service by virtue of his authority as
a direct representative of the sovereign. Therein lay the efficacy
of his office as an instrument for the establishment of the claims
of the Mesta against those with whom it came in contact in all
parts of the realm. For example, the negotiations between the
Mesta and the Order of Calatrava in 1287, on questions of juris-
diction, were conducted on the part of the Mesta by a group of
personeros or representatives who described themselves as “ we,
entregadores of our lord, the king.” 3 It was the king and not the
Mesta who issued any necessary instructions to the entregador,
the usual reference being to “ my entregadores of the shepherds.”
One of the chief reasons for the constant recurrence of com-
plaints from the Cortes to the king against this official was the
fact that the latter was regarded as being directly subject to royal
supervision, just as were such judges and agents as the merinos
and the corregidores. The entregador was, therefore, singled out
for criticism instead of some official of the Mesta itself, who was
probably quite as obnoxious to the protesting agricultural and
other local interests. This association of crown and entregador
was further strengthened by a stipulation, made by the sovereign
in all of the earlier instructions to entregadores, to the effect that
all disputes as to the extent of their jurisdiction as well as all com-
plaints against them ‘ should be heard before the king and no-
where else.’4 An exception was made in the case of charges by
ɪ The king’s monopoly of the profits of the office is well brought out in the royal
appointment of an entregador in 1306. Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales,
iii,no. 163. MemorialHistdrico, i,pp. 308-324, gives an agreement of 1277 by which
Alfonso X leased the entregador fines to Jewish contractors for four years.
2 The question of the salary of the office is more fully discussed below.
3 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar, i, no. 41, fols. 239-240.
4 Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales, iii, no. 163 (1306).
ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 8l
Mesta members; these were heard in the semiannual meetings
of that body. With the elaboration of the judiciary under the
Catholic Kings, in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth cen-
turies, this function of hearing appeals from entregador decisions
was transferred to the two appellate chancillerias. This was,
quite unintentionally, the first step in the alienation of the Mesta
from the protection of the crown, the first loosened stone in the
hitherto impregnable stronghold of its prestige.
With the above characteristics of the office in mind, it is not
difficult to understand why the position of the alcalde entregador
mayor, or entregador-in-chief, who received from the king the
right to farm out the lesser entregadorships in different parts of
the country, was one of such high honor and emolument. This
chief of the staff of active entregadores was usually given his
office as a mark of special distinction or in exchange for important
services to the crown, or sometimes for a high purchase price.
The post was held by persons of noble descent only, and as a rule
by someone standing in close relations with the king. Under
Alfonso XI it was held by Inigo Lopez de Orozco and later by
Juan Fernandez de Arevalo, two commanding figures in the four-
teenth-century baronage. Peter the Cruel gave it to his sup-
porter, Fernan Sanchez de Tovar, having deprived the famous
Juan Tenorio of it. Under John I, Henry III, and John II, the
office remained in the hands of three generations of the family of
Gomez Carrillo. In fact, by 1390, or thereabouts, the control of
the entregadores had become hereditary, always, however, with
due recognition of the crown as the direct source of all preroga-
tives and authority vested in the position. The last of the Car-
rillo family came into possession of the office in 1417, at the age of
five,1 and John II therefore named the guardian, Lope Vasquez de
Acuna, as acting entregador-in-chief. This appointee soon had
the position conceded to him in his own right, and under Henry IV
he was succeeded by his descendant, Pedro de Acuna, Count of
Buendfa.2 The office of chief entregador became the property of
1 See below, Appendix D: text of the royal commission to Gomez Carrillo,
30 Nov., 1417.
* Arch. Mesta, S-5, Siguenza, 1792, gives the texts of the royal appointments of