Ciudades y señores en conflicto durante la dinastía de los Trastámara: Santillana y la casa de los Mendoza

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Santillana became the main town of northern ‘Mendoza’s state’. About 1350’s-1370’s the medieval Cantabria, called ‘merindad’ of ‘Asturias de Santillana’, was governed by a great variety of powers: abbeys and churches, landlords and nobility, and the agents of the Crown. But, by 1444-1445 we observe a circumstance that had changed notably. Churches and abbeys had reduced their political influence and started many judicial conflicts to maintain their traditional dominions and feudal rights. Local lineages had been climbing through political charges and social positions. ‘Corregidores’, monarch-alter ego, were put pressure by the great nobles, not only to respect the particular jurisdiction, but also to obtain territory of real’s in order to introduce in the first. But these noble families were not the same as its origins told. We studied, like a lot of several authors before us: the House of ‘de la Vega’. The last member of this ancient lineage, Leonor de la Vega, linked to one of the main characters of the recent Trastámara dynasty: Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. In fact, their son Íñigo López, I marquis of Santillana (and count of El Real), consolidated privileges, territorial and economic rights, the jurisdiction and the military presence; rivalling members of Manrique. Santillana was the capital of this administrative demarcation, so its relevance was double: because the economic wealth and politic signification as the centre of the ‘término’, and the status of capital whose control would mean to take over the ‘merindad’. But the interest that I marquis manifested was not a constant of his ancestors. We have studied a limited documental research in which we have not found references of his parents as potential owners of the town (but affirmatively in some ancient documents). Hope to uncover nearly. In conclusion, our main purpose consists in analysing the process happened from 1350-1370, when Santillana belonged to ‘realengo’, to 1444-1445, when the town was handed out to Íñigo López.