Scams, Negligence, and Damages: Considerations on Conflicts between Lay Aristocrats and their Agents in León in the 11th Century

Abstract

This study analyses the conflicts between lay aristocrats and those agents who acted in their name, received their fees, and preserved and ran their properties. Scams, negligence, and damages caused by these seigneurial agents became a recurring problem that spread throughout several spaces and concerned several lay aristocrats, which points out a deep tension in this relationship. This paper suggests that these conflicts were the result of the fact that both seigneurial judicial and political power and control over aristocratic lands and properties were exercised in the local and supra-local spaces by persons related to those spaces. These individuals owned lands and their sustenance and income did not depend entirely on their activities as agents, and neither did their interests match completely with aristocratic ones.

Keywords

• agentes señoriales
• señorío
• león
• siglo xi
• propietarios locales