La nobleza en Navarra (siglos XIII-XIV): Una identidad militar

Abstract

This work is intended to study the group of the high nobility, the set of socalled rich and wealthy men (ricohombres y mesnaderos), from the late 13th century to the second half of the 14th century. The question it intends to answer is whether nobility fulfilled a military role throughout this period and, –if that were the case–, to define its characteristics. That is to say, an attempt will be made to determine the characteristics of identity of the high nobility group, in terms of group differentiation, such as the possession of rural and urban property, participation in Royal administration and in the redistribution of Royal income, internal solidarity, lineage residences or houses, and the use of external elements such as the name, address or heraldry. In other words, the intention of the study is to find out if the lineages of the high nobility had a military function that was supposed to pertain to the group, or if they abandoned such activities in a determined moment. In this sense, the appearance of new lineages, especially those coming from the lands beyond the mountain passes, was to be the differentiating element as from the late 13th century. And thus, in connection with the mentioned questionnaire, it will be a matter of judging the behaviours of the old and the new lineages, the former of which presumably would be based more on customary practice, on a determined conception of power and on a longstanding system of income redistribution, and the latter –which would be more dynamic–, would tend to participate in government tasks, in collaboration with the crown, and in internal struggles or lineage wars destined to controlling the territory over which they pretended to face their economic, political and military power.