The Written Word in the Aragonese Reconquista

Abstract

The kingdom of Aragon offers an excellent opportunity to study the written word in a medieval, customary society. This is so because the Aragonese during the reigns of Pedro I (1094-1104) and Alfonso I (1104-1134) conquered much terri­tory, creating a great landmarket in which the written word in the form of the charter was the normal means to alienate property. Charters were commonly used on all levels of society by king, nobility, and commoner. Private charters possessed legal force and were records of transactions, including the oral custom by which transactions were conducted. They thus served as more than mere witness lists, the usual role assigned to them by traditional diplomatics. Royal charters were the common means by which kings granted land, and the recipients of royal charters relied on them to enjoy property rights. Through such uses of private and royal charters, the written word functioned vigorously by complementing custom in private property transfers, and in the case of royal charters, superseding custom. The charter functioned in Aragon as a chief means of establishing legal and social ties in such vital matters in an agrarian society as the holding of property.