TWO CHARTERS FOR TORO

The zeal with which the late D. Antonio Ballesteros sought out evidences bearing on the reign of Alfonso X is well known. What becomes increasingly clear with the passage of time is his frequent failure also to read them. The document under consideration here is a case in point. Listed as nos. 1136 and 1172 in the 'Indice de documentos' appended to Ballesteros's Alfonso X el Sabio, 2 it is a near contemporary copy of two charters of Alfonso X in favour of, respectively, the 'cabildo de los clerigos de Toro' and the 'concejo de Toro e... todos los otros lugares que son en essa sacada'. The information which these two charters contain is information crucial to our understanding of the years to which they belong, the years 1278 and 1279. Ballesteros duly lists them, evidently referring to the copies contained in the Libro Negro of the Catedral of Zamora.' However, the text from which the Libro Negro versions are derived survives. It is the text of this (Zamora, Archivo de la Catedral, 9/15) that is printed below. Not much is needed by way of commentary. Alfonso X's plight in the autumn of 1278 is well enough known. It is all in Ballesteros. 'El 4 de agosto da el monarca una carta a los clérigos y cabildo de Toro', he records. 4 But that is all he records. It is not much, and what little it amounts to is both wrong in what it states and deficient on account of what it omits. For it was not 'a los clérigos y cabildo de Toro' diat Alfonso addressed himself on 4 August 1278 but 'al cabildo de los clerigos de Toro', a body which over the previous twenty years at least had exercised de facto jurisdiction across a considerable area of the diocese of Zamora. Since he had entered the diocese in 1255 Bishop Suero Pérez had been more or less incessantly at odds with the 'cabildo de los clerigos de Toro'. In 1266 he had arrived at an arrangement of a son with it, arbitrated by the dean of Compostela, the son of Alfonso IX of León. Relations with this powerful body had been difficult enough therefore. But, beyond this, the tenitory in question was criss-crossed by secular ambitions. In the unusually autobiographical will which he dictated on 11 May 1285, don Suero, querulous to the end, remembered these disputes in great gusts of breathless indignation. In particular


St John's College, Cambridge
The zeal with which the late D. Antonio Ballesteros sought out evidences bearing on the reign of Alfonso X is well known.What becomes increasingly clear with the passage of time is his frequent failure also to read them.
The document under consideration here is a case in point.Listed as nos.1136 and 1172 in the 'Indice de documentos' appended to Ballesteros's Alfonso X el Sabio, 2 it is a near contemporary copy of two charters of Alfonso X in favour of, respectively, the 'cabildo de los clerigos de Toro' and the 'concejo de Toro e... todos los otros lugares que son en essa sacada'.The information which these two charters contain is information crucial to our understanding of the years to which they belong, the years 1278 and 1279.Ballesteros duly lists them, evidently referring to the copies contained in the Libro Negro of the Catedral of Zamora.'However, the text from which the Libro Negro versions are derived survives.It is the text of this (Zamora, Archivo de la Catedral, 9/15) that is printed below.
Not much is needed by way of commentary.Alfonso X's plight in the autumn of 1278 is well enough known.It is all in Ballesteros.'El 4 de agosto da el monarca una carta a los clérigos y cabildo de Toro', he records.4 But that is all he records.It is not much, and what little it amounts to is both wrong in what it states and deficient on account of what it omits.
For it was not 'a los clérigos y cabildo de Toro' diat Alfonso addressed himself on 4 August 1278 but 'al cabildo de los clerigos de Toro', a body which over the previous twenty years at least had exercised de facto jurisdiction across a considerable area of the diocese of Zamora.Since he had entered the diocese in 1255 Bishop Suero Pérez had been more or less incessantly at odds with the 'cabildo de los clerigos de Toro'.In 1266 he had arrived at an arrangement of a son with it, arbitrated by the dean of Compostela, the son of Alfonso IX of León.Relations with this powerful body had been difficult enough therefore.But, beyond this, the tenitory in question was criss-crossed by secular ambitions.In the unusually autobiographical will which he dictated on 11 May 1285, don Suero, querulous to the end, remembered these disputes in great gusts of breathless indignation.In particular 1.For advice and elucidation I have cause yet again to be grateful to Dr Francisco Hernández.2. Barcelona 1963, 1115, 1117.3. Described by him, respectively, as 'Merced de Alfonso X en favor de los clérigos de Toro (Arch.cat.de Toledo [evidently an error for Zamora], Lib. de Privs.fol.71)', and 'Carta de Alfonso X por ruego de su hijo el infante don Sancho, perdonando ciertas deudas pasadas a los concejos de Toro (Arch.cat.de Zamora, Lib. de Privs.fol.71)'.4. Ibid., 855. [1] he remembered the failure of his chapter to support him in his attempts to right the wrongs which he had inherited: `...ego condolens in ipsa nouitate promocionis mee de occupacione huiusmodi uiolenta significaui capitulo Zamorensi quod si me uellent expensis et aliis adiuuare laborarem pro uiribus ut dicta tercia pontificalis a Palentina ecclesia extraheretur et ad ius et proprietatem Zamorensis ecclesie perueniret.Videntes autem maiores et seniores capituli negocium esse magnum et aduerssarios nimis diuites et potentes responderunt quod de tam ardua causa nolebant se intromittere, cum dictam terciam Palentina ecclesia tanto tempore retinuisset quod iam uidebatur quondam perscripsisse, nec uolebant esse participes honeris uel honoris, maxime cum iam tenerent dictam terciam per regalem potenciam confirmatam.Ego autem in domino confidens adgressus sum negocium meis sumptibus et expensis non minimis et cum dei auxilio et romane ecclesie iusticia et cum fauore domini Regis in dicta causa obtinui antequam ad Zamorensem ecclesiam uenirem nec reditus perciperem de eadem.Et ut in pace dictam terciam retinerem et cum ecclesia Palentina et cum domino Alfonso de Molina, qui tunc temporis dictam terciam per Palentinam ecclesiam detinebat, scandala in posterum non haberem et ut uexaciones redimerem solui eisdem multam peccunie quantitatem.' In view of the fact that Alfonso de Molina, the brother of Fernando III, had for so long been implicated in the affairs of the Tierra de Campos, it is of additional interest that it was 'por ruego de donna Mafia Alfonso' that the charter of August 1278 was granted.For Maria Alfonso was the daughter of Alfonso de Molina.The cousin of Alfonso X, five years later María de Molina was also to become his daughter-in-law.Some day her remarkable history will be rewritten, and when that day comes the suggestive but consistently frustrating study by Mercedes Gaibrois de Ballesteros (María de Molina, tres veces reina, Madrid 1936) will provide a starting point.For present purposes, however, it must suffice merely to refer to doña Marías involvement with the Toro area. 6f greater interest, perhaps, is the second component of the Zamora document.The taxation of the kingdoms of León and Castile in the thirteenth century, and in the late 1270s in particular, has recently received detailed attention from the two principal authorities on the subject.' This second exhibit, therefore, can only be of supplementary significance.
Even so, certain of its details deserve attention.For example, nowhere else, it would appear, are the particulars of the `seys serukios en Cinco annos que montasse cada uno dello tanto commo una moneda' so fully described as here.8News of Alfonso X's difficulties in April 1279 ('Agora fago uos saber que es mester muy grand auer pora estos fechos grandes en que so, et senalada mientre pora esta guerra delos moros que es tan gran serukio de dios e tan grand onrra e pro de nos e de toda nuestra terra') would have come as no surprise to Ballesteros.Not so, however, the implications of lines 10-12 of the document: Bien sabedes de commo venieron ami omnes bonos delos Coikeios del Regno de Leon sobre fecho delas cuentas e dela [sic] Pesquissas e delas otras cosas que arrendaron de mi don Cag el dela maleha e don çag fijo de don Culema e elos otros sus companeros a pedirme merged que yo que uos perdonasse lo del tienpo pasado.
If nothing else, the revelation that 'don Cag el dela Maleha' and 'don Cag fijo de don Culema' were not one and the person man will give the shades of don Antonio ample food for thought.9 Zamora, Archivo de la Catedral, 9/15 Segovia, ?4 August 1278 Toledo, 10 April 1279 Sepan quantos esta carta uiren Como yo Pedro Ffernan[de]z notario publico del Rey en Toro vi un Priuillegio pintado de mio ssenor el Rey don Alffonsso aque dios de bona uida ffecho en esta guissa.