Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 The Kingdom of Granada. Based on Manuel de Terán Geografia regional de España (Barcelona 1968)
- Map 2a The City of Granada (NW). Drawn by the architect Ambrosio de Vico (1596)
- Map 2b The City of Granada (SE). Drawn by the architect Ambrosio de Vico (1596)
- Introduction
- 1 Knights and citizens
- 2 Nobles of the doubloon
- 3 Lords of Granada
- 4 The web of inheritance
- 5 The network of marriage
- 6 Blood wedding
- 7 Cradle of the citizen
- 8 The shadow of the ancestors
- 9 The spirit of the clan
- 10 The law of honour
- 11 Good Commonwealth men
- 12 Defenders of the Fatherland
- 13 Conclusion
- Genealogical tables
- Bibliography
- Index
- NEW STUDIES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
1 - Knights and citizens
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 The Kingdom of Granada. Based on Manuel de Terán Geografia regional de España (Barcelona 1968)
- Map 2a The City of Granada (NW). Drawn by the architect Ambrosio de Vico (1596)
- Map 2b The City of Granada (SE). Drawn by the architect Ambrosio de Vico (1596)
- Introduction
- 1 Knights and citizens
- 2 Nobles of the doubloon
- 3 Lords of Granada
- 4 The web of inheritance
- 5 The network of marriage
- 6 Blood wedding
- 7 Cradle of the citizen
- 8 The shadow of the ancestors
- 9 The spirit of the clan
- 10 The law of honour
- 11 Good Commonwealth men
- 12 Defenders of the Fatherland
- 13 Conclusion
- Genealogical tables
- Bibliography
- Index
- NEW STUDIES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Summary
It was fitting that the emblem of Granada should be the pomegranate, declared her great historian Francisco Bermúdez de Pedraza. For like the seeds of that fruit so tightly packed and arranged that ‘one might say they embrace one another in unbreakable ties of solidarity’, the citizens formed a real community. ‘For it is a close bond of love that comes from breathing the same air, eating the same fruits, drinking at the same fountains, learning at the same school, becoming skilled in the same crafts and exercises.’ And he went on: ‘The temples, theatres, neighbourhoods, squares, promenades … mould the hearts of the citizens with a special love, which we call common friendship. If this were to fail, as Cicero says, it would be like the sun failing the earth.’ The comment, unconsciously perhaps, evoked memories of a recent turbulent past.
The kingdom of Granada, last fragment of an Islamic civilisation which had once held sway throughout most of the Iberian Peninsula, had taken shape between 1232 and 1246 when the Nasrid dynasty, powerless to halt the overthrow of Al-Andalus by the Christian armies advancing on Seville and Córdoba, threw in their lot with the conquerors. In return for helping the latter take Seville, they were left to rule over Granada as kings or emirs, with the status of vassals paying tribute to the Castilian Crown.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Family and Community in Early Modern SpainThe Citizens of Granada, 1570–1739, pp. 8 - 30Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007