Early population records in Spain / P. Granville Edge.

  • Edge, P. Granville (Percy Granville), 1881-
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Early population records in Spain / P. Granville Edge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    might conceivably result in bringing to light many records of value and interest. A modern writer (i) states that Pope Gregory VII writing to Alfonso VI oi Castile in io8i, announced that his subjects numbered mas de un millon de homhres, a figure which may have been calculated from the information supplied by the Pope’s hegates with a view to the assessment of Papal taxes such as Peter s Pence. The next reference we are able to quote does not appear until the I2th century, when in 1139, Alfonso VII of Castile caused the “ mo- zarabes ” (i. e. Christians under the sovereignty of a Moorish King) to be enumerated, and a tax-list prepared for the purpose of determin¬ ing doubtful points touching the distribution of lands. Some two centuries later, the records of the Parliament or Assembly of Alcala {Cortes de Alcala) for the year 1348, make mention of census rolls, tax lists, and records of herds, etc., relating to various towns in the area ; three years later, the Parliament of Valladolid, convened by Pedro I in 1351, authorised the preparation of a register of certain towns {Becerro de las Behetrias) (2) for the purpose of recording par¬ ticulars of the lordships of the royal sheep-walks {Senorios de las Me- rindades) (3) of Castile, of Crown and private rights, and of various estates within the territory. These references, confessedly meagre since they cover some six centuries of time, do suggest that enumerations of one kind or another were far from unknown during the earliest ages of Spanish history. However, until some enterprising investigator succeeds in bringing to light further documentary evidence of conditions in those far- off days, it becomes necessary to focus attention on less remote periods and, by reference to official and authentic records, endeavour to dis- (1) R. MKNkNDKZ PiDAr, La Espana del Cid, Madrid, 1929, Vol. i, p. loi. PiDAn assumes “ homhres ” to refer to adult males, and on this assumption estimates the total population to amount to 3 milHons for an area (the whole north-west of the Peninsula down to the line of the Tagus) which now contains 9 millions. I am indebted for this reference to Mr. A. K. JameSon, of the De¬ partment of Spanish, University of lyondon. King’s College, Uondon. (2) Becerro de las Behetrias, i. e. Register of the rights of the Crown and of other overlords in the Behetrias which were townships and communal bodies possessing the right of choosing their overlords. (3) Merindad. An area under the jurisdiction of a Merino, who, though he may originally have had something to do with the collection of grazing tolls from the shepherds, had, before the 14th century, become an ordinary royal executive ofl&cial. Hence, Merindad connotes simply one kind of territorial division. 4
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