Intervetions and interests of the counts of Benavente in Villafáfila in teh centuries XV to XVI (1418-1541)

The proximity of the towns of Villafáfila and Benavente translated into permanent relations of a social, economic and political nature, which sometimes led to conflicts and others to agreements. From the beginning of the 15th century, with the Pimentel family settled in the Benavente estate, relations between the councils took on a new dimension, due to the desire of the counts to expand their influence beyond the land of Benavente. What they easily achieved in their expansion to the west, taking control of almost all of Sanabria and Carballeda. But they encountered more difficulties in their expansion towards Tierra de Campos, as most of the towns were subject to the lordships of great nobles, such as the Marquis of Astorga or the Constable of Castile.[1] ,IV Count of Benavente, I Duke of Benavente, III Count of Mayorga.

Until the intervention of the Catholic Monarchs, at the end of it, manages to restore legality. The obtaining of the position of Commander of Castrotorafe in 1507 by don Alonso Pimentel y Pacheco, V count, obtains by way of law the possession of the lordship of the town until his death in 1530.

The towns of Villafáfila and Benavente shared a wide line that separated their alfoces since the Middle Ages. Setting boundaries was not always a task without differences, and, even at the end of the Middle Ages, it gave rise to lawsuits and controversies, although the boundaries between the two lands were marked with milestones, coffers and signs that were renewed periodically. Thus, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, differences arose between the residents of the villages of Benavente (Barcial, Villaveza, Santovenia and Valle) that bordered on Villafáfila, and the residents of Villafáfila, on the cutting of firewood and on the pledge of cattle. who entered to graze in the territory of others.

The town of Villafáfila belonged to the Military Order of Santiago since 1229, as an encomienda until the end of the 14th century and later added to the Castrotorafe encomienda and had several villages within its alfoz, which were reduced throughout the medieval centuries, remaining populated in the fifteenth century only San Agustín and Revellinos. Benavente had been handed over by Enrique III to Juan Alfonso Pimentel in 1398. The actions of the Portuguese nobleman gave rise to the protests of the residents of Benavente who sent a memorial to the king in 1400 suing for the grievances and violence inflicted on them by the first count [ 2] .

In 1418 the residents of Villafáfila complained to the master of Santiago, at that time the infante don Enrique [3] , son of the king of Aragon, that:

“our basallos sent us a lawsuit and they say that, having their terms and pastures in which their cattle and oxen and beasts roam marked out and designated among them and the council and officials and good omes of Benabente, and having their cattle and beasts there, and using their terms as they always used and were accustomed, that omes and basalts of Don Juan Alfonso Pemintel, Count of Benabente, who enter their terminus, seize their cattle, and seize their shepherds, and take them to happiness Benabente ea the villages and places of its termino. And others have done and done to the said our basallos many other forces and evils and damages and synrreasons, and especially they say that, just a few days ago, that certain squires of the said count came to the said town, and that they were all dated honor and entertainment,”.

Two problems emerge from the complaint, the differences between the neighbors on the terms of both lands and on the use of pastures; and secondly, the forces, evils, damages and unreasons that the residents of Villafáfila receive from the count's men. They refer to the visit to Villafáfila of the count's squires who were received with all honor and entertainment and on their return they arrested neighbors who were hunting with greyhounds and entered the land of Benavente. This visit by the count's squires can be interpreted as an attempt to expand the count's political influence in Villafáfila.

The town, at that time, was in a lawsuit with the commander, over certain abuses and impositions that he tried to do to the neighbors, such as taking inns, straw, firewood and clothing for his palace and fortress, imposing a bailiff or interfering with the council's power to establish ordinances. From the commander's responses to the neighbors' complaints, it can be deduced that the state of the town was not normal. He refers on several occasions to a situation of conflict between neighbors:

“he said that because of the many bolliçios that were in the said town, that the decree had certain statutes and imposed certain penalties, to remove the said bolliçios”, “that due to the decrease in justice, the person who executed it says that they are avid deaths of men and others many wounds in the said town which he says that it was not if he was a bailiff”. And "because Gonçalo Fernandez, the doctor who had the said keys, opened at night to some people who came in the service of the said master and harmed some of the residents of the said town", he asks that the keys to the doors of the town be handed over to "omes that are not side" .

It is possible that the count took advantage of this situation to intervene in the events of this town, close to his county, and that, by having an institutional lordship, it could arouse expansionist desires; or that the conflicts and bolliçios were the result of a management of neighbors related to the count. But at that time he was master of the Order of Santiago, the infante don Enrique, one of the most influential political figures in the kingdom of Castile in the first half of the fifteenth century, along with his brothers, the infantes of Aragon, sons of Ferdinand of Antequera.

In the face of complaints, the Master, trying to avoid the fights that could cause the differences:

“About this reason, for which we were asked by mercy to remedy us by throwing disputes and debates and scandals that between the said, our basalts and those of the said Mr. Count, could recite on the said reason and because they were living in good peace ahead. and calm and concord... and between them there will be no scandals and some debates...” ,

He gives power to his waiter Francisco Martínez de Valencia, Bachelor of Laws, so that he can know and sentence the issues, together with the judge appointed by the Count of Benavente:

“It is our mercy that you and the person that the said count will appoint by part, you help one or you alone, if the said count will entrust it to you, bayades the said terms and beades the debates and disputes that are between them about the said thermynos. And others and, that you listen to the complaints that you are given by one party and by the other, and which said parties and each of them wanted to say and gather and show, and freely and determined in it what you rule by right, because you we order that you go to the said terms and you and the said person that the said count will name for his part or you alone, if the said count trusts you, as it is said, see what instruments and collections and compositions and proofs that the said parties, or any of them, before you they want to present and show,.

Count Don Juan Alfonso Pimentel, for his part, wanted to appoint another judge to sentence along with the one appointed by the maestre, and granted his power to sentence his mayor, Juan Alfonso de Benavente, a law graduate, in the lawsuit.

Thus, when the two judges were appointed, and before a lawsuit that affected two jurisdictions, it was not possible to sentence in any of them without aggravating the other, for which reason they were brought together in the line between both terms.

"in the Pedrón Blanco where the term of Villafáfila is divided with the term of Valle Village and term of the said town of Benavente" ,

in the presence of Sancho Ortiz and Juan Sánchez de Villafáfila, scribes and public notaries in Benavente and Villafáfila, respectively, and the attorneys of both councils, Juan González de Benavente and Fernán Fernández Peraire de Villafáfila. There, seated, they received:

"the complaints proposed by the attorney of the council and good people of the said town of Benabente that he said had been received by the residents of the said town of Villafàfila and their villages", and those that the other party had received, "the complaints and grievances proposed by the procurator of the council and good omes of the said town of Villafáfila who said they had received from the council and neighbors of the said town of Benabente and its villages and of squires and homes of the said gentleman count " ,

and the answers of both and received information about it, from ancient men. After which they issued the sentence.

Firstly, they order that some cows be returned that the Santovenians had pledged, and some sheep and rams that the Villafáfilas had pledged. The rest of the complaints filed are not disclosed because they are old and were not claimed in a timely or proper manner, and the processes that could be opened or were open regarding them are declared null and void. It was a way of avoiding a cascade of complaints and lawsuits.

"To try ahead so that they drink in good peace, so those from Villafáfila and their land, like those from Benabente and their villages, let's try in this way that follows" :

-They establish the ability to seize the councils without the intervention of the commander or the count or his men:

"And another yes, even the maestre and his commanders who excuse their omes that do not catch, that same the count who excuses his omes and peons that do not catch, save the councils of the towns and villages that catch according to the customary or by some or by landlords who give their powers for it " .

This is done in order to avoid the disputes that could arise if armed people intervene in these neighborhood conflicts.

- For each flock of sheep or rams of 200 heads, five are taken, but they are not seed rams, and if seed rams are seized, they are returned and the pledger is penalized with double, and when they are less than one hundred heads, give two money each head.

-for each time they were found cutting firewood on someone else's mountain, they should charge 6 maravedís for each beast they brought to carry the firewood.

-The system of pledges is organized for which two residents of each town will be appointed to act as faithful, and the pledges must be made with the presence of one of those faithful, so that they are valid and a period of three days is established. to be able to claim the garment after which it can be "disrupted" . In each village two judges are to be appointed each year for the New Year, together with the faithful, to act as judges of these garments. By Benavente will be two men from the place of Santovenia.

When someone tries to oppose the pledge or defend himself by force, he must pay double, and for that matter, what the faithful say is believed.

The faithful were obliged to go when they were required by the councils or "by the pawnbrokers who went to run" , and for their work they would carry half the penalty just like the pawnbrokers, and if they did not want to go they would have to pay fifty maravedís each time.

The residents of the villages can pledge in their term, but not in those of another village, but those of the towns can pledge in all the land of the said towns.

They set a period of eight days for all garments that have been made or are made to be returned to their free owners.

The attorneys of both towns consent and receive the sentence and request copies from the notaries so that they can attest, and can use them in the future, if new differences arise [4] .

These ordinances, although complex in their application, remained in force for almost a century and avoided conflicts arising from terms, cattle and mountains between both towns.

The Count's intentions of dominion over Villafáfila were maintained throughout the fifteenth century, until, during the civil wars of the reign of Enrique IV around 1467, and coinciding with the confrontation between Don Rodrigo Pimentel and his father-in-law, the Marquis of Villena, master of the Order of Santiago [5] , seized Villafáfila:

"The said town was and is encomienda of Castrotorafe and he knows it because he saw it having and possessing Pedro de Ledesma, commander who was of said encomienda, and having it, he saw Don Juan Pimentel, brother of Don Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel, count of Benavente, seize the said town and have it for the said count for certain years, and later saw it have and possess the said Don Pedro Pimentel, brother of the said count for up to thirty years... he knows that having the said town, Don Pedro Ledesma as commander Don Juan Pimentel took and occupied it and gave it and handed it over to the Count of Benavente, Don Rº Alº Pimentel, glory be to his brother, and later he saw it have Fernando de Robles for the said Count, and he was governor of it and ruled the said town for him. Said count for certain years and later the said Don Pedro had her all the said time of 30 years...and the said Don Pedro had Juan de Collantes of the Mosque as wardens”[6] .

Still in 1548, the 68-year-old priest of San Andrés, Salvador Fazera, reported that he had heard his father say:

“that the said count don Rodrigo Pimentel at the time of the alterations of king don Enrique the fourth was taken and removed from the mastership of Santiago” [7] .

Perhaps he claimed certain rights as administrator of the Order of Santiago in the Kingdoms of León, a privilege he received in 1466 from the infante don Alonso [8] .

The Count's interest in obtaining the royal income from his land and from Villafáfila, which must have been considered under his orbit before the occupation, is confirmed by an albalá, dated in Madrigal on December 12, 1466, in the that Enrique IV, makes separation of various alcavalas and thirds that belonged to him in Benavente, Sanabria, Mayorga, Villalón and Portillo, which are the land of the Count of Benavente,

“and from the alcavalas of Villafáfila and its land with alvalerías wings from the salt of the said town” ,

to be leased all together for five years from 1467. They were leased on January 7, 1967 by Sancho Sánchez de Benavente, possibly a figurehead of the Count, demonstrating his interest in collecting the royal income from his land including Villafáfila that must have already been occupied or in the spotlight. The value of the alcavalas of Villafáfila and his land, including the alvalerías of the salinas, was 40,000 mrs. not very high in relation to the 145,000 of Benavente, his land and other nearby towns, or the 170,000 of Villalón [9] .

The count's support for the king allowed him to continue with the occupation, so commander Pedro de Ledesma renounced the encomienda, since it was diminished in its most productive part, and opted for Peñausende, closer to his patrimonial interests, in the year 1468:

"In Zamora we were shown by Don Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán a resignation of Don Pedro de Ledesma commander signed by his name and signed by a clerk as to how he resigned the Castrotorafe encomienda in the hands of the master of Santiago Don Juan Pacheco dated January 15 sixty-eight years old . "

That same year the master gave it to Don Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán [10] , son of the Count of Alba de Aliste:

“I showed the title that said Castrotorafe encomienda has, which the said master Don Juan Pacheco gave him, signed in his name and signed with the seal of the order and endorsed by Secretary Ferrando [...] dated February 10, sixty-eight years . "

This, cousin of King Ferdinand the Catholic, tried to recover the part of his encomienda that was occupied by the Count of Benavente and for that he appealed several times to the Catholic Monarchs, without achieving his purpose:

"And the said Don Enrique said that for many times our lords had come to the king and queen to beg them to do him justice for Villafáfila that the Count of Benavente had, and seeing that their Highnesses did not send him to remedy, he agreed with the said Count of Benavente” ,

for which he opted to agree to receive a certain annual income in exchange for Villafáfila and his land, and Porto and his, which had also been occupied by force:

“We were informed that Commander Don Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán has leased from the chapter here, Villafáfila and Porto, to the Count of Benavente for three nine years, which is twenty-seven years, each one for one hundred million mrs., if this is left consent and one of these years passes, he will claim possession forever, refer to their highnesses to remedy it " .

The amount of the rent was eighty thousand maravedís for Villafáfila and twenty thousand for Porto:

“The Count of Benavente gives rent each year to the commander for Your Majesty and his land which are Revellinos and Sant Agostin and for the town called Porto in Galicia and two places on his land called Pías and Barjacoba and a certain part of the mountain called Suespaçio one hundred million mrs of income every year eighty million mrs. for Villafáfila and twenty thousand for the town of Porto in Galicia”.

Even so, the situation, the commander was not satisfied with this situation and every time he had occasion he presented his complaints, either to the visitors of the order:

“The Commander complained to us that the said Count of Bte has it by force and begs their Highnesses to order it remedied”,

“It was also found that Villafáfila, which is annexed to the Encomienda de Castrotorafe, is occupied by the Count of Benavente” [11] .

The Count of Benavente's interest in Villafáfila was not strategic, as would have been the case of occupying Castrotorafe, with its fortress and stone walls, in a good state of defense, unlike those of Villafáfila, which were made of land and at that time already they were half-ruined; but primarily it was economic, since the town was experiencing, in the second half of the fifteenth century, an economic growth, the news of which transcended to the nearby counties:

“Juan Gómez, a resident of Valcavado, said that he knows that the residents of the town of Villafáfila, some of them, who are much richer and have more land than those of the town of Alixa and their land, and he knows it because this witness dealt in the The town of Villafáfila may have been forty years a little more or less [1470], and I knew men in the said town that one of them could buy the estate of two vºs, the richest of the town of Alixa” [12] .

The delivery of Villafáfila to don Pedro Pimentel y Quiñones [13] by the count his brother, was the result of a concert between the two, by which the count received from don Pedro the town of Almança and the place of Pobladura, which he owned since the death of his first wife, Doña Francisca de Almança:

“The said Mr. Pedro had and possessed the town of Villafáfila in the name of the Count of Benavente and at the time that the said town of Villafáfila was taken from him by the King our Lord as master who is of the order of Santiago to the said Mr. Don Pedro I returned and restored the said places of Pobladura and Almança” .

This agreement was established by deed signed by both brothers on 30-XI-1470 [14] . For this reason Don Pedro delivers to the count of his town of Almança with his fortress, land and jurisdiction, chests and rights, in exchange for receiving from the count, within two years, the same amount, both in income and jurisdiction. and vassals elsewhere.

While the count makes this equivalence effective, for which they appoint two men who understand it, and if differences arise they abide by what their mother determines, the widowed countess Doña María de Quiñones,

“Meanwhile, the said gentleman count phases the said equivalence for the said exchange, and until that effect is actually made, that he gives, in tenancy, to the said gentleman don Pedro, his brother, the town of Villafáfila with its fortress, with the administration of all this, with as many other incomes, how many rents the said town of Almança and its land and jurisdiction, in such a way that the income that the said don Pedro avias in each year in the said town of Almança, the same of the said lord count and it will be given in the said town of Villafáfila with the fortalesa della.

It is understood that, if and during the time that the said Mr. Pedro took over the said town of Villafaáfila and fortalesa and its administration and rents, any injunction or lien or encumbrance was made to him by any person or persons, whether ecclesiastical or secular, that the said gentleman count is forced to respond to all this at his own expense, putting the said don Pedro in that fortress of Villafáfila the receipt and guard that he should " .

Although in principle the concert was temporary, the possession and enjoyment of the town by Don Pedro lasted almost thirty years. During this time, it was the count who officially owned the villa and he leased it to the commander, or exercised the necessary influence at court so as not to be dispossessed of it.

Don Pedro Pimentel, upon receiving the town of Villafáfila, established his temporary residence there, for which he bought

“some houses of Pedro de Porras and María González, his wife, with their corral and their patio in the San Martín collation, in the Plaza, inside the town, adjoining the house of Juan de Villagómez and Alvaro de León’s winery, winery of Juan de Vaderas and public streets and council square. In Villafáfila, on the fifteenth day of January, the year of the birth of our savior, one thousand and four hundred and seventy-five years old. Witness: Yván de Collantes, warden, Pedro Martínez, waiter, Juan de Muélledes and Juan Zapatero. Alfonso Sánchez, notary public and notary public” [15] .

Don Pedro lived in Villafáfila with his family, as different people at the beginning of the 16th century remember his second wife, Doña Inés Enríquez de Guzmán, daughter of the Count of Alba de Liste, living in the town, in the first fortress:

"He remembered that he was the lord of the said town, Don Pedro Pimentel, father of the said Don Bernardino, and lived there and lived there with his wife, Mrs. Ynes, who lived in the fortress that was then in Villafáfila , "

“He knows Doña Ynes for more than fifty years (before 1478) , and he lived with her and with the said Don Pedro he may have been fifty years old and was her driver for two years” .

In it, his son Bernardino Pimentel y Enríquez was probably born, who in 1542 bought the town, since the old residents of Villafáfila remember in 1546 that they knew him since he was a child when he went to school in Villafáfila:

“I have known Mr. Bernaldino since he was a little boy, raised in this village in Mr. Pedro's house”, or “I have known Mr. Bernaldino since both of them, he and this witness, were little and went to school ”,

possibly in the house of the scribe Antº de Villegas, who taught children to read [16] .

In August 1497, through a deed made in Villafáfila, Don Pedro and Doña Inés founded mayorazgo over the towns of Távara and Alija and their lands and other patrimonial assets, in favor of their son Don Bernaldino [17] .

Don Pedro Pimentel, acting in concert with his brother, the Count of Benavente, gradually formed a stately estate in the outskirts of the county, since to the land of Alija that he received from his mother, Doña María de Quiñones, he added the town and land of Távara and the town of Almança, which he owned on behalf of his first wife, Fca de Almança, since their marriage and which he kept after her death and that of a son who survived her, which gave rise to a lengthy lawsuit with his family policy, favorable to Don Pedro, and they were confirmed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1487 [18] .

To the lordship of these lands was added the effective possession since 1470 of Villafáfila, illegally occupied by the count,

“I sent Villafáfila as lord for thirty years more or less”, and likewise, around that time, he received the Moreruela monastery as a commendation: “I knew Don Pedro González de Mendoza, who had a soprior, to be abbot of the Santa María de Moreruela monastery. , and a Valderrábano, from Faramontanos, was a merino from the Granja de Moreruela, who had been placed in the abbey as a merino by the said Don Pedro [Pimentel], who said that he had the encomienda for the old count, his brother” [19] .

Although Don Pedro Pimentel alternated his stays between Benavente, Valladolid and their manors, with his participation in the Granada War or in his family's disputes with the Count of Lemos, he established a centralization of his estates in Villafáfila:

“This witness saw birds and bread and other things brought to the neighbors of Alixa and Távara, and they brought it to the said Mr. Don Pedro to this town of Villafáfila, being there at the time, and he also ordered to bring it from the said towns men criminals, and phase here and justice in them and punish them” [20] .

Under the patronage of the Pimentels, some squires and servants lived in Villafáfila, whom he exempted from bosom and allowed them to intervene in the distribution of council lands and take the best parcels, such as the Collantes, Mezquita, Barrio, Robles, from the house of the counts of Benavente or other places in the county, and others such as Melgar, Movilla and Villacorta, who had previously served Don Pedro in the land of Távara. In 1494 the pecheros of Villafáfila complained:

“Others and we were sued by the pecheros who live in that town many who defend themselves by hidalgos servants of the count and Don Pedro who are thirty neighbors and from above and are very rich and they buy the farms of the pecheros and do not contribute for They do not take away the said hidalgos from their quantia to the pecheros in such a way that in ten years from now the pecheros will be left without haciendas and they will pay as if they had them so that the town would be considered lost if it is not remedied by ordering that the hidalgo that I conpre of pechero that peche for it and so they beg their highnesses” [21] .

These hidalgos who were under the orbit of the Pimentels accompanied the count or Don Pedro on their war raids and received an amount of money in exchange for being themselves, or a number of their men fixed in advance, ready for combat and at the expense of the call of the Pimentel. The amount that is distributed in Villafáfila is 39,996 mrs. [22] . We know of the case of a nobleman from the late fifteenth century, Martín de Barrio, who came from San Pedro de la Viña, married in Villafáfila, participated in the dispute between the Count of Benavente and the Count of Lemos in Bierzo and Galicia, and later accompanied to don Pedro Pimentel to the War of Granada, in the capture of Vélez Málaga:

“When this guy was twenty years old, a little more or less [1464], he began to meet Aº de Cabañas, the elder of the contending father of said father, who was married and lived in Sant Pº de Çeque, who belongs to the count de Benavente, ... was a fidalgo man who had arms and horse and served the Count of Benavente and in the case of a fixed Doña Blanca, Mrs. de Uña, (with Doña Beatriz Núñez de Barrio), and had Martin as his son de Barrio, who went with the count of Benavente to a war in Galisya and there the said count took from the count of Lemos a fortress called Santdianes, and left the said Aº de Cabañas as alcayde and there he died and I did not see him anymore tº, and the said Martín de Barrio bolvyo later here and got married in Villafáfila,and there I saw him and later I did not see him except once in V[el]ez Malaga when he went to war with the said count” and “that he may have been fifty years old [1474] a little more or less than when he began to know the said Martín de Barrio, father of the one who contends that he was in Villafáfila who was drinking with Don Pedro Pimentel”[23]

Some hidalgos, as is the case of another Martín de Barrio, son of Lope Núñez de Barrio, died in Sanabria, ordered to be buried here. On the twenty-second of September, 1478 years . He was the uncle of the former and therefore the son of Doña Blanca, Lady of Uña, he came to live in Villafáfila in the mid-15th century, where he married before 1453 and was always considered a servant of the Count of Benavente. He and his children, who owned estates, salt pans and cattle, always remained faithful to the Pimentel family, and were their attorneys in the town, or managed some of their income, and his grandchildren at the beginning of the 16th century, served as pages in the house of the Count.

The situation of the common residents of the town has worsened since its occupation by the Pimentels, since from having a temporary lord, the commander, subject to the possibility of reviewing his acts by the master, without patrimonial interests, to being dominated by a family of the most rancid feudal style, with expansionist desires both territorially and jurisdictionally, it meant a deterioration of the previous conditions.

It was not easy for the complaints of the neighbors before such powerful lords to have an echo in the instances of the court, until the first visitors of the order, sent by the Catholic Monarchs, after being appointed perpetual administrators of the military orders by the Pope , they conveyed the distressing situation in which the residents of the town lived, under the effective possession by Don Pedro Pimentel, of which they were getting an idea when they visited the town in 1494, summarizing it in this sentence:

"Because it seemed to us that the passions that those vassals appeared to be remedied only to God or to Their Highnesses, and if it were not remedied, the vassals of the order are ancestral to Don Pedro."

When the visitors arrive at the town, the first thing they do is call the council and proclaim their powers and their willingness to receive their complaints and grievances, of those who would do them justice:

“Tuesday, two days of the month of December of the aforementioned year, [1494] we sent for the council and together in the square, as they have it customary, we read them the powers of Their Highnesses, which power, by the warden of the fortress, Fco de Mezquita, and by the mayors and aldermen of the town he was obeyed and placed on top of their heads, and they said that they were ready and prepared to do what we ordered them on behalf of their highnesses, then, in the presence of said council, he was ordered to announce that all the plaintiffs who come to us, that we would give them justice”.

“We visited the fortress of this town of Villafáfila and we took possession of it by order, and we threw out the mayor and turned it over to him, and he made a tribute lawsuit at the hands of Alonso de Esquibel, commander of Castilleja de la Cuesta, one of the visitors , to have her for the king and queen our lords or for whom their power overcame " .

After visiting the fence and the estates of the order, they receive information on the income belonging to the Commander and the Master, among which is the order, which Don Pedro had illegally seized:

“He has the master table in this said town and land, rent each year of the request 6000 mrs, which we were informed that Mr. Pedro Pimentel took these said six thousand mrs. the year of 93 that the master don Alonso de Cárdenas died, take them by force to the council " .

It is the first indication that they receive of the tyranny that was being exercised over the vassals, despite the fact that no one came to complain to them, which made the visitors suspect the abnormal situation:

“Others, after having been told that all the plaintiffs came to complain to us so we could remedy them and, together with this, we took an oath from the aldermen as usual and customary, we have it in all the encomiendas, towns and logars and after taking this oath, The judges and aldermen never came to tell us anything because they were afraid of Don Pedro Pimentel, because, day or night, they did not remove spies from Don Pedro from our inn, as we suspected and wished us, because none dared to come and we were informed that, if they dared to come, they would sue big complaints from the said Don Pedro” .

Little by little, the fear must have been overcome and some neighbors secretly went to present their complaints, among which were:

“Others, secretly, they complained to us that he would take two candles to the village and land each night, which is 20 mrs. that mount seven thousand mrs every year”.

- The requirement for salt growers or salt manufacturers to bring the firewood they needed to make salt in their cabins from their mountains and pastures in Távara: La Carba, Tardajos, etc., charging them higher prices than they would be worth, if They brought it from other mountains:

"Others and the vassals complain that the said Don Pedro makes them go to those of the salt huts for firewood to their land and that they would find half less in other places" .

- From the collection to the merchants who came or passed through the town of a castillery or castellage tax, in excess of what was charged to them as tollage, equivalent to a tenth of the charges, in addition to thefts and seizures of merchandise:

“Others complain that in the past that town used to be very well supplied with all maintenance and provisions and that now, if they don't go outside the region for them, they don't have them, because those who come there to sell something and spend around the region, he takes them from the castilleria without the gate, and it's one of ten things, that if they bring ten loaves to sell, take them one and so on for the like of all the other things and we ourselves came to complain that they were stolen and from that cavsa they did not come to the town nor did they pass through there, We saw the thing so serious that we wanted to remedy it and told us that, once we left, it would return later and we left this cabin, because it seemed to us that the passions that those vassals seemed , only to God or to Their Highnesses. it is remedied and, if it were not remedied,

This abuse, for which the Count was directly responsible, who was the one who perceived it, through landlords:

" Syn el portazgo e castellaje that likewise belongs to the said gentleman count",

it caused a decrease or disappearance of trade in the town, and favored the count's claim to centralize trade in Benavente, to better control it and get more out of it.

-the collection of judicial penalties in money instead of imprisonment or other penalties:

“Others and we were informed that in that town and land, for crimes that are committed, there is no punishment on the people, but on the estates and that to two vassals of the land I took the said Don Pedro, every hundred folds for some cases that they did ” .

The fear of the neighbors to denounce the stately abuses of Don Pedro was such that:

“and none, both those of us who took an oath, as well as of the others, did not dare to say anything, saying that, if they said it, that I would hang them and that, if we took an oath, that they would perjure themselves” ,

surely for having suffered or known the application of the punishments that all abusive power exerts in order to maintain itself.

At the end of the records of the visitation there is the news of an episode that occurred in 1492 that makes us suspect the existence of capital trafficking to Portugal coinciding with the expulsion of the Jews, in which some important figures could have intervened, including the Mr. Pedro:

“Others and we were informed of a man from the town called Alonso de Barrio, to whom we took an oath and I swear in the due form, that, when Gomes Suares and Alonso Gorjon went through the Villarrín mountain, village of the Marquis of Astorga , maybe two years more or less, they found two bundled sacks, in one there were certain silver cups and three silver cups and a jug and a large candlestick and weighed ten and six marks and five gold rings and eight silver embroideries and two royal cape chapels and two royal almorçadas and two pieces of gold and eight silver taxillos and a belt of silver thread, and in another coral and other trifles and a box of pearl pearls and a bundle of pearl pearls and that The corals were a large quantity, worth more than two hundred thousand mrs., and that he discovered it to a friend of his and that he told the old Robles,servant of the count, the one who wanted to take it, and that Gomes Suares, his companion, wanted to kill himself with them and that later the said Alonso de Barrio took a chest in which they had thrown him and, to save it, he put in some houses knocked down that belong to San Martín, and that they saved the said ark and that they put it in the house of Pedro Garçon the elder, and that Pedro González escudero, neighbor of Villafáfila, entered where the ark was and took it and put it in Alonso's house Habaçero and that there they uprooted her with a dagger and did what he wanted with her, and that now the said Pedro Gonzáles says that the said Don Pedro Pimentel took it, but that this witness would swear to God, that the most was left to the said Pº Gonzalez,and that in this case this said Alonso de Barrio, the warden of the fortress, has been imprisoned and that he fears that Don Pedro would have him hanged if he knew that this had been said.”[24] .

These abuses inflicted on the residents of Villafáfila were not the only ones carried out by Don Pedro or his officers. In an attempt to eliminate the presence of other seignorial powers with interests in the town, he tried to prevent the collection of tithes belonging to the monastery of San Marcos de León and to interfere in the receipt of income belonging to the Bishop of Astorga. .

In 1482 Bartolomé de Fayas subprior of the monastery of San Marcos de León and presented and had written letters read from the prior of the monastery and asked and required the council gathered in the square, to come and send them with the tithes belonging to the monastery of San Marcos in the village and land:

“ That he protested and protested against charging them and their neighbors up to the amount of 100,000 mrs that said rent is worth for this year ”.

The attorney replied, on behalf of the council, and said that, not consenting to his presentations, he required the mayors and aldermen and good men:

The council, mayors, aldermen, clergymen, squires and good men all said in solidum , that he had shown good precautions to collect tithes and they ordered the subprior or whoever he had power to go with them and they ordered him to proclaim and they put a proclamation in the council and another at each door of the village. In September the tenants of the tithes proceeded to collect them and the warden, who was the representative of Don Pedro who permanently lived in the fortress, seized the lambs:

“Because the council ordered them to go to them with the tithes of San Marcos, and Cabrito in his name took out fifty-six lambs and the tresquyllo and marked them and cast them for ours in the flock of Luis Fernández, notary, also had certain lambs arranged in Revellinos and San Agustín by ours and the warden Francisco de la Mezquita went to take them against our will”. By the force of his position he took over the lambs “and as a fucking villain you give them to us, I pray to God, that you deal with sticks and then separate the cattle for some walls and that Cabrito knew the lambs and that they took them” . In San Agustín he did the same, under threats to the jury or municipal mayor “and after this, before Sunday came, the mayor Françisco de la Mezquita arrived at the house of this witness, Pº Moreno,[25] .

With regard to the bishop of Astorga, he must also have tried to make it difficult to collect his rents, so the bishop had to appeal to Their Highnesses in 1495, who sent a provision:

“So that Pedro Pimentel and the council of Villafáfila give inns to the servants of the bishop of Astorga at their fair prices and bread and wine and maintenance at reasonable prices, and granaries to store bread” [26] .

Don Pedro's abuses of power must have been frequent, and in 1482 when Don Pedro made his will, before his departure to the:

in it he apologizes for the abuses he may have inflicted on his vassals or on other people, including Juan González:

“Iten ordered that two new crutches be taken from Juan Glez, a clergyman, a Veino de Vfª, due to malenconia that I had to pay him, as much as they swore two that they were worth when I ordered them to be taken and ask him for forgiveness on my part for the injury that was fixed on him” [27] .

The Catholic Monarchs allowed this favorable situation to the Count of Benavente for the good services he had rendered them during the War of Succession and during the Reconquest of Granada. In 1493, with the incorporation of the military orders to the crown, the masters were the kings, and the consented occupation of part of the assets of an encomienda and the complaints expressed by the neighbors appealing to their highnesses to remedy it, made the kings considered the reinstatement of Villafáfila to the charge of Castrotorafe.

In June 1494 a new agreement was established between the commander and the count, by means of an arbitrary sentence, on the lease of Villafáfila:

“Know how many see this letter of obligation as I do, Francisco de Ribadeneyra, mayordomo and resident of the town of Valladolid, granted and I know that for the reason that the very numerous Mr. Rodrigo Alonso Pymentel, Count of Benavente, by virtue of a certain arbitrary sentence and hiring and seat that was dated between your honor and Mr. Enrique Enriquez Commander of Castrotorafe, by which the said Mr. Count remained that, within the first month and a half following the day of the date of pronouncement of the said sentence, he will give and bring plain and paid fianças in the cities of Palencia and Zamora or in the town of Valladolid, so that such guarantors are willing to oblige, that the said gentleman count would give and pay each year for all the time and years contained in said arbitral sentence,100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and governance of the said town and its vassals and estates, and of the civil and cremynal jurisdiction, high and low and mere and mysto ynperio, of the said town and of everything that the said lord count is here has taken and had and possessed , pertenesçiente and that devya and could pertenesçer, as well as to the said town of Villafáfila, as of the said entrustment, so that the said gentleman count or to whom his power of his lordship for it ovyere and tovyere, must have and govern and administer Second, by way of way, that the said Lord Count and another by him and by his orders, I have had him and brought him here,and is contained in a lease deed that before now the said Mr. Enrique Enríquez and his lordship ovo dated "[28] .

In 1496, Queen Isabel sent the commander of Castilleja de la Cuesta, Alonso de Esquivel, one of the visitors of 1494, to make an investigation of the neighbors and the income of Villafáfila and his land, and of two places in the kingdom of Granada, "Montexaque and Abenaxan that we heard thanks to the count of Benavente ", with the intention of reinstating the Order of Santiago Villafáfila and compensating the count with those two places. The investigation was carried out in May 1497 [29] , and at the end of that same year:

"Don Fernando de Pavia, commander of the order and mastership of Santiago, took possession of it by the hand and commanded by King Don Fernando, our lord, and Queen Doña Ysabel, may the glory be upon him, and handed it over and gave it to Don Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán, commander of the encomienda de Castro, whose is this town” .

He not only took possession of the fortress but also of the justice of the town:

“Don Fernando de Pavia by letter and approval from King Don Fernando and Queen Ysabel, our Lords took the bars of justice for this witness from Fco Rodríguez de la Mezquita, ordinary mayor at the time with this witness and handed it over to him and He gave Juan de Muélledes and Pedro Testón so that they would warn them for their highnesses”.

Faced with the new situation, Don Pedro recovered the town of Almança and his land, thereby compensating for the loss of ownership of Villafáfila [30] .

Despite this reinstatement, the count continued to receive the alcabalas of the town and land, which he must have started receiving through appropriation since the occupation of the town in 1467, and later with the consent of the kings:

“The Count of Benavente has the alcabalas of this town, he says that by virtue of what they did to him, they rent three hundred and fifteen thousand mrs. each year,” the visitors wrote in 1499 [31] .

Still that year he received the rest of the income from Villafáfila belonging to Commander Don Enrique, since the lease of the town and Porto for the 100,000 mrs. year.

“To the said Pedro de Porras (neighbor of Villafáfila) by letter from the count dated nine days of September of one thousand and four hundred and ninety-nine years, thirty and three thousand and three hundred and thirty and three maravedis for the leuar to Don Enrique de Guzman, commander of Castrotorafe, that the ovo de aver of the third of the second of one hundred thousand maravedís that have to be given to him this year from the date of this letter for the rents of Villafáfila and Porto e Pías and Barjacoba that are leased from him” [ 32] .

The amount of this income was really important and very burdensome for the residents, because in 1543, the heading of the alcabalas that they had done with the Treasury Council was two hundred twenty-four thousand five hundred maravedís, with 15% more than neighbors, which can give an idea of the fiscal pressure to which the residents of Villafáfila were subjected.

During Don Pedro's tenure, he was the one who collected the alcavalas, always acknowledging that they belonged to his brother the Count. Sometimes he did it through private tenants and others, as in the year 1496, it is the council of Villafáfila that takes them on lease:

“of you Sancho de Saldaña, vesyno of the town of Benavente, accountant of Mr. Pedro Pimentel, keeper of the town of Villafáfila and his land and rents from it by the very many Mr. Rodrigo Alonso Pementel, count of Benavente, ... the rents from the alcabalas of the town of Villafáfila and places on its land that belong to the said Lord Count of Benavente, according to what they usually go and rent in the past years, and without the portazgo and castellaje, which also belongs to the said Lord Count, and with the mount and alvaleria that belongs to the said Mr. Don Pedro, for the first three completed years that began on the first day of the month of January of this present year of one thousand and four hundred and ninety and six and will be completed at the end of the month of the disyenbre of the coming year ninety eight,for the price and amount of three hundred and fifty four thousand dollars in each of the said three years, it is convenient to know, for the reason of the said sales tax three hundred and seventy thousand thousand and for the reason of the mountain and alvalery forty and seven thousand thousand, without the aforementioned portazgo and castellaje, and more the orders of wax and tallow and hens and salt and other things, with which Enrique de la Vega, vesyno of the said Villafáfila, had them leased this year of the date, two here ... paid in this guya: every month twenty thousand mrs for the pantry of the said Mr. Don Pedro and the rest for the thirds of each year”.with which Enrique de la Vega, owner of the said Villafáfila, had leased them this year, two here ... paid in this guya: every month twenty thousand mrs for the pantry of the said Mr. Don Pedro and the rest for the thirds of each year.with which Enrique de la Vega, owner of the said Villafáfila, had leased them this year, two here ... paid in this guya: every month twenty thousand mrs for the pantry of the said Mr. Don Pedro and the rest for the thirds of each year.

The council had sent a request to take the alcavalas . In Don Pedro's response letters to the council:

“mayors, regidores, ofiçiales, friends. a petition I saw which should come signed by the clerk of the council because according to the business it is necessary”,

conditions the lease to the obligation of Luis de Barrio, Villacorta, Pedro de Porras and Pedro Martínez, who must have been the largest landowners, but they must not have been very willing to risk their assets, so the council demands that the guarantors may be farmers

“My good friends, the council, mayors, aldermen, attorney and good omens of the town of Villafáfila... a letter is received about the sales tax... and what you want me to write to those four guarantors that you name, I don't It seems that it is reasonable that the one who is to be a guarantor that I beg him to do it ... to what you say that, if they do not want, that you will give me guarantors to farmers, I would very much like them to be, but for that you believe that it is my mercy that you take them, that I am pleased that they are not these, more of Pº Martínez and that other Pº Martínez and Alonso Manso and Diego García”.

Don Pedro's forecasts in 1496 did not suspect the possibility of being dispossessed of the possession of the town, since he made a lease for three years, extendable to another three:

“and you have them for three years and from then on for another three years and the quysyeredes”.

But before leasing them, he makes them promise not to claim their ownership from the kings:

“And another, and we promise not to misrepresent or allege that the said rents and alcabalas belong to the royals, that they belong to the king and queen of our lords, for how much it costs us and we know and are certain and certified that the said rents and alcavalas are and were of the said gentleman Count of Benavente, and of his removals and for such the said gentleman Don Pedro has taken them, in his name, and we will not say or allege that any impediment or encumbrance was placed on us” .

The reinstatement of the town to the royal jurisdiction and to the encomienda of Castrotorafe in 1497 provoked an attempt by the neighbors to evade the payment of these alcabalas and other royal income to the count despite the agreement that they had established between him and the council for the year of 1498. In April the count requires the neighbors to go to their accountants with the amount of the first third:

“Council, mayors, aldermen and attorney of the town of Villafáfila, special friends, you already know what was settled here and agreed with the people you sent in the name of that council, near the alcavalas and for the concert of how they have been to pay from here and forward and appoint the receiver who has to take them, I send to Pº Gomes, my accountant, I beg you very much to give him and deliver and that is done, even if my gentleman has you in his custody. From Benavente on the tenth and ninth of April. The Count” .

The neighbors said that they wanted to give and pay the alcabalas to the count, but that he had to give them guarantees that they would not have to pay them twice, in case they were claimed by their Highnesses, and other neighbors did not even want to pay them with guarantees, until not receive a court order:

“Pº Glez, Alonso de Caramaçana, Pº Mtz de Santa María and Alonso de Santa Cruz, with them and all the other farmers and good men who failed in the said council, told Boses and keeping quiet that they would not pay the said alcavalas without seeing the commandment of their highnesses” .

After eating, the mayors, aldermen, and procurator met in the church of San Martín, together with the procurators of San Agustín and Revellinos, and together they said that they were ready to pay the alcabalas to whomever showed an order from their Highnesses and not otherwise.

On May 2, Luis de Barrio appears before the mayors, on behalf of the count, and asks them:

“That they hand over to the people who say they do not want to pay the alcavala to your lordship, since the third they have to pay is paid, and if they do so, they will do what they owe... the said mayors said that they were ready and prepared to pay their lordship what they could fit ... to those who do not want to pay who do not dare and cannot deliver them because they say they would defend their pledges " , that is, that many neighbors would oppose the strength [33] .

The count had to move his influences before the court so that the kings gave an order for the residents of Villafáfila to pay him the alcabalas and the Kings on May 26, 1498 sent from Sigüenza a provision to the council, mayors, aldermen, officials and men good from Villafáfila:

“Because we were on the road and the number of senior accountants were absent, it was not possible for now to provide who and how to collect with the alcavalas and other other royal revenues of the said town of Villafáfila this present year and from now on forward, and because, as long as we order to provide as it may be nrº servyº, it is nra mcd that no payment and nobacion be made in the pay and collection of the said alcavalas and other our rents of the said town to whom and the second and of the way that what has been given and paid in the past years, without that in anything of it there is any and no innovation and non fagades ende al ” [34] .

Without giving any mercy or renouncing their rights, the king and queen allow the count to continue receiving his income in Villafáfila, until they definitively determine the case. For which the neighbors had no choice but to pay the count the aforementioned rents:

“This said town that last year and ninety-eight years the council of this town and land, you and its inhabitants, had gone and paid the alcavalas to the said gentleman count, and Luis de Barrio in his name, and they paid them for the reason of a signed certificate of his highnesses that the said Pº Gómez accountant will show and present in the square of said town in council " . That year the recipient of the sales tax in Villafáfila was Martín de Barrio.

“From the council of the town of Villafáfila of the alcaualas of the said town and its land from this year three hundred and ten thousand maravedís paid for the thirds of the year ” [36] .

The situation in the town must have been conflictive, with great differences between the neighbors who were supporters of the Pimentels, especially the hidalgos mentioned above, and the rest of the neighbors who had been subjected to grievances and abuses for more than thirty years, among the that there were also some hidalgos who before the occupation of the town had been in the orbit of Commander Pedro de Ledesma and those who placed themselves or were under the patronage of the new Commander Don Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán. This must have been the environment found by the visitors of the Order of Santiago, in one of their periodic visits to the states of the order, at the beginning of 1499:

“In the said Villafáfila we failed in certain debates and alterations between each other, and between some fidalgos and the commander, and according to what it seems, everyone wanted peace, if he were a mediator, and that is how it was manifested, because certain doers for the said Comendador don Enrique and the mayors of the town and other certain fidalgos petitioned and testified to us with certain protests, that, since we were going there with the power of your highnesses, we should take the cabsas in our hands and give the means that would serve God and concord Of them, with greater abundance, they committed it into our hands and all of us differed in this, we took them to a place called San Cebrián where Don Enrique Comendador was, with whom we agreed and gave them the best means we could, and we left them with all concord”.

In addition, the lack of a higher judicial authority, which before would be represented by the governor of the fortress, or Don Pedro himself, made the appointment of a mayor or corregidor by their highnesses advisable:

“Beyond that, we settled on other particular things, since the powers of their highnesses forbade us, because seeing that it was their service, and because there was no person on earth for their highnesses who knew of such cabsas, and for not letting them in so much confusion, since they asked us and required it, we got to know about it, if your highnesses are served, it would be good to send someone who understands justice, because ordinary mayors rarely determine, because things are between relatives ” .

That same year, Licentiate Diego López de Yanguas was appointed mayor in all the towns and places of the Order of Santiago to the north of the Central System, and he settled in Villafáfila [37] .

Among the first sentences that the mayor gave was the suppression of the payment of castellaje or castillery that the count had received since ancient times:

"That I do not lease the portazgo ny castellerya because this belongs to the count my lord",

at the request of the town attorney, since in 1494 they had complained to the visitors about the abuse of this tax that amounted to ten percent of the merchandise and was added to the toll:

“Because the said gentleman count had leased the tollage and castellage of said town and land to Antonio de Villegas writes and that the said castellage had been removed from said town and land by sentence that says that the licensed gentleman Diego López de Yanguas mayor had been given greater in this said town by his highnesses who therefore have the best form and manner... the said license pronounced and commanded that no one be dared to demand the castellation of said town and land under penalty of death and loss of property by lawsuit that the said Ferrando Martínez attorney on behalf of the town brought with the landlords and cojedores of the said castellaje and that this was very notorious and very public in the said town and its land and districts” .

This meant a decrease in the income of the count, who continued to collect the alcavalas, although the residents consulted with the corregidor López de Yanguas, if they should go with the alcabalas to the count's accountant. After consultation they said:

"That they were happy to accept and order their lordship to be provided with the said alcavalas, and all the other income with which they were here and they had agreed to the said lord count, on the condition that their lordship order them to give bonds in this town, paid, by the alcavalas with which they received him last year of ninety-eight years and for this year of ninety-nine years and more, with the condition that they cannot be asked for the penalties in which they incurred for not having done the deligençias that the law mandates of the notebook” [38] .

Upon the death of Count Don Rodrigo, his son Juan Alonso Pimentel y Pacheco tried to continue enjoying the alcabalas that his father had by way of fait accompli and resorted to the queen who in 1502 granted him:

“For doing well and thanks to you, Don Alonso Pimentel, Count of Benavente, I am hereby pleased that my alcavalas from the lands of the Count of your father that I have lived in his life belong to me without any mercy, that the help and be yours with all that you give to me belongs to me...” [39] .

In these first years of the new century, the relations of the neighbors with the Pimentels must have been reduced to setting the amount of the alcabalas that they annually paid to the count, and to agreeing with Don Pedro on the amount of the royal service ordered to be distributed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1500. , that it was time to pay the residents of Villafáfila, because in the list that they sent to the province of Zamora, the amount that they had to pay came together

“ The villas of Villafáfila and Távara and the other places that belong to Don Pedro ”.

To this end, two aldermen traveled to Benavente and agreed with Don Pedro that Villafáfila would pay one third and Távara and Alija the other two thirds.

The interest of the new Count of Benavente, don Juan Alonso Pimentel y Pacheco, in Villafáfila and in the entire encomienda of Castrotorafe remained intact and, on the death of the commander don Enrique Enríquez, he wanted the encomienda to be awarded to him, which passed into the hands of the Alfonso de Aragón y de Sotomayor II Duke of Villahermosa, [40] nephew of the Catholic King and later to Don Fernando de Vega. This must have been one more of the reasons for the offense that the Catholic king inflicted on the Count and that accelerated his passage to the side of Don Felipe I el Hermoso during the succession crisis of 1506. The animosity of the count towards Fernando reached its point more bitter, when he came to prohibit his vassals from giving lodging or food to the king in the sad days that preceded the signing of the Concordia de Villafáfila.

“Aware of this, the Marquis of Astorga and the Count of Benavente, through whose lands they were supposed to pass, closed the gates of Astorga and Benavente... Through all the towns of their manors they published an edict, by virtue of which they prohibited that none of his neighbors welcomed Fernando or provided him with food” [41] .

But the powerful are always interested in having them as allies, and Count Juan Alonso Pimentel Pacheco was one of the Greats of Castile. For this reason, after the death of King Don Felipe a few months after those days, King Don Fernando offered him the encomienda de Castrotorafe and other favors in exchange for him returning to serve and be faithful to him.

On May 12, 1507, Mr. Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo, and Mr. Bernaldino Fernández de Velasco, Constable of Castile, sent a letter of insurance to the Count of Benavente in which they promised him, on behalf of the Queen, Juana and King Fernando, who was absent from these kingdoms, that in a period of one hundred days he will receive the encomienda de Castrotorafe and other favors

On the 31st Don Fernando de Vega who was Commander of Castrotorafe and Governor of the entire Order of Santiago, on behalf of Don Fernando, while he was absent, sent a letter to Naples to tell the King that for some just reasons that he they moved him it was his will, without mediating deception, fraud or bribery, to renounce his charge of Castrotorafe. The resignation is made effective on June 27 in the hands of Juan Sánchez de Granada, a friar of the Order, and on July 4 a certificate is issued in favor of Don Juan Alonso Pimentel y Pacheco [42] V Count and II Duke of Benavente II Duke of Benavente, making provision for the parcel of Castrotorafe. He received the certificate while in the hermitage of the Cross, outside the walls of Benavente, and that same day Luis de Barrio, a resident of Villafáfila, and one of the noblemen who were in the sphere of influence of the Pimentels, were appointed to collect and spend half of the rents of the encomienda (the media annata ), of the first two years, for repairs in the encomienda. Also on that same day, the Count empowered Alonso de Mercado, mayor of Benavente, and Portocarrero to go and receive the fortress of Castrotorafe. On July 7, they take possession of the fortress of Castro, of which Alonso de Porras, a resident of Zamora, is appointed warden [43] .

The count appoints Gregorio de Villamediana, a resident of Villalba, as steward for the entire parcel, who is in charge of putting the parcel's assets in order. In 1508 he presented a complaint to the visitors of the order because some neighbors had entered to occupy some inns to make salt from the commander's cabin in Villafáfila, which are returned to the count's butler.

In 1511 the visitors of the Order of Santiago did not find the commander residing in the encomienda, and they visited him in Benavente. Examined on the chapters and things of the order he is not very knowledgeable in them and they send him:

“That he pay well the tenth to the prior of the convent of San Marcos of his parcel and farm” .

As a consequence of the above, the council of the order issued a certificate in 1513 for the Count of Benavente to pay a fine of one hundred ducats for not having resided in the encomienda for the four months to which he was obliged, nor having requested a license to excuse himself. The following year he is granted a license not to reside in the encomienda and to be able to lease the rents from it.

In 1526, he again requested a license from Queen Juana in order to exempt himself from the duty of residing four months in the Castrotorafe encomienda [44] .

Count Don Alonso, to avoid the obligation of residence for four months a year, which the commanders had, acquired a house in Villafáfila, the same one that had previously belonged to his uncle Don Pedro Pimentel y Quiñones, Lord of Távara, located in a Plaza , although the few times that he posed in Villafáfila, it was on his way, and he did not always do so in this house-palace, but he stayed in the house of the archpriest Diego de Robles, belonging to the families of noblemen who were always under the patronage of the Pimentel, from the middle of the XV century. This house was sold by Count Antonio Alonso Pimentel y Herrera de Velasco, VI Count and III Duke of Benavente in 1542 to Don Bernardino Pimentel, when the latter, son of Don Pedro, bought the manor [45] .

On March 10, 1520, while the court was in Villalpando, when King Carlos I was on his way to La Coruña, the Council of the Order of Santiago granted the habit of Santiago to Don Pedro Pimentel [46] , son of Don Alonso , Count of Benavente, who renounces the charge of Castrotorafe in favor of his son. Although such resignation appears in the registry book of the Order of Santiago [47] , it must not have been effective, as Don Alonso continued to hold the position of Commander until his death in 1530.

There were also conflicts between the commander and other instances of the Order, such as the convent of San Marcos de León, which received various decimal income from the Commandery, including the tithe of the fruits and cattle of the commander, which is why in the year 1523 the Council of the The Order has to reiterate the commandment that the Count of Benavente, commander of Castrotorafe pay the tithes of his cattle to the convent of San Marcos de León through a Royal Provision for [48] .

The count appointed a steward who managed his income and leased the estates of the encomienda, a position held by neighboring farmers of Villafáfila, who were annually accounted for. Despite the power of the count several times the butlers in Villafáfila have to resort to the mayors to clear the land estates and the cabins and grating of the commander because:

“It is to your notice that some visitors to this said village have entered and taken over and have taken over and disposed of many of the inns and shredders that the cabin of the said gentleman count as such Commander has in this said village... and they have taken over entrances Many of the lands and vineyards have been occupied ” [49]

This occurred in the year 1522, possibly as a result of the alterations that occurred in these kingdoms during the revolt of the Communities.

The fact that the same lord shared the towns of Villafáfila and Benavente would make the relations between the two councils more cordial and that the conflicts and differences over terms or gains would be resolved through agreements. Such is the case of some differences that arose in those years about the penalties that had to be carried out in both councils for the entry of cattle on foreign terms, after almost a century of validity of the agreement of 1418:

“Because there were some differences between them about the penalties that should be carried, and the way that thener should be, when the cattle and beasts of the neighbors and residents of the said town of Benavente and its places and land enter to graze in the terms of the said town of Villafafila, and those of the said town of Villafáfila enter to graze in the terms of the said town of Benavente in everything that they border, and on cutting and praying in the said terms xaguaços straws tomyllos carrascos... .and other firewood” .

“And that from the said differences, inconveniences and damages, lawsuits and expenses of tpo and expenses could be settled, which all would be excused if some means and concert were taken on it” .

This disposition to the concert between the two towns apart from the convenience of both parties:

"the good manners that one must have", would be favored by the fact that "the illustrious and very magnificent Mr. Aº Pemyntel, Count of Benavente, Commander of Castrotorafe and of this said town of Villafáfila" was the lord of both towns.

Being present the Bachiller Juan de Hamusco, corregidor and the regiment of Benavente, two aldermen of Villafáfila appear who had received power of:

"The council and good men of the town of Villafáfila being together in council to canpana tañida" so that "we can do and make and confirm and confirm and approve and approve as good the hordenanças that this town has with the town of Benavente and if necessary do and grant the said ordinances again as it may be seen to you” , on November 29, 1512.

This interval of time is the one that had been dedicated to the deliberations between both parties:

“and about it they had talked many and several times together and apart ... about what should be done in it”.

“ All of them were agreed and equalized and agreed and equalized that over all the said differences the following be kept and fulfilled between them :

> first of all, let it be said herd of small cattle the one with one hundred heads and therefore arryba and not less &

>yten, that when the herd of small cattle of any of the said towns or their places enter to graze the term of the other or their places, that it be the penalty three heads of day and six at night and that it cannot be take no ram ram or sheep of çencerro for sorrow &

> yten, that when I enter to graze small cattle from one term to another that is less than one hundred heads and is not a herd, that the penalty is, for each head, one white by day and one maravedi by night and the white is three horned and the maravedi seys &

> yten, that the cows, oxen, mares and other beasts that thus enter to graze from one term to another be the penalty, for each head, four more during the day and eight more at night, but if it happens that the cattle will be released that the cowboy brings that in this case, proving that it was so, be the penalty for all thirty-four days and sixty-eight at night, except if after said cattle are released, the said cowboy will let him be grazing and I will not throw him out later, let it be the said penalty of the said four mrs during the day and eight at night for each head &

> and ten, that other of the said penalties be paid for the damages that with the said cattle and beasts are made in bread and vineyards, understood to be the owner whose bread or vineyard is &___

> yten, that any person who lives and inhabits any of the said villages or their places that enters the term of the other to cut or graze, and will cut and graze xaguaços or straws or thymes that other than being able to take what they graze or I will cut, I will be penalized for up to a load ten and six mrs and asy to the respect for everything that will be cut or cut, and per car I will pay a penalty of four loads that are sixty four mrs &

> yten, who will take someone else's roçar who has been caught to pay double the penalty contained in the chapter before this &_____

> yten, who will cut holm oaks or sardons or other firewood or take what someone else has picked and cut that, for up to one load, pay a penalty of twenty and four more and for this respect for each load or car or cart, the four so many, which are ninety-six mrs &___

> Ansy himself, that any inhabitant or inhabitant can seize another term for the said charges and for the said penalties and that the penalty be for the one who pledges, and that he cannot be resisted, and that the one who resists pays the doubled penalty, but that in order to seize there is a witness who is of good reputation and who is enough to make it true fee syn who is faithful &___

> yten, because it is possible for each one to shy away from entering the other's terminus, that it is not worth fleeing to the one who does against what is said, so that after entering each one in their terminus they can be seized by the said cabsas and the justices of each village are obliged to deliver the pledge &____

> ansy itself, that the cattle that will be pledged cannot be redeemed for money, but if the one who will pledge it wants to give the heads that he will pledge or any of them that can make it &____

> and ten, that I will pledge cattle in which they are already wearing the said heads of penalty, that I cannot dispose of them until nine days have passed since I capture, so that it can be found out if the pledge is fair, and that they will be pledged, if not I will offend within the said nine days, that later he cannot ask for what they pledged &____

What all that has been said is, both parties said, that having been discussed many times as it is said and each thing of it, they have it as a convenient and profitable thing for all as well as for the conservation of the terms as for good luck and as such they approved and they wanted it and they did it for good, and they were obliged to keep it and make it keep and comply, according to what is said, and they did not go or come against it, or against part of it, by themselves and by another, directly or indirectly, and for some reason and for no case that there is and that there is in fact and in law, under penalty of twenty thousand more for each time for the opposing party, and that all for which I long to have and complied,r both the said parties said that they obligated and obliged the property of the said towns willingly and for the sake of giving power to the justices of each of the said towns and all the other justices of any parts of these kingdoms so that they appeal to compliance of what was said is, by all remedies of Drº, ansy in the main, as in the said penalty and costs, as if and about it he had been litigated before a competent judge and by him a definitive sentence was given on what was said, and thus was passed in res judicata and consented by them, on which they renounce the law that says whoever submits to a strange jerediçion before the contested lawsuit can repent and all benefit of restitution, and so the said parties granted it before me the said notary and they signed their names in the register of this deed.Witnesses who were present, called and prayed to all that was said, Alonso de Salamanca servant of the corregidor and Andrés Romero vesyno de La Torre and Alonso Ramayo vezino de Pobladura de Tierra de Aliste and Gonzalo Martínez vezino de Villafáfila.

Fernando de Porras, the bachelor of Hamusco. Frrdo de Reynoso, Franco de Ginxo. Baltasar de Saldana. Gonzalo Coco by itself and by Pº Charro and Gº de Valençia. Anthony Ballesteros. P Gonzalez. Andrés Manso” [50] .

The same thing happened with certain differences in the delimitation of the terms of the lands of both towns that occurred in 1523, which were resolved by joining the corregidor, a mayor and a Benavente alderman, with the mayor mayor or corregidor, a mayor and a alderman of Villafáfila and two notaries, one from each town, in the line between Vidayanes, San Agustín and Barcial "what they call Tordesuso" , and from there they marked out and raised the coffers, milestones and landmarks between both terms, up to the peak of The Table [51] .

Upon the death of Count Don Alonso, the council of Villafáfila took advantage of the occasion to discuss the amount that they had to pay in alcabala, with the accountants of His Majesty's Treasury Council, and get rid of the payment of the same to the counts of Benavente who had received them for more than sixty years, and obtain, if possible, a substantial reduction in the amount to be paid. And the accountants take advantage of the occasion to recover some income belonging to the crown, in a few years in which the Royal Treasury was already short of resources.

“and I have learned that those from Villafáfila, who have been in the Benavente saccades for more than a hundred years, have gone to head before the V.Mgt. accountants, which, although other times they have been tempted, they have been answered that there is no need to do anything new in what has not been done up to now, superseding Your Majesty, because in this respect has always been given to the services of my predecessors and mine should not be disregarded, please send to order that in this it does not move, because until now it has not been done or done with anyone of my quality in this kingdom ... " ,

“He also begs V.Mgt. order the accountants not to receive headings from the sales tax of Villafáfila, nor do they make any news about it, until plaziendo No Srº, V.Mgt. be in those kingdoms ”.

“... warns of what is happening in the sales tax of Villafáfila, which was carried by the Count of Benavente, so that V.Mgt. be warned of it in case you beg for something, and order what will be done in it, because it is fulfilled” [52] .

The Empress Doña Isabel orders that the Count of Benavente be given a draft in compensation for the income from the Villafáfila taxes, because since 1530 the neighbors have led [53] .

This compensation must not have satisfied the count because in 1536, he once again requested that he receive the alcabalas of Villafáfila:

"The Count of Benavente... likewise says that his grandparents and father had lived in the alcavalas of Villafáfila for eighty years and that at the time his father died, the villans of Villafáfila were encavezared, and he, later here, begged to V.Mgt. Many times the said heading was not allowed and they were allowed to go as the past had done, and that, if up to now it has not been V.Mgt. served what was said, and finally ordered to give a certificate so that the accountants who were released for two years the price at which they are encavezados, begs V.Mgt. make him mçd and order him to take them like his father and in the past they took them ” [54] .

From the perspective of the court, it was considered that the town of Villafáfila remained under the interest or influence of the counts of Benavente, therefore, when it is intended to dismember the encomienda of Castro, to obtain resources that the crown needed, through the sale of goods belonging to the military orders, a query is made to the count, in case he were interested in buying the same [55] , of which his brother don Pedro Pimentel was lord and commander. But these were no longer the times of his grandfather and father, and Don Antonio's interests must have gone in other directions:

“Mr. Bernaldino, in the past few days, you talked about wanting to buy the town of Villafáfila and its land and rents, which is by order, in which we ordered that it not be understood without giving part of it to the count, and having it by Well, he wrote that he would be happy if the said town were sold to the said Don Bernaldino” [56]

In 1542, after four long years of negotiations between the accountants of the Council of Finance and don Bernardino Pimentel [57] , son of don Pedro Pimentel, who had occupied the town by force, on behalf of count don Rodrigo, from 1470 to 1497, obtained by way of purchase from His Majesty, the lordship, jurisdiction and income of Villafáfila and his land paying 13,634,186 mrs.

Interventions and interests of the Counts of Benavente in Villafáfila in the XV and XVI centuries.

Yearbook of the Institute of Zamorano Studies Florián de Ocampo, ISSN 0213-8212, Nº 14, 1997, pages. 487-512.

ANGLERIA PM Letters. Collection of unpublished documents for the History of Spain. I take X.

CARBAJO MARTÍN VA “The Zamoran Society in the XIV and XV Centuries”. History of Zamora, pp. 586-627. Zamora 1995.

https://www.geni.com/people/Rodrigo-Alonso-de-Pimentel-Quiñones-I-Duque-de-Benavente/6000000003858793462

https://www.geni.com/people/Enrique-de-Trasmara-infante-de-Aragón-Duque-de-Villena/6000000007355902264

https://www.geni.com/people/Enrique-Enríquez-de-Guzmán-Señor-de-Bolaños/6000000004550487069

https://www.geni.com/people/Alonso-de-Aragón-II-duque-de-Villahermosa/6000000015387127207

https://www.geni.com/people/Juan-Alonso-Pimentel-y-Pacheco-II-Duque-de-Benavente/6000000010878466906

https://www.geni.com/people/Pedro-Pimentel-marqués-de-Viana/6000000016399469835

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesado_de_Viana_del_Bollo#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGozález-Doria_Durán_de_Quiroga2000270-1

https://www.geni.com/people/Bernardino-Pimentel-y-Enríquez-I-marques-de-Távara/6000000013060556168

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All text and photography has been authorized for storage, treatment, work, transcription and assembly to José Luis Domínguez Martínez, its dissemination on villafafila.net, and any other means that is authorized.

[ 1] Rodrigo Alonso de Pimentel Quiñones (1445 Villa de Benavente-September 4, 1499 Benavente). IV Count of Benavente, I Duke of Benavente, III Count of Mayorga. Son of Alonso de Pimentel y Enríquez, III Count of Benavente and María Virgil de Quiñones Toledo. He is the husband of María Luisa Pacheco Portocarrero, VI Lady of Moguer. He is the partner of Catalina Rodríguez de Cabrera and Leonor II de Pimentel. Brother of Juan Pimentel, Lord of Allariz and Pedro Pimentel, Lord of Távara. Half brother of Juan Alfonso Pimentel Quiñones, or das Grotas Fundas; Leonor Pimentel and Quiñones; Diego Carrillo de Mendoza, III Count of Priego; Francisco de Mendoza y Quinones; Hurtado de Mendoza Elvira de Mendoza; Catalina de Mendoza; Aldonza de Mendoza; Guiomar de Mendoza and Fernando Carrillo de Mendoza y Quiñones, 5th Count of Priego.

[2] CARBAJO MARTIN VA 1995: 625.

[3] Enrique de Trastámara, (around 1400 Medina del Campo-June 15, 1445) Infante of Aragon, Count of Alburquerque, Duke of Villena, Count of Ledesma and from 1409 Master of the Order of Santiago until his death. Son of Fernando I of Aragon, King of Aragon and Leonor de Alburquerque Husband of Catalina de Castilla and Beatriz Pimentel. Father of Enrique de Aragón y Pimentel Brother of María de Castilla y León, queen consort of Castile; Isabela De Aragón, Countess of Urgel; King Juan II of Aragon and II of Navarre, King of Aragon; Eleanor of Aragon, queen consort of Portugal; Pedro de Aragón, count of Alburquerque; Sancho Prince of Aragon and Sicily and Alfonso V the Magnanimous, King of Aragon.

[4] ARCH.V. Civil Lawsuits. Perez Alonso f. 516 -1.

[5] AZCONA T. 1986.

[6] ARCH.V. Civil Lawsuits. Varela f. 2046 - 2

[7] ARCH.V. Civil Lawsuits. Perez Alonso f. 516 -1.

[8] AGS Mercedes and Privileges. Leg.94-24.

[9] AGSEMR 15-146.

[10] Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán, Lord of Bolaños, 1416 and 1476 Lord of Bolaños and Commander of Castrotorafe, Son of Enrique Enríquez de Mendoza, Count of Alba de Liste and María de Guzmán Suárez de Figueroa, Lady of Alba de Liste Husband of Maria de Sotomayor and Maria de Figueroa Ponce de Leon

Father of Juana de Sotomayor y Guzmán, lady of Quintana del Marco and Alonso Enríquez de Guzmán y Figueroa, Brother of Diego Enríquez; Alonso Enríquez, II Count of Alba de Liste; Guiomar Enriquez and Guzman; Juan Enríquez de Guzmán, Lord of Velver and Cabreros; Juana Enriquez and Guzman; Inés Enríquez de Guzmán and Teresa Enríquez de Mendoza Guzmán Profession:

[11] AHN OO.MM. Books 1090 and 1242.

[12] ARCH.V. Civil Lawsuits. Varela f. 2046 - 2.

[13] Pedro Pimentely Quiñones (between 1430 and 1440-February 6, 1504), Lord of Távara. Son of Alonso de Pimentel y Enríquez, III Count of Benavente and María Virgil de Quinones Toledo Husband of Francisca de Almansa, Lady of Távara and Inés Enríquez de Guzmán Father of Bernardino Pimentel y Enríquez, I Marquis of Távara; Ana Pimentel y Enríquez and Leonor Pimentel Brother of Rodrigo Alonso de Pimentel Quiñones, I Duke of Benavente and Juan Pimentel, Lord of Allariz Half brother of Juan Alfonso Pimentel Quiñones, or das Grotas Fundas; Leonor Pimentel and Quiñones; Diego Carrillo de Mendoza, III Count of Priego; Francisco de Mendoza y Quinones; Hurtado de Mendoza; Elvira de Mendoza; Catalina de Mendoza; Aldonza de Mendoza; Guiomar de Mendoza and Fernando Carrillo de Mendoza y Quiñones, 5th Count of Priego.

[14] AHN Nobility. Osuna Leg. 3921-6.

[15] Original deed held by the Trabadillo sisters.

[16] ARCH.V. Civil Lawsuits Pérez Alonso f. 127-4 and Ceballos Leg 1321.

[17] AHPZa. Marquisate of Távara.

[18] AGSRGS fº 1.

[19] Ceballos 1321.

[20] Varela f. 2046.

[21] OO.MM. Lib.1090.

[22] Beceiro: 327.

[23] ARCH. V. Sonsdalgo 435 - 9.

[24] OO.MM. Lib.1090.

[25] ADLe. Saint Mark.

[26] RGS fº.241.

[27] OSUNA 2122-1

[28] OSUNA 3922-32.

[29] Various AGS of Castile I, leg.453.

[30] Varela f. 2046.

[31] OO.MM. Lib.1091.

[32] AHN Nobility. Osuna. Leg.418, no. 1-5. Beceiro: 225.

[33] OSUNA 3922.

[34] Diverse AGS of Castile. leg.5, doc.3, page 38.

[35] AHN Nobility. Osuna 418, 1-5.

[36] Beceiro: 225.

[37] OO.MM. Lib.1091.

[38] OSUNA 3922.

[39] VALDEÓN, J. 1976: 113.

[40] Alonso de Aragón (1479-August 19, 1513 Valladolid). II. Duke of Villahermosa. Son of Alfonso de Aragón and Escobar, I Duke of Villahermosa and Leonor de Sotomayor and Portugal. Brother of Fernando de Aragón; Mariana de Aragón and Juan Bautista Rodríguez de Sotolongo. Half-brother of Alfonso of Portugal, 8th Condestável of Portugal; Aldonza of Aragon; Juan de Aragón, Viceroy of Naples, Count of Rivagorza; Eleanor of Aragon; Alfonso de Aragón, Bishop of Tortosa; Fernando de Aragón commander of San Juan, prior of Catalonia; Enrique de Aragón, abbot-bishop of Gallipoli and Sr. Catherine of Aragon

[41] ANGLERIA PM Epistle 308.

[42] Juan Alonso Pimentel y Pacheco, (around 1470 Villa de Benavente-1530) II Duke of Benavente, V Count of Benavente, V Count of Mayorga. He is the son of Rodrigo Alonso de Pimentel Quiñones, I Duke of Benavente and María Luisa Pacheco Portocarrero, VI Lady of Moguer. He is the husband of Ana Herrera de Velasco, Countess and Inés de Mendoza y Zúñiga. Father of Blanca Pimentel, Countess of Castañeda; Juan Alfonso Rodríguez Pimentel, Mr. De Ribera; Pedro Pimentel, Marquis of Viana; Maria Ana Pimentel y Velasco; Countess Da. Catalina Pimentel; Antonio Alonso Pimentel y Herrera de Velasco, III Duke of Benavente; Rodrigo Alonso de Pimentel and María Pimentel de Mendoza. Brother of Beatriz Pimentel Pacheco; Maria de Pimentel and Pacheco; Luis Alfonso Pimentel y Pacheco, I Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo and Leonor II de Pimentel.

[43] OSUNA Leg. 4201.

[44] OO.MM. Lib. 1094, 1096 and 27.

[45] OSUNA 2152.

[46] Pedro Alonso de Pimentel (around 1510-?). was lord of the towns of Allariz, Milmanda, El Bollo, Alpudias and Aguiar and I Marquis of Viana, the House of Pimentel obtained in 1450 the lordship of Viana del Bollo, and King Felipe II granted him the Title of Marquis of Viana, Son of (Juan) Alonso Pimentel y Pacheco, II Duke of Benavente and Ana Herrera de Velasco, Countess. He brother of Blanca Pimentel, Countess of Castañeda; Juan Alfonso Rodríguez Pimentel, Mr. De Ribera; Pedro Pimentel, Marquis of Viana; Maria Ana Pimentel y Velasco; Countess Da. Catalina Pimentel; and Antonio Alonso Pimentel y Herrera de Velasco, III Duke of Benavente. Half-brother of María Pimentel de Mendoza

[47] OO.MM. Book 29.

[48] OO.MM. Lawsuit 56894.

[49] OSUNA. Leg. 420.

[50] AMB Leg. 103 -1.

[51] AMB Leg 105.

[52] AGS Secretary of State, Leg. 21, fº 66 and 273; leg. 22, fº 13.

[53] OSUNA 3922.

[54] Secretary of State Leg. 38, fº 185.

[55] Secretary of State Leg. 52 fº 193.

[56] OSUNA 3922.

[57] Bernardino Pimentel y Enríquez, (around 1430-1517 Villafáfila) I Marquis of Távara. Son of Pedro Pimentel y Quiñones, Lord of Távara and Inés Enríquez de Guzmán. Grandson of the Count of Benavente Rodrigo Alonso de Pimentel Quiñones, IV Count of Benavente I Duke of Benavente. Husband of Mrs. Constanza de Bazán Osorio, Marchioness of Távara. Father of Pedro Pimentel y Osorio, II Marquis of Távara; Mrs. Juana Pimentel and Inés Pimentel y Castro Brother of Ana Pimentel and Enríquez and Leonor Pimentel. The Marquisate of Távara was created in 1541, by Carlos I for Bernardino Pimentel y Enríquez, Lord of Villafáfila.