English
The vast history of the territory of the Euro-Region Galicia and the North of Portugal has enabled the footprints of the different settlers to be still perceptible these days. It is enriching to be able to visit the prehistoric monuments of these regions, for a better understanding of how life centuries ago was.
The vast history of the territory of the Euro-Region Galicia and the North of Portugal has enabled the footprints of the different settlers to be still perceptible these days. It is enriching to be able to visit the prehistoric monuments of these regions, for a better understanding of how life centuries ago was.
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From Gallaecia to the Euro-Region<br />
The Irmandiños<br />
Fortaleza Tower (Sarria)<br />
With the great power that the Galician aristocrats had accumulated, some<br />
of the most famous abuses were carried out at the end of the Middle Ages<br />
by these laic lords. Among the most known there were the ones derived from<br />
the encomienda, the protection that these aristocrats “offered” to monasteries<br />
and churches, proclaiming themselves their defenders, in order to take their<br />
possessions and rents with impunity. Despite their repeated complaints to the<br />
monarchs but these, weak as they were, could not control their abuses. It is<br />
true that many of the monasteries had few of the splendour of the past: in the<br />
documents of the time it was very common to see testimonies of how the abbots<br />
and monks wasted the goods of the monasteries, did not pray and had lovers<br />
and barraganas (“concubines”) living with them. Neither the nuns resisted to this<br />
squandered life. Despite this, it is easy to imagine that the ordinary people had<br />
to suffer still more intense abuses due to their defencelessness.<br />
This was the breeding ground for an<br />
uprising against the great lords. This<br />
was the revolt of the Irmandiños,<br />
which took place between 1466 and<br />
1469. Their biggest motivation was to<br />
do justice and fight the evident abuses<br />
of the great lords that had substituted<br />
the former Galician aristocracy after<br />
the ascension to the throne by Enrique<br />
II. The high aristocracy was their<br />
main objective, both the laic and the<br />
religious, since the bishops, like the<br />
one of Ourense, and especially the<br />
archbishop of Santiago, had behaved<br />
like the great lords they were. All the<br />
diverse social sectors took part in the<br />
revolt, and not just the peasants or<br />
the petite-bourgeoisie: they also had<br />
the support of part of the church and<br />
even the canonry of Compostela itself<br />
economically helped them.<br />
The action of the Irmandiños was<br />
organized and not just spontaneous,<br />
trying to follow a criterion based on<br />
“doing justice” in the name of king<br />
Enrique IV. The most numerous actions<br />
were based on the destruction of the<br />
most visible and symbolic element<br />
of the power of the lords, their<br />
castles. Around 130 were torn down<br />
in Galicia, while many of their owners<br />
decided to take refuge in Portugal,<br />
waiting for better times.<br />
The change in fortune for the Irmandiños<br />
71
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