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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1539: The King's Judges and the Local Communities, 1450-1521

Thursday 9 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Project 'JUSCOM: Meet the Judge (Justice & Communities in a Transitional Period: 1481-1580 (PTDC/EPH-HIS/4323/2012))'
Organiser:Adelaide Millán da Costa, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Moderator/Chair:Adelaide Millán da Costa, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Paper 1539-aA Learned Body?: Peripheral Royal Officers and the University - Portugal, 15th Century
(Language: English)
Mário Farelo, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa / Centro de Estudos de História Religiosa, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Index terms: Administration, Education, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1539-bA Dictionary of Portuguese Justices' Officers in the Late Middle Ages: An Overview
(Language: English)
Filipa Roldão, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa / Fundação para a Ciência & Tecnologia, Lisboa
Index terms: Administration, Archives and Sources, Social History
Paper 1539-cWhere to Judge?: The Geographical Distribution of Royal Judicial Officers in Medieval Portugal, 1481-1521
(Language: English)
Nuno Rodrigues, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade do Porto
Index terms: Administration, Law, Social History
Abstract

In this session we will focus on the literate magistrates (which are exogenous to the local communities) that the Portuguese crown appoints to the most important municipalities of the kingdom. Actually, current knowledge about the exercise of first instance justice during the Middle Ages indicate that the episodic appointment of this magistrates (juízes de fora) was a royal initiative that invariably triggered conflicts with the elected local authorities. Conversely, the image conveyed by the Modern Age, grounded on the research carried out for the 17th century, is one of an existing structure for the administration of justice established by the crown that matches a judicial apparatus active in the main cities and towns of the kingdom.

These two opposing historiographical discourses, relative to the Medieval and Modern Ages, suggest that a period of acceleration for this process of change must have taken place. The detailed explanation of this process, including the characterization of the human resources involved therein and the geopolitical extension of the crown's judicial apparatus will contribute to the understanding of one of the pillars of the construction of the Modern State.