Their privileges
The higher nobility, or ricos hombres, were exempted from general taxation, and the occasional
attempt to infringe on this privilege in seasons of
great public emergency, was uniformly repelled by
this jealous body.[1] They could not be imprisoned
for debt; nor be subjected to torture, so repeatedly
sanctioned in other cases by the municipal law of
Castile. They had the right of deciding their private feuds by an appeal to arms; a right of which
they liberally availed themselves.[2] They also
claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves, or in other words, of publicly
renouncing their allegiance to their sovereign, and
of enlisting under the banners of his enemy.[3]
The number of petty states, which swarmed over
the Peninsula, afforded ample opportunity for the
exercise of this disorganizing prerogative. The
Laras are particularly noticed by Mariana, as having a " great relish for rebellion," and the Castros
as being much in the habit of going over to the
Moors.[4] They assumed the license of arraying
- ↑ Asso y Manuel, Instituciones,p. 26.—Sempere, Histoire des Cortès, chap. 4 —The incensed nobles quitted the cortes in disgust, and threatened to vindicate their rights by arms, on one such occasion, 1176. Mariana, Hist, de España, tom. i. p. 644. See also tom. ii. p. 176.
- ↑ Iidem auctores, ubi supra.—Prieto y Sotelo, Historia del Derecho Real de España, (Madrid, 1738,) lib. 2, cap. 23 ; lib. 3, cap. 8.
- ↑ Siete Partidas, (ed. de la Real Acad., Madrid, 1807,) part. 4, tit. 25, ley 11. On such occasions they sent him a formal defiance by their king at arms. Mariana, Hist, de España, tom. i. pp. 768, 912.
- ↑ Ibid., tom. i. pp. 707, 713.
of the country, not easy to explain on the usual principles of the feudal relation; a circumstance, which has led to much discrepancy of opinion on the subject, in political writers, as well as to some inconsistency. Sempere, who entertains no doubt of the establishment of feudal institutions in Castile, tells us, that "the nobles, after the Conquest, succeeded in obtaining an exemption from military service,"—one of the most conspicuous and essential of all the feudal relations. Histoire des Cortès, pp.30, 72, 249.
