ROLL OF JUSTICE IN VILLAFÁFILA

Villafáfila had a Roll of Justice, located in the Small Square, or the Clock Square (where the Town Hall is located), possibly in front of it, since the Villa was the administrative head of both the primitive Alfoz, as the Alfoz that belonged to the Order of Santiago during 1229 until 1541 and then as a lordship of the Marquisate of Távara from 1542 until 1836 and which would surely disappear around 1813, by Decree CCLVIII, of May 26, 1813, where all signs of vassalage that existed in the towns were ordered to be removed.

In 1176, there are already documents showing the existence of mayors in Villafáfila, Domingo Salvadoras, Miguel Salgado, Pelayo Juanes and Gonzalo Fernández, where the trials and lawsuits that the mayors sentenced in the first instance were public and took place in the public square or in the arcades of some of the houses in the square [1] .

Perhaps Villafáfila could have previously had a Picota [2] , but we have no documentary reference.

It follows from this that Villafáfila had a jurisdictional Royalty of two income relations of the lords of the town

1538 in a list of income from the Order of Santiago in Villafáfila:

"more than four hundred and fifty mrs. of land, two hundred mrs. over the square where the roll is, and the other two hundred and fifty mrs. over the houses of Juan de Castro and Enrique de Benavente and Alonso de la Puebla, which are in the Small Square" [3] .

1560 after the town was purchased by the 1st Marquis of Távara [4] D. Bernardino Pimentel Enríquez , a list of incomes that had belonged to the Order of Santiago states:

“plus two hundred mrs of charter on the Small Plaza of this town, which the council of this town pays from its own assets” [5] .

It is the same income and the same amount, the difference is that in 1538 it says about the square where the roll is and in 1560 about the Small Square.

In the then called Small Square, or later Clock Square [7] , (the place where the Town Hall is located) was the Roll of Justice, as a symbol of the jurisdiction of the town.

Appearance and function of the Jurisdictional Rolls

Jurisdictional rolls should not be confused with pillories for execution. The rolls were born as symbols that marked the autonomy of the localities when they achieved the rank of Villa and ended up replacing the pillories to display convicted prisoners before the eyes of the people. The pillory, made of wood, has its origins at the end of the 13th century, while the roll appeared at the end of the 14th century. They coexisted together, each with its function, until the pillories disappeared due to the natural wear and tear of time, and the presence of the stone rolls was used, a phenomenon that could have occurred from the 15th century onwards.

The rolls were created at the end of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century, and although they coexisted for a time with the pillories, the rolls for jurisdictional use replaced the pillories for penal use, with which they are often confused. In addition, while the rolls were granted to the Villas, the pillories could be located in any village regardless of the title it has.

Since the beginning of the Reconquista, to encourage the repopulation of Christians and reward their efforts in the fight against the Moors, the kings granted Villazgo privileges to the villages and authority to exercise the law to their lords.

The royalty ceded the administration of many communities of Villa y Tierra to the nobility, and therefore there was a change in laws, so that the outsider had to be notified of the privilege of being a village that that place had, and that he should comply with the laws of that territory. Therefore, they were not created with a view to judging next to the column, but to communicate power, since among other advantages (such as markets or fairs) they could apply their own and different laws and taxes.

These charters could be of different types, such as a manor, royal manor, municipal, ecclesiastical or monastic, and could be located at the entrance to the towns, next to the main road since they also marked the boundaries, or within it.

The purpose of a jurisdictional roll in a town was to symbolise and represent the administrative category of the place, and to warn outsiders, being raised only in the villages that had full jurisdiction of the privilege of Villazgo enjoyed by the town that displays it, indicating the regime to which it was subject: royal, municipal, ecclesiastical or monastic lordship. In addition, it marked the territorial limit and, in certain cases, was a commemorative monument of the granting of the villazgo.

There are or were some in those towns in the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile that had a mayor and, therefore, jurisdiction to judge and condemn to death. They also served to punish and pay the lesser sentences of common criminals, who, after being whipped, were exposed to public shame. They shared the functions of executions with the pillories.

While the pillories were erected at the entrance to towns and always next to the main roads, the pillories were installed in the most public place in the town, in the main square or in the place where the market was held.

To understand the importance of what these scrolls represented, the raising of these columns was one of the first acts carried out in the conquest of the New World. Even the planting of the standard had the same meaning, since the law of the flag it carried was applied, carrying out this act before the construction of a scroll as it was faster.

Construction materials and shapes of the Roll

A scroll is a column generally made of stone and normally topped by a cross or an orb. The vast majority of scrolls that were made were made of stone, although they were also built from other materials. It was also common to build wooden scrolls, since it was a cheaper and easier material to work with, but due to its fragility and demolition decrees, practically no scrolls made of this material have been preserved.

Its curious architecture consists of columns generally made of stone placed in a vertical position, like a boundary stone, canton, milestone or monolith, and has a base on which a cylindrical column rests in a vertical position.

The upper part is decorated with different symbols (pinnacle crosses) that, in many cases, were made following the guidelines of artistic currents of the monument, such as Gothic.

The rolls have a higher category, and have certain decorations that refer to the type of charter they have. For example, if they have decorations with balls, papal caps or carved crosses, they are usually ecclesiastical or monastic charters, or if they bear the coat of arms of a lineage, they would have a feudal charter.

They are usually at the top of a pedestal made up of a stone staircase or on top of a natural rock.

As we can see, there are some that are simple and others that are much more elaborately carved and decorated.

Destruction and conservation of the Royo

The vast majority of Spanish towns and cities do not preserve their style, mainly due to state orders.

There are places where the scroll has been preserved, but since it is now considered a cultural element, some of it has been moved to give it more visibility.

It was not until 1813 that the vast majority of the scrolls were eliminated, with the order to demolish all signs of vassalage that existed in the towns through:

Decree CCLVIII, of May 26, 1813. All signs of vassalage in the towns are ordered to be removed [8] .

The General and Extraordinary Cortes, acceding to the wishes expressed to them by various towns, have seen fit to decree as a general rule the following: The town councils of all towns will proceed on their own, and without causing any harm, to remove and demolish all signs of vassalage that exist in their entrances, chapter houses, or any other places, since the towns of the Spanish Nation are independent, and its noble pride would not tolerate having a continuous reminder of its humiliation in sight. The Regency of the kingdom will understand this and will arrange for its fulfillment, having it printed, published, and circulated. 

Given in Cadiz on May 26, 1813 

Florencio Castillo, President

José Domingo Rus, Deputy Secretary

Manuel Goyanes, Deputy Secretary

To the Regency of the kingdom

Reg. Lib. 2. Fol. 179.

Following the abolition of the manors in 1811 and the creation of the Constitution of 1812 in the Cortes of Cádiz known as "La Pepa", and therefore the coming into force of a law for all of Spain, the rolls were ordered to be destroyed, since they symbolised territorial laws, but there were towns that refused because after all it was a symbol of the town, changing their category to crosses, or simply refusing.

«La Pepa», (known as such because it was approved on Saint Joseph's Day) was a Constitution that only lasted two years, since it was eliminated by Ferdinand VII, who kept for himself the jurisdiction of the towns under a common royal justice for all. At that time, some more rolls were raised as an exception in 1817, such as those located in Alcolea de las Peñas (Guadalajara) or in Rioseco de Soria (Soria), whose roll was built using Roman columns extracted from the nearby site of «Los Quintanares». Presumably, that was the last year in which these stone columns were built.

In 1823, the dominion of "royal justice" was consolidated in all towns with absolutist decrees, but the nobility and the church maintained possession of some territories, although the church would lose many with the confiscation of church property.

In 1837, the suppression of symbols of vassalage was decreed for the second time, and although there were first- or second-class citizens, they were all equal before the law, theoretically. Thus, the destruction of many scrolls was ordered again, although many places disobeyed again and took advantage of the stone to change its use, turning them into part of fountains or supports for street lamps.

For the same reason of extermination of vassalage, during the Second Republic (1931) and during the Civil War (1936-1939) several scrolls were demolished again.

Since the first Constitution of 1812 was abolished, Spain has passed a Royal Statute in 1834 and six other constitutions, in 1837, 1845, 1869, 1876, the republican one of 1931 and the current one of 1978.

With the current Constitution of 1978, the fueros have been made equal for the rest of Spain, with some exceptions, since in some areas the common law coexists with the special or local rights, such as those of Aragon, the Balearic Islands (with particularities in each island), Catalonia, Galicia, Navarre and the Basque Country (with particularities according to the territory), with the common law being applied in a supplementary way to the local rights where they exist. Likewise, the Fuero de Baylío is still in force and is applied in some Extremaduran towns bordering Portugal and in Ceuta, since this autonomous city belonged to Portugal before it belonged to Spain.

With this Constitution, we are all equal before the law with some exceptions depending on the territory or the political category of the person affected, although it is still not perfect, since there are always bribes or relatives, friends and people in high positions who are given special treatment and are offered priorities that everyone knows and no one mentions.

Author:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez

©villafafila.net ®villafafila.net bull

This article is based on the documentation studied by D. Elías Rodríguez Rodríguez on documentation of the Order of Santiago in Villafáfila, where the Royo de Justicia is mentioned.

Bibliography-text:

Elias Rodriguez Rodriguez:

Mayors in the medieval period of Villafáfila.

Documentation of the Order of Santiago in Villafáfila.

Wikipedia: Rollo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo_(administration)

Rolls and picotas are not the same.

Tomasa's travels.

losviajesdetomasa.wordpress.com

https://losviajesdetomasa.wordpress.com/2021/05/10/rollos-y-picotas-no-son-lo-mismo

Official Tourism Page of the Provincial Council of Ávila 

Roll of justice

https://www.turismoavila.com/web/puntos_de_interes/visor/index.php?iid=5b2136892287d-23#:~:text=La%20picota%2C%20realizada%20en%20madera,a%20finales%20del%20siglo %20XIV.

Photograph:

Elias Rodriguez Rodriguez.

Roll of Arzón Matilla

https://www.matilladearzon.net/2019/07/un-rollo-que-madrugo-ensu-implantacion.html

Transcription, assembly and layout:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

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