Procuració versus governació. El reino de Valencia ante la reforma gubernativa de 1344

Abstract

The Proxy (or Procuración) is an institution which practically starts at the same time as the Kingdom of Valencia with the mission of governing the territory during the king's absences and to attend to the defence of the public affairs good state and of the royal interests through peace keeping interventions, being at a time punitive on its holders' part. This model, held upon the basis of the territoriality up to Almizra borderland was truncated in the Autumn of 1344 to transform in the space of several years the original administrative structure of the Crown of Aragon territory. The substantial element of such a radical change was the attempt of improving the historical lands governability, cutting down the administrati­ve divisions' extension until turning them into spaces whose direct control on the authorities part could warrant an efficient intervention of the officials in charge of their management. The utter failure of this multiple Governments (or Gobernaciones}, which by no means improved de lands administration, but worsened it indeed, turnig back to the old assistant managements system (called Vicegerencias) was settled. This article emphasizes the origin, the nature and the results of the 1344 government reform in the Crown of Aragon, stressing all those aspects in the Kingdom of Valencia.