Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada, Guzmán: La casa ducal de Medina Sidonia en Sevilla y su reino (1282–1521) . Madrid: Dykinson, 2015. Paper. Pp. 712; 2 maps and many tables. €35. ISBN: 978-84-9085-274-3.
2016; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/689902
ISSN2040-8072
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia
ResumoPrevious articleNext article FreeReviewsMiguel Ángel Ladero Quesada, Guzmán: La casa ducal de Medina Sidonia en Sevilla y su reino (1282–1521). Madrid: Dykinson, 2015. Paper. Pp. 712; 2 maps and many tables. €35. ISBN: 978-84-9085-274-3.Michael CrawfordMichael CrawfordMcNeese State University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreWith his recent book Guzmán: La casa ducal de Medina Sidonia en Sevilla y su reino, Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada provides a close study of the preeminent family of late-medieval Andalusia, the principal branch of the Guzmanes and eventual dukes of Medina Sidonia. This study brings together the various methodological approaches to the history of the medieval nobility that Spanish historians have pursued over the last half century: the evolving political relations between these families and the monarchy; the transformation of the nobility under the Trastámara dynasty; noble family structure and function; and culturally diverse dimensions, including behavior, attitudes, and ideals of the nobles. Given Ladero Quesada’s career-long attention to the economic underpinnings of monarchy, church, and noble family, he also provides a detailed analysis of the family’s lordships and sources of income both in the text and in an extensive appendix. Inasmuch as the work presents an overarching thesis it is methodological rather than substantive. By incorporating these different approaches and perspectives, Ladero Quesada seeks to provide a total history of a noble lineage.Ladero Quesada is well known for his work on the conquest of Granada, religious minorities in medieval Castile, and the fiscal systems of Castile’s monarchy. He has also written numerous books and articles of a regional focus on medieval Andalusia and its noble lineages, which provide him with an encyclopedic familiarity with the key figures in the Guzmán family. Ladero Quesada’s intimate knowledge of the Guzmanes has been further enriched by his long-standing access to the ducal archive beginning in 1975. Chapters 1 through 4 and 6 provide a history of the heads of the family over eight generations and their political dealings with the crown, other noble families, and principal municipalities. These chapters also review the Guzmán marriages and dowries, their offspring, and most significantly the creation of the lineage’s entailed estate (mayorazgo) and its management over time. Interspersed in these chapters and in chapter 5 are profiles of the towns, villages, and properties that constituted the family’s lordships and the incomes from these diverse entities.The founder of the house, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (d. 1309), was the legendary figure known as Guzmán “the Good” for his willingness to sacrifice his own son rather than surrender the strategic port city of Tarifa to a besieging Muslim army. Alonso’s loyal command of Tarifa and services to Sancho IV and Fernando IV earned him lordships over a number of coastal towns, notably Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and lucrative fisheries and thereby established the early basis of the family’s fortune. At his death, the Guzmanes were the leading family of the region. They briefly lost their influence in Seville when exiled during the turbulent years of Alfonso IX’s minority. Once Alfonso XI came of age, the family benefited from kinship with the royal concubine, Leónor de Guzmán, but did not form part of the governing group around the king composed of Leónor’s closer kin. Consequently, the lord of Sanlúcar did not suffer from Pedro I’s initial reprisals against the family of his father’s longtime mistress and served the king during his early years. However, Juan Alonso Guzmán, head of the family from 1365, eventually fought in support of the rebellion of Pedro’s half brother Enrique of Trastámara and remained a committed partisan.The family survived the civil war and prospered under the new dynasty. Enrique II rewarded Juan Alonso by granting him additional lordships and the title of count of Niebla. The countship was the first given in Castile to someone who was not of royal blood in a manner that was permanent and hereditary. Moreover, the first count of Niebla eventually married Enrique II’s illegitimate daughter, Beatriz de Castilla, and thereby strengthened the family’s connection to the crown. For much of the early fifteenth century, the counts of Niebla exercised extraordinary political influence over the city and territory of Seville despite growing competition for regional political and military offices with other aristocratic families and shifting factional alliances and conflicts. The family’s dominance in Seville reached its height under Juan de Guzmán, who received the title of duke of Medina Sidonia in 1445 for his support of Juan II. Notably, the duke also established a lengthy peace with his principle rival Juan Ponce de León (count of Arcos), forcibly regained lordships lost to collateral branches of the family, and altered the terms of the mayorazgo to allow his bastard son Enrique to inherit the family’s title and estates. Taking advantage of the resurgence of dynastic conflict in the late 1450s and 1460s, Juan seized control of additional municipalities in the region.Antagonized by Enrique IV’s grants of offices and estates to aristocratic favorites, the Guzmanes supported his half sister Isabel’s claims to the throne in the early 1470s. Simultaneously, violent factional fighting in Seville and its surrounding territory erupted between the Guzmanes and the Ponce de León. These conflicts were not resolved until after Isabel’s succession in 1475 and defeat of her niece, when she made an extended visit to Andalusia in 1477. Her extended personal presence and energetic actions served to reassert royal authority and constrain the independence of the local aristocrats. Despite his support for Isabel’s cause, Enrique found his hopes of reward unrealized. Moreover, the monarchs ordered him to depart from Seville, where he had previously dominated the city’s council. His subsequent participation in the royal campaigns against the Muslim kingdom of Granada remained relatively inconspicuous, with minimal personal involvement, though he provided significant support in the form of troops and loans to the monarchs. The family remained the first noble house in Andalusia, but the Catholic Monarchs undermined the Guzmanes’ traditional command of regional politics. Additional difficulties mounted up in the turbulent years following Isabel’s death, when the third duke’s initial alignment against Fernando of Aragón, followed by an untimely death, left his heir as ward and pawn of the king. Only with Fernando’s death and the establishment of the Habsburg dynasty did the family regain its previous autonomy.In addition to Ladero Quesada’s attention to the Guzmán patriarchs, he details the lives and actions of the key women in the family, particularly those who served as the effective heads and defenders of the family in their widowhood. Notably, his treatment of the lineage’s founders gives greater attention to María Alfonso Coronel than to her legendary husband, reviewing her management of the family properties, her political connections to the queen regent, and her portrayal as a cultural and social model in the writings of subsequent centuries. Similarly, he details the property and patronage of Beatriz de Castilla and the political maneuverings of Isabel de Velasco. All three controlled significant resources, maintained large retinues of supporters and servants, and kept independent households even after their sons came of age. With this dimension the study provides not only rich data for specialists of the European nobility, but also valuable evidence for the history of medieval women. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 92, Number 1January 2017 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/689902 Copyright 2017 by the Medieval Academy of America. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.
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