A Legal History of the Privilegio Grande of Valderas (León) from the 14th to the 20th Century

Abstract

The Gran Privilegio of Valderas was a sweeping tax and service concession granted to the residents of the town of Valderas
in León for their loyalty to King John I of Castile during John of Gaunt's crusade against the Castilian throne, which resulted in the town being pillaged and burned in 1387, through a series of charters issued between that year and 1390. The grant not only applied equally to male and female descendants but also exempted Jews and included an extraordinary waiver of alcabalas (excise duties), though it did not confer the status of hidalguía (lower nobility). This study dissects the evolution of the legal nature of the privilege and the numerous instances confirming it, from its origins as a personal/family right—albeit in multiple forms and linked to the local community—through its transformation into a territorial exemption in favour of the town from the late 15th century onward, to its final documented effects in the 19th and 20th centuries in the form of compensation due to herederitary rights (carga de justicia). Furthermore, it should be noted that the distinction enjoyed by Valderas was the origin of a range of tax immunity privileges applicable to both sexes known as utriusque sexus, the most extensive of its kind known to date, established through successive transfers of the rights to other beneficiaries during the second half of the 15th century in Simancas, the surrounding area of Valderas, Toro, and Zamora.