Transformaciones sociopolíticas en las ciudades de la Corona de Castilla y en las del Imperio Alemán durante el siglo XIII. Análisis comparativo

Abstract

During the thirteenth century the European towns underwent deep transformations. In this article the author tries to show how the Castilian towns on one side and the German ones on the other side evolved in two opposed ways at that time, and as a consequence they offered a very different political and social profile during the Late Middle Ages. He pays attention to the process of acquisition of political autonomy by the German towns during the thirteenth century, and to the simultaneous process that caused the Castilian towns to be deprived of the capacity of self-government they had enjoyed before. The social changes that took place in the German and Castilian towns are also analysed, and it is proved that in Germany during the thirteenth century began the process of decline of the urban nobility, while on the other side in Castile another process started, at the end of which the nobility became the dominant group in most towns.