Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The ballad and the frontier in late mediaeval Spain 1

1976; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382762000353015

1469-3550

Angus MacKay,

Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeBSS Subject Index: BALLADS/ROMANCESSPAIN — HISTORY — MEDIEVAL PERIODSPAIN — LITERATURE — MEDIEVAL PERIOD — GENERALSPAIN — LITERATURE — MEDIEVAL PERIOD — POETRY Notes 1. This paper was first given as a lecture to the 1973 Conference of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland. I am extremely grateful for the advice and criticism subsequently given to me by Professor A. D. Deyermond, Professor L. P. Harvey, Dr R. Hitchcock, Dr C. C. Smith, Professor R. B. Tate and Professor E. M. Wilson. 2. For example, L. Suárez Fernández, Juan II y la frontera de Granada (Valladolid 1954). 3. For recent discussion of these points see C. C. Smith, ‘On the ethos of the romancero viejo’ in Studies of the Spanish and Portuguese Ballad, ed. N. D. Shergold (London 1972), 5–24; P. Bénichou, Creación poética en el romancero tradicional (Madrid 1968), 69–92. 4. This phrase is used by Smith both in his study of ballads and in his edition of the Poema de Mio Cid. 5. For these and other related notions see, for example, the ‘Summary of participants’ discussion', in Transcultural Studies in Cognition, ed. A. K. Romney and R. G. D'Andrade (Wisconsin 1964), 230–42. 6. A. D. Deyermond, The Middle Ages (London 1971), 126–27. 7. See C. C. Smith, Spanish Ballads (London 1964), 17. 8. See W. J. Entwistle, ‘The Romancero del rey don Pedro in Ayala and the Cuarta crónica general,’ MLR, XXV (1930), 306–26 and the same author's European Balladry (Oxford 1939), 156–60. 9. R. H. Webber, Formulistic Diction in the Spanish Ballad (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1951), 247. 10. Diego Catalán, Siete siglos de romancero (Madrid 1969), 16–56. 11. For dissenting opinion on this point see D. W. Foster, The Early Spanish Ballad (New York 1971), 93. 12. R. Menéndez Pidal, Romancero hispánico (Madrid 1953), II, ch. xiipassim; Smith, op. cit., 16–19. 13. A. B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass. 1960). 14. D. Buchan, The Ballad and the Folk (London 1972). 15. This parallel with linguistics is suggested to me by one of Buchan's comments: ‘The oral poet can do this, can compose rapidly in performance, because he has learned the phrases and rhythms of a poetic language, the language of tradition, which he can think in almost as easily as we can think in the rhythms and phrases of our prosaic language.’ Buchan, op. cit., 52 and 146. 16. Menéndez Pidal, op. cit., I, 40–43. 17. Smith, ‘On the ethos of the Romancero viejo,’ 5n. 18. D. Catalán, op. cit., 95–99. 19. Ibid., 57–99. The romances are Romance de los jaboneros and La merienda del moro. 20. See, for example, Entwistle, op. cit., 161; E. Lourie, ‘A society organized for war: medieval Spain’, Past and Present, no. 35 (1966), 54–76. 21. Menéndez Pidal, op. cit., II, 7–8, 16–21; Foster, op. cit., 17. 22. Diego Catalán, op. cit., 63–77. 23. Buchan, op. cit., 46–47. Buchan stresses that it was in North East Scotland that balladry flourished most—that is, on the borders of Gaelic civilization rather than along the Anglo-Scottish frontier. As will be seen in the rest of this paper, the interpenetration of different cultures, present in both the Scottish and Yugoslav oral traditions, was also of great importance in Spain. 24. Fadrique unequivocally states that he was there in Coimbra (‘Yo me estaba allá en Coimbra’) ; Alonso Pérez, who is in Seville, offers to summon the maestre to Seville from Coimbra. 25. ‘Yo me fui para Vizcaya’ indicates motion to, although in this case no ‘here’ is mentioned. 26. ‘Esa tierra de Nájera, en campo que Azofra es dicho’. The use of ‘esa’ and ‘que…es dicho’ implies a ‘there’ which is vague when compared to the familiar landmarks of the South which appear in other ballads—for example the puerta Macarena, puerta Elvira, Boca del Asno, Rio-Verde…. 27. It is interesting to note that the literate poet, Rodrigo Yáñez, placed events in their proper geographical setting: D. Catalán, op. cit., 36–37. 28. Cf. literate accounts of the duke's arrest which reveal to what an extraordinary extent the actions have been ‘reconstructed’ by the ballad: Pedro Carrillo de Huete, Crónica del halconero de Juan II, ed. J. de Mata Carriazo (Madiid 1946), 39–40; Crónica de don Alvaro de Luna, ed. J. de Mata Carriazo (Madrid 1940), 89; Crónica de Juan II de Castilla (BAE, LXX), 461–62. 29. Entwistle, art. cit., 322. 30. Smith, ‘On the ethos of the romancero viejo’, 8, makes similar points about the ethos of the romances as a whole. 31. Entwistle, op. cit., 161; Smith, ‘On the ethos of the romancero viejo’, 15. 32. The term ‘safety-valve theory’ has never been specifically used in relation to mediaeval Spain but the underlying ideas are very similar. For discussion and criticism of the theory within an American context, see Murray Kane, ‘Some considerations on the safety-valve doctrine’, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXIII (1936), 169–88. 33. Juan de Mena, El Laberinto de Fortuna, ed. José Manuel Blecua (Madrid 1943), 83. See also the discussion of Mena's concept of the Reconquest in María Rosa Lida de Malkiel, Juan de Mena, poeta del pre-rrenacimiento español (Mexico 1950), 545–57. 34. The awareness of both Christian and Moorish diplomats of the immense complications of international politics is well illustrated by the published documentation of the 1439 truce negotiations: J. Amador de los Ríos, Memoria histórico-crítica sobre las treguas celebradas en 1439 entre los reyes de Castilla y de Granada (Madrid n.d.). 35. See E. Mitre Fernández, ‘La frontière de Grenade aux environs de 1400’, Le Moyen Age, LXXVIII (1972), 489–522; M. A. Ladero Quesada, Granada. Historia de un país islámico (Madrid 1969), 123–26; J. Torres Fontes, Xiquena, castillo de la frontera (Murcia 1960), 17–19. 36. Amador de los Ríos, op. cit., 142–49. Trans-frontier trade was officially agreed to by both sides in truce negotiations and the details are minutely described in the farms of customs duties: see, for example, Archivo Municipal Jerez, actas capitulares for 1438, fols. 59v-74r. 37. This variant is in Cancionero de Romances (Anvers, 1550), ed. Antonio Rodríguez-Moñino (Madrid 1967), 246–47. The tradition oîparia payments and vassalage, of course, goes back as far as the eleventh century: J. M. Lacarra, ‘Aspectos económicos de la sumisión de los reinos de taifas (1010–1102)’, Homenaje a Jaime Vicens Vives (Barcelona 1965), I, 255–77. 38. On the office of adelantado see L. García de Valdeavellano, Historia de las instituciones españolas (Madrid 1967), 507–10; E. Mitre Fernández, art. cit., 505–06; Ladero Quesada, op. cit., 125. For John II's grant of the adelantamiento to Diego de Ribera's son, see Crónica del Halconero, ed. cit., 162 and Crónica de Juan II, ed. cit., 516. Both these chronicles reveal the manner of Diego de Ribera's death and the king's reaction to the news, but they give no hint of Crown involvement in the Alora expedition. 39. Archivo Municipal Seville, accounts of the mayordomos, 1433–35, letter dated 2 March 1434: ‘Bien sabedes la guerra que yo he començada contra los ynfieles moros del regno de granada … la qual queriendo continuar es mi merçed que diego de ribera mi adelantado dela frontera e del mi consejo entre atalar poderosamente alas partes de málaga’. 40. The involvement of oficiales de los contadores mayores del rey emerges from the evidence of some twenty folios of muster and pay accounts which follow documents relating to the rallying of military forces at Mon-turque. 41. Hechos del condestable don Miguel Lucas de Iranzo,ed. J. de Mata Carriazo (Madrid 1940). See also the excellent discussion in Rachel Arié, L'Espagne Musulmane au temps des Nasrides (1232–1492) (Paris 1973), 257–58. 42. Romance de los moros de Moclín in Smith, op. cit., no. 32. For an example of the extent to which mills could dominate strategic thinking, see Hechos del condestable, ed. cit., 266–76. 43. Arié, op. cit., 252–53; M. A. Ladero Quesada, Castilla y la conquista del reino de Granada (Valladolid 1967), 13–14. 44. The elements of such defensive and ‘early-warning’ systems—guardas, escuchas, atalayas, atajadores, albacaras—deserve a special study. Arié, op. cit., 236–38, has an excellent discussion on Moorish atalayas, but much remains to be unearthed from the evidence of chronicles and municipal archives. For specific examples of the scouting of a. puerto and the use of night beacons, see Hechos del condestable, ed. cit., 38, 80. 45. For example, the personification of Granada and her status as a bride in the Romance de Abenámar: Smith, op. cit., 127. 46. Smith, ‘On the ethos of the romancero viejo’, 10, 18. 47. E. M. Wilson, Tragic Themes in Spanish Ballads (London 1958), 4. 48. The following comments have been adapted from a passage in Franz Boas' ‘Introduction’ to the Handbook of American Indian Languages, reprinted in Language, Culture and Society, ed. S. S. Blount (Cambridge, Mass. 1974), 24–25. 49. For an extreme assertion in support of an ‘inner coherency’ analysis see Foster, op. cit., 102. 50. On these alcaldes see J. de Mata Carriazo, ‘Un alcalde entre los cristianos y los moros’, Al-Andalus, XIII (1948), 36–96, reprinted in Homenaje al profesor Carriazo (Seville 1971), I, 85–142; Mitre, art. cit., 491–93; Ladero, Granada, 120. 51. This episode is discussed by H. Sancho de Sopranis, Historia social de Jerez de la Frontera (Jerez 1959), III, 73–74. 52. Archivo Municipal Jerez, actas capitulares for 1447, fols. 27r & v, 49r. 53. That the system was one of general rather than local frontier significance is shown by the correspondence between Christian towns and royal officials in Granada. See, for example, the letter from Murcia to Muhammad IX in J. Torres Fontes, ‘La intromisión granadina en la vida murciana (1448–1452)’, Al-Andalus, XXVII (1962), 152–54. 54. J. de Mata Carriazo, ‘Los moros de Granada en las actas del concejo de Jaén de 1479’, Miscelánea de estudios árabes y hebraicos, IV (1955), 81–125, reprinted in Homenaje al profesor Carriazo (Seville 1971), I, 265–310. Another study closely related to the same documents is also reprinted, ibid., 237–64. All references in the text of this paper are to this first volume of the Homenaje. 55. Arié, op. cit., 326–28; Ladero, op. cit., 122; Mitre, art. cit., 493. 56. For example, see the receipts for prisoners and parias published by Amador de los Ríos, op. cit., 142–49. 57. For the religious life in Granada see Arié, op. cit., 417–23; Ladero, op. cit., 64–65, 72. 58. In the case of Ferdinand of Antequera allegations about the misuse of funds from the sale of indulgences were also voiced: Le parti inedite della ‘Crónica de Juan II di Alvar García de Santa María, ed. D. Ferro (Venice 1972), 153–55. For Eugenius IV's grant see Suárez, op. cit., 24. Many more examples of a similar sort are referred to in works such as J. Goñi Gaztambide, Historia de la bula de la cruzada en España (Vitoria 1958). 59. This imbalance largely resulted from variations in the timing and speed of the Reconquest. For a general discussion of the catholicisme presque sans prêtres of the south, see R. Ricard, ‘La dualité de la civilisation hispanique’, Revue Historique, CLXVI (1956), 1–17. 60. Pulgar's comments, however, were confined to the converso problem of Andalusia: F. Cantera, ‘Fernando del Pulgar and the conversos’, in Spain in the Fifteenth Century, ed. R. Highfield (London 1972), 308. 61. See B. Bevan, History of Spanish Architecture (London 1938), 107–10. 62. J. Torres Fontes, El monasterio de San Ginés de la Jara en la edad media (Murcia 1965), especially pp. 5–21. 63. See Arié, op. cit., 322–24. 64. Cancionero de romances (Anvers, 1550), ed. cit., 249. 65. As far as I know, there is no evidence of such a development in this period. For evidence about an intermediate religion at a later date, see the discussion of the case of Don Cosme Abenamir of Benaguacil in H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (New York 1907), III, 364, and the comments in J. T. Monroe, ‘A curious Morisco appeal to the Ottoman Empire’, Al-Andalus, XXXI (1966), 288. 66. See in general A. W. Frothingham, Lustreware of Spain (New York 1951) ; the same, Catalogue of Hispano-Moresque Pottery (New York 1936); A. van de Put, The Valencian Styles of Hispano-Moresque Pottery (New York 1938). 67. Frothingham, Lustreware, 27–28. 68. Ibid., 79–84; Van de Put, op. cit., 3–6, 19–21. 69. The importance of the linajes in Castilian society is evident both from the attitudes of contemporaries and the works of modern historians like Moxó, García de Cortazar, and Suárez Fernández. In general terms it may be said that the lineages were of greatest significance on the peripheries of the kingdom: the frontier, Vizcaya, and Galicia. On Granada, see Ladero, op. cit., 54–61. 70. For examples of trans-frontier alliances in both the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, ibid, 94–98; Arié, op. cit., 257; Torres Fontes, Xiquena, 98–99. 71. These lines by Fernán Pérez de Guzmán are cited in J. Gimeno Casalduero, La imagen del monarca en la Castilla del siglo XIV (Madrid 1972), 116. 72. C. R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting (Cambridge, Mass. 1930), II, 163–64. 73. The chivalric content of the paintings is also of interest for acculturation: ibid., 160–71 and Arié, op. cit., 406–10. 74. B. Bevan, op. cit., 110–11. 75. The literature on this topic is enormous. For a classic description of a war-game see Mosén Diego de Valera, Memorial de diversas hazañas, ed. J. de Mata Carriazo (Madrid 1941), 45. 76. See Philippe de Commynes, Memoirs. The Reign of Louis XI, trans. M. Jones (London 1972), 142. 77. See The Travels of Leo of Rozmital, 1465–67, trans. and ed. M. Letts (Cambridge 1957), 91–92, 128–29. 78. The grievances are contained in the enormous sentencia compromisoria in Memorias de don Enrique IV de Castilla, II, Colección diplomática (Madrid 1835–1913), 355–479.