Património e recursos das comendas: sociabilidades, gestão de entradas e práticas fiscais (séculos XIII-XVI)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to focus on commanderies as key elements within the articulation between the management of the patrimonial resources and incomes of the Military Orders and the royal and social pressure exerted on them. The commanderies are expressions of power and sociability that extrapolate the Orders themselves, as they reflected strong external ambitions. From the transition between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a crucial time in the history of these Orders, we have evidence of the decline and transformation of the seigneury. This coincides with a greater dependence of these Orders on the crown and with a deeper exposure to some social groups. The means by which they are kept under royal control, as well as those that each Order implemented, are identified with a focus on the management of the jurisdictional rights over their territories, the systems for collecting revenues and other types of income, the tax mechanisms, and the efforts towards an organised accountancy.