Grups de poder i violència social en una comarca valenciana: la Ribera del Xúquer (1523-1585)

Resumen

This research has focused its sights on the study of violence and social conflicts in the Ribera del Xúquer during a part of the 16th century, that is, from the repression of the Primera Germania until the last decades of the century. Aware that we could not territorially embrace the entire regional spectrum, we have focused our inquiries on three specific areas. First, we have studied the evolution and transformation of the village’s factions and Alzira's contribution between 1523 and 1585, chronological milestones that coincide with the two moments of greatest distance between the king of the Hispanic Monarchy and the village's institutions. Secondly, we have raised the conflictive relationships and pacification attempts between the Montaguts, feudal owners of l'Alcúdia and Ressalany, and the Castellví, who acquired Carlet, Benimodo and Massalet. In particular, we have delved into the failure of the family and patrimonial integration carried out by Galceran de Castellví and Àngela de Montagut, whose marriage, celebrated in 1558, did not have a good end, among other things, due to the conflictive behavior of Galceran. To this we would have to add the family and clientelist ties that existed between both lineages and the ruling elites of Alzira that headed the factions. Third, we have addressed the administration of justice in the foia and marquesat de Llombai between 1554-1570 using the dossier deposited by the public notary in the municipal archival funds of Alzira. The hiring of a notary from the Illa del Xúquer was not accidental since the ducal house of Gandía supported and assisted one of the two partialities of Alzira. Finally, it would be necessary to refer to the connections between smuggling and banditry. In other words, the involvement of the Ribera del Xúquer's oligarchies in the fraudulent extraction of silk and the introduction, often also in secret, of wheat grains. In this part of the doctoral thesis the main routes of smuggling (the vall Farta and the foia de Llombai) and the usefulness of the factions and clientelist networks are evidenced not only as a mechanism of struggle for power, as an object of solidarity or as a way of social advancement, but also as a platform for tax evasion.