Fortificaciones elementos defensivos y organización militar en los fueros castellanos y leoneses de la Edad Media (Siglos XI-XIII)

Abstract

Castilian municipal fueros from the eleventh to the thirteenth century provide important information on the legal origins of the alcaidía de fortalezas, a military institution set up primarily to control the internal administration and daily maintenance of all castles in the kingdom. Although the set of regulations contained in these documents is as yet unsystematic and lacking an overall coherence, nevertheless they do include the first examples of codes intended to define the post of the alcaide, the duties of castle watchmen, and the tasks of repairing and maintaining fortifications. These codes were later to be revised and expanded in the Partidas and the Espéculo. Moreover, these early regulations reveal the fundamental importance which military activities had for the castilian-leonese concejos, an importance which coincided with a period of great conflict betwen Christian and Muslims.