GENESIS OF THE PROVINCIAL FRATERNITY OF ALAVA.     César González Mínguez

Alava: A disputed area.

Alfonso III's Chronicle, written at the end of the 9th Century, is the historiographic baptism of the Cantabrian-Basque area. The Alava place name appeared for first time in this Chronicle, when after referring to the campaigns that Alfonso I de Asturias carried out in the middle of the 8th Century, it is stated that:  "at that time the following areas were populated: Asturias, the Primorias (area of Cangas de Onis), Liébana, Transmiera, Sopuerta, Carranza, Vardulias, which is now called Castile..., Alava, Biscay, Alaón - Ayala? - and Orduña were always possessed by their own". The brief text of the Chronicle is susceptible to at least a double interpretation. On the one hand, the territory of Alava, like those of Biscay, Ayala and Orduña, would not be repopulated by Alfonso I as this King had done in other areas of the Asturian Kingdom. On the other hand it can be understood that these territories would not have been dominated by the Muslims and were always controlled by the local population, although this did not impede the fact that the territory of Alava was affected by several raids sent by the emirs of Córdoba in the 8th and 9th Centuries. According to J.A. García de Cortázar, during these two centuries the Alava place name can be identified with the lands of the Llanada, which are to the north and east of Vitoria, and which approximately coincide with the eastern half of the so-called "Central Alava", according to what is described in the document known as the "Reja de San Millán", 1025, and which with small modifications coincides with the limits that a document written in 1258 specifies for the Brotherhood of Arriaga. This Central Alava was joined by a Peripheral Alava, formed by the Land of Ayala; which was situated to the west of the River Bayas; Treviño and La Rioja in Alava. Throughout the high and mid and Middle Ages, the lack of documented sources makes it extraordinarily difficult to know what the political organisation of the society of Alava was like, it was successively inserted in the upper political formations that arose in the territories that surrounded it, which were the Kingdoms of Asturias, Navarre and Castile. Throughout the 8th and 9th Centuries the lands of Castile were formed, to the north of Burgos, and the people of Alava constituted the great western side of the Asturian Kingdom, which faced up to the reiterated attacks from the Muslims of the south peninsular or the Ebro valley. We must highlight that this military activity would contribute to the political progress of both territories, which appeared from the second half of the 9th Century governed by local heads who received the title of counts, and were linked to the Asturian Kingdom. From the beginning of the 10th Century the territory of Alava was definitively behind the Christian-Muslim frontier, safe from the attacks of the Cordovan emirs and the powerful family of the Banu Qasi, which was well established in La Rioja. Throughout the 10th Century the influences of Castile and Navarre were very clear in Alava. The names of three counts of Alava are known: Munio Vélaz in the year 919, probably a member of an local family; Alvaro Herremálliz in 931, who held good relations with the Court of the King of Navarre Jimeno Garcés, and, lastly, Fernán González (932-970) who was also King of Castile and was married on two occasions to princesses of Navarre, through whom influences from this origin would reach both Castile and Alava and would be intensified in the last third of the 10th Century and beginning of the 11th. Due to his age, the last sovereign count from Castile, García Sánchez (1017-1029), was under the regency and guardianship of Sancho III el Mayor de Navarra who was his brother-in-law. From 1024 the documentation shows that Sancho III reigned in Sobrarbe, Ribagorza, Aragon, Pamplona, Nájera, Alava and Castile. García Sánchez's tragic death in León (1029) only served to consolidate Sancho el Mayor's position in one of the last two territories. Under the sovereignty of Navarre, Munio González was at the head of the government of Alava, between 1030 and 1043 and held the title of count, which his successor Fortún Iñíguez did not hold. His reign over Alava was very brief, because in 1045 Count Munio Muñoz figured at the head and probably died in 1054 fighting in the battle of Atapuerca. Later on Count Alvaro Díaz, also known as Domno Marcelo, was the head of the Alava government which temporarily concluded the Navarre sovereignty over Alava. Indeed in 1076 Sancho IV de Navarra was murdered in Peñalén. Alfonso VI of Castile took advantage of the serious crisis in the Kingdom of Navarre and incorporated La Rioja and part of Navarre, Biscay and Alava to his Kingdom, and the King of Aragón, Sancho Ramírez, did the same and took possession of the rest of the Kingdom of Navarre. In 1134 the Kingdom of Navarre was restored by García Ramírez (1134-1150) who would try to give the Kingdom the frontiers that it had on the death of Sancho III el Mayor. In the last few years of his reign, García Ramírez was given the title of King of Pamplona, Alava, Biscay and Guipúzcoa, the possession of these last three territories corresponded to the Navarre magnate Ladrón who held the title of count. One of his sons, Vela Ladrón, figured as count of Alava in 1158. Sancho VI of Navarre, successor of García Ramírez, took advantage of the difficult years of the minority of Alfonso VIII of Castile, to extend the frontier of his Kingdom to the west. This was not stabilised until 1179 when both Kings signed a treaty that established the frontier between Castile and Navarre which along a line from the Cantabrian sea following the course of the River Deva, leaving Iciar and Durango for Navarre and the castle of Malvecín for Castile; it advanced following the course of the River Bayas, leaving Zubarrutia and Badaya for Navarree and Morillas for Castile; from Nanclares de la Oca the frontier followed the course of the River Zadorra to the River Ebro. As a result of the treaty the Navarre sovereignty was secured "in tota Alava". From 1179 the Ladrón family was also eclipsed from the county government of Alava, because in this year Sancho VI no longer used the services of Juan Vélaz's son Vela Ladrón, in the possession of Alava. From this moment the fragmentation of the territory of Alava was verified in several possessions whose holders were frequently changed. As a result of this, Sancho VI tried to impose the regime of honours and possessions that was characteristic of the Kingdom of Navarre in this territory. The documentation of the last years of the reign of Sancho VI allows us to check the plurality of possessions and the mobility of its holders. >From 1181, Alava and Guipúzcoa formed combined possession, directed from Aitzorroz, where four lords arose: Diego López, 1181-1182; lñigo de Oriz, 1184-1188; Pedro Ladrón, in 1194, and Lope Sánchez, in 1195. Other possessions of Alavas are Treviño, whose holder was Alvaro Muñoz el Mayor, 1181-1187; Portilla, successively in the hands of García Pérez de Morieta, 1183-1194, Gómez Martínez, 1194-1196, and Martín Ruiz, 1198; Buradón and Antoilana, where in 1181 Gómez Martínez was found; Laguardia, occupied by Martín Iñíguez in 1193 and Gonzalo Baztán in 1198; Záltegui, in the power of Furtado de Alava, 1192-1198, and lñigo López de Mendoza, 1194-1196, and Arlucea with Miguel de Lerat in 1187, Pedro Ladrón, 1189-1194, Lope Sánchez in 1194 and García Baztán in 1195. Vitoria also constituted a possession with Pedro Ramírez at the head from 1184 until, probably, the surrender to Alfonso VIII in 1200. Sancho VI had politically reorganised the area of Alava, but he also proceeded to found a series of small towns, such as Laguardia, Vitoria, Antoñana, Bernedo and La Puebla de Arganzón, with the aim of assuring Alava's defence. The last Navarre foundation was Labraza, which was founded by Sancho VII el Fuerte. The strengthening of the presence of Navarre in the lands of Alava was ephemeral, and the reaction of Alfonso VIII de Castilla was produced between 1199 and 1200. In autumn of the first year the Castilian King, who had previously negotiated with the noblemen of Alava and Guipúzcoa, who were unhappy with the policies of the Navarre Kings to strengthen the state lands and found towns, had taken possession of practically all of Alava and Guipúzcoa, and only Vitoria would continue resisting until it was rendered during the first few days of January 1200. Of all of the lands of Alava, only Laguardia and its district continued under Navarre rule. The incorporation of Alava to Castile was final and only a transitory modification of the situation was produced as a result of the civil war between Pedro I de Castilla and Enrique de Trastámara. In order to take advantage of these circumstances, Carlos II de Navarra launched an attack in 1368, and took possession of several Castilian towns by force: Vitoria, Salvatierra, Contrasta, Santa Cruz de Campezo and the Alegría fort, in Alava; Rentería and Villafranca, in Guipúzcoa; and Logroño and Agoncillo, in La Rioja. However, the Castilian sovereignty on these positions was restored in 1373, in accordance with the sentence given by cardinal Guido de Bolonia. In the 8th Century Alava had practically acquired its final territorial profile, except for later modifications that affected small areas and which culminated in the 16th century. For the first of these centuries the perception of the territory of Alava offered us two highly different groups from the point of view of Political organisation: the towns and the Brotherhood of Arriaga. The Urban World of Alava. The process of founding the towns or the urbanisation of the territory of Alava began in 1140 when Alfonso VII el Emperador granted the municipal charter to Salinas de Añana. The initiatives for the founding of towns came from the Kings of Castile and Navarre, in accordance with the alternatives in the ownership of the political sovereignty. The creation of the new towns, which concluded in 1338 with the foundation of Monreal de Zuya, responded to very varied causes, although not all of them had to be given in each specific case. Among these causes we can point out the need for defence to strengthen the frontiers, the security of the state lands, the increase of the royal revenue derived from the concession of a municipal charter to an area, the development of the exchanges and the commercial routes, the defence of the rural population threatened by the noble pressure, etc. From the second half of the 12th Century, as a result of the process to found towns, the area of Alava was considerably reordered, which was corresponded with a diversification in the economic activities, because as well as agriculture, which nevertheless would still be the most dominant, other new characteristics of the urban world would be added, such as trade, craftsmanship, services, etc., and an extension of the social spectrum, as the urban classes arose, whose structure we know well thanks to the studies carried in the last few years on Vitoria, Laguardia and Salvatierra. Up to 1332, the year when the Brotherhood of Arriaga was dissolved, 18 royal villages had been founded in Alava, which were Salinas de Añana (1140), Laguardia (1164), Vitoria (118l), Antoñana (1182), La Puebla de Arganzón (119l), Labraza (1196), Labastida (1242), Corres (1256), Santa Cruz de Campezo (1256), Salvatierra (1256), Salinillas de Buradón (before 1264), Arceniega (1272), Contrasta (1252-1284), Peñacerrada (before 1295), Berantevilla (1299) and San Vicente de Arana (1312-1319). All of them had been founded in the state land, except for two, Vitoria and Salvatierra that were in the territory dominated by the Brotherhood of Arriaga. The concession of a municipal charter to a place by the King, or what is the same, the privilege of being a town, implied a political-administrative transformation of very great importance. The residents of the town received their own legal statute that was included in the municipal charter, which marked a clear contrast with the surrounding rural population, and allowed them to self-govern the town as they took on similar legal and administrative powers as the royal officials, which were possessions, bailiffs, justices, etc., exercised in the territories constituted in towns. From 1332 to 1338 the urbanisation of Alava was completed. Between these years Alfonso XI would found the last medieval villages of Alava, which were Villarreal (1333), Alegría (1337), Elburgo (1337) and Monreal de Zuya (1338), all of which were in the old territory that had belonged to the Brotherhood of Arriaga. Brotherhood and Councils of Arriaga. The Brotherhood of Alava or Brotherhood of Arriaga, due to the place where their councils met, constituted one of the topics of the medieval history of Alava that has raised the most interest, frequently marked with certain controversy. Some recent studies, such as those of G. Martínez Diez, M. Portilla, M. Lópezlbor, R. Díaz de Durana, etc., which although they have been carried from different positions, have allowed a more rigorous interpretation of the Brotherhood, from its remote and imprecise origins to its disappearance in 1332. The first documented testimony with respect to the Brotherhood of Alava dates back to 1258. The fact that by this date it is shown with clearly defined profiles allows us to reasonably believe that its origins were somewhat earlier, the lack of documentation does not allow us to specify but it is closely related to both the reconquest dynamics and the feudalisation process of the society of Alava. In the second half of the 11th Century documented information allows us to believe in the existence of seniores o barones de Alaba (lords and barons of Alava) with the capacity to exercise certain legal actions exclusively in a specific territory, to the east of the River Bayas and the north of the River Ebro. In the second half of the 12th Century, the old barons or soldiers of Alava had considerably strengthened their social and political protagonism, making the most of the belligerent atmosphere that characterised the relations between Alfonso VIII de Castilla and the Navarre Kings Sancho VI and Sancho VII. By this time two very different areas had been configured in Alava, as J.A García de Cortázar pointed out: one that is state land and another of ownership. The first one included the territory to the west of the River Bayas and to the south of the mountains of Vitoria; and the second, the Llanada and its mountainous borders, approximately until the current frontiers of Biscay, Guipúzcoa and Navarre, coinciding with the so-called "central Alava" on which the Sentar of Alava exercised their collective rule. In the 13th and 14th Centuries, the Brotherhood of Arriaga was well characterised through chronicle accounts and a few documents. >From the institutional point of view it was a jurisdictional manor that was similar to the manors of Biscay, Ayala and Oñate whose territorial environment coincided with the group of the plots of land and properties of the noblemen of Alava. The main differentiating element was the elective nature of the lord by the actual noblemen, according to what was stated in Alfonso XI's Chronicle: "And at times they elected one of the Kings' noblemen as lord; and at times the lord of Biscay; and at times the lord of Lara; and at times the lord of los Cameros". The Brotherhood's territory was always ancestral, in the sense that it was a lord, not a King, who exercised the ownership of the manor and this is how it was carried out under the Navarre and Castilian sovereignty, after 1200. Nevertheless, the supreme political ownership or sovereignty corresponded, firstly to the Kings of Navarre and, later, to those of Castile. The lord elected by the members of the Brotherhood administered justice in the territory, either personally or through the bailiffs and mayors named by him, who acted in the bailiff's territories or districts in which the Brotherhood was divided. In recognition of his manor he received the so-called "pecho forero", which was the "semoio" and the "buey de marzo", from the farmers and servants. The lord of the Brotherhood was responsible for the defence and security of the territory, maintaining the possessions of the castles and calling together the armed retinues if necessary. The territory of the Brotherhood had its own legal classification, which was not written and was based on use and customs. These were the characteristics of the "remote rule" that the Brotherhood exercised in its territory. The King, on the other hand, as well as conserving the superior political ownership or Royal Rule, had his own pecuniary rights over the farmers and the brothers' servants, according to the agreement of 1258 between Vitoria and the Brotherhood. These were called "pechos reales", which were different from the "pecho forero" that they paid the lord of the Brotherhood. In addition, before 1332, as stated in the document of 1258, the King had estates on Alava lands like any other member of the Brotherhood. The Councils of the Brotherhood met in Arriaga, which was very close to Vitoria, where in modern times a chapel dedicated to San Juan was built that evokes these medieval meetings. The frequency of the meetings and when they started is not known, because they are only documented from 1258. At this time it is mentioned that the meetings would still be held in Arriaga, "the way they are normally held", even though in this year Arriaga became integrated in the territorial jurisdiction of Vitoria. The immemorial character of the meetings of Arriaga is also mentioned in the testimony of the bishop of Calahorra and brother of Alava, Don Juan Rodríguez de Rojas, who stated the following to Alfonso XI, shortly before the Brotherhood was dissolved, "all the Noblemen and Farmers of Alava are in the land of Arriaga which is where they have always met". The Councils were an Assembly or High Law Court, presided over by the lord of the Brotherhood, who would presence the cases that had not been resolved by the bailiffs and mayors. His powers reached all the members of the Brotherhood and their vassals, as well as those that offended in its territory who were not from Alava. The Councils of Arriaga, in which the lord of the Brotherhood was chosen, were the expression of a certain capacity to self-govern that one part of Alava had during the Middle Ages, up to 1332, which was compatible with the Castilian King's recognition as High lord. One aspect which most of the authors have stressed is the noble nature of the Brotherhood of Alava, which can be verified by simply reading the names of the brothers. The panorama that they presented towards 1332 has been studied by M. Portilla and we can see how some surnames, among which we can highlight Rojas, Mendoza, Hurtado de Mendoza, Guevara, Ayala, Velasco, etc., would later be found among the most illustrious and powerful noble families in the Trastamarista nobility. Farmers and servants also formed a part of the Brotherhood, but as subordinates and dependants of the lowest noblemen and rural noblemen, to whom they had to pay certain rights. In practice, although farmers and servants were part of the Brotherhood and they could go to their meetings it was the lowest noblemen and rural noblemen who exercised the absolute control of it, within which it is necessary to highlight the "Great brothers", whose surnames we have just mentioned, and whose political protagonism and economic power converted them into the top of the pyramid that reflects the feudalised society of Alava. The historical trajectory of the Brotherhood of Alava concluded on 2nd April 1332, when what was traditionally known as the "Voluntary surrender" or "Pact of Arriaga" took place, which was the self-dissolution of the Brotherhood and the entry of its territory in the Castilian state land. When interpreting this fact G. Martínez Diez has placed most emphasis on the confrontation that existed between the towns and the brothers of Alava, although he is not the only one, he points it out as the fundamental reason that pushed them to self-dissolve the Brotherhood. However the confrontation was not with all the towns, but only with Vitoria and Salvatierra, the only two that had been founded in territory of the Brotherhood, and which would dispute the jurisdiction over the villages that were incorporated to its district. Without reducing the importance of this confrontation, which had its first milestone in the concord of 1258, thanks to which sixteen villages belonging to the Brotherhood were distributed between Vitoria and Salvatierra, in my opinion the explanatory hypothesis recently made by R. Díaz de Durana is extremely thought provoking. This hypothesis follows the lines of other contributions by J. Valdeón and E. Pastor Díaz de Garayo. For Díaz de Durana the "Minutes of Arriaga", as he calls the document that implies the step towards the freeing of the lands of the Brotherhood in 1332, cannot be understood aside from the difficulties that affected the nobility of Alava from the second half of the 13th Century, within the general framework of the so-called feudalism crisis, and the efforts that the actual noble class made to stop the dropping of their rents, caused by the inversion of the favourable conditions that from the 11th to 13th Centuries had stimulated the constant growth of the rents. This means that through the dissolution of the Brotherhood of Arriaga and the entry of their territory in the state lands, the noblemen of Alava managed to get Alfonso XI to confirm their privileged legal statute. They were also able to fix the peasants to the land, impeding their exodus from the Brotherhood villages to the state lands and especially the villages, and, lastly, they made sure they controlled the use of the mountains, which, given their revaluation in the 14th Century, would become a compensated source of revenue. In short, the dissolution of the Brotherhood of Arriaga did not imply that the nobility of Alava had to back down, it was the prior premise to receive the King's benevolence in order to get the above-mentioned favourable compensations from him that would enable the immediate strengthening of the "great brothers" that somehow controlled the Brotherhood. The Minutes of Arriaga states how the brothers granted Alfonso Xl "the land of Alava that we want to be the lord and to be state land and they put it in the Kingdom of our Kings and for us and for those that reign after us in Castile and in León. And they gave up and left to never have been a Brotherhood or Town Council in the land of Arriaga or in any another place from the Brotherhood or those who call themselves brothers. And they gave up the municipal charter and the use they had to this respect for now and forever". The final disappearance of the Brotherhood and its main governing element, the Councils of Arriaga, was not a futile act, at least not for the great lords of the Brotherhood who strengthened their position at the head of the group of the Alava society. In short, and from another point of view, for M. Portilla the Minutes of 1332 constituted "the origin of many peculiarities and freedoms of our land of Alava". Following a line that connects with the "pact-making" positions held by J.J. de Landázuri at the end of the 18th Century, G. Monreal Zía has highlighted how the Brotherhood was the "factor that gave political continuity and cohesion to the territory" and after its disappearance in 1332 it would become a kind of a "mythical component" of the political train of thought in Alava. As a counterpoint it is not a bad idea to remember some objective information. As I have already mentioned, from the spring of 1332, Alava had been fully integrated in the Castilian State land. Alfonso XI reserved the administration of the justice in the territory, and therefore named mayors who were Alava noblemen, and the right to receive the "pecho forero" for himself, which the lords of the Brotherhood had received before. In the whole territory of Alava the common law was replaced, but not in writing, by the Royal Municipal Charter or Municipal Charter of the Laws. From this political-administrative point of view, Alava then formed a part of Allende Ebro's Bailiff's territory, inside the Greater Castile Bailiff's territory. Although the Councils of Arriaga were the most important and the most significant from a historical point of view, they were not the only ones that took place in Alava. In several of his works, M. Portilla has referred to many of these regional councils or town councils, governed by customs and of which there hardly any written documentation has been conserved, at least with respect to the medieval period. The fundamental task of these councils was to solve the problems related to the use of the common mountains and pastures. It is important to point out the Ruzábal council, integrated by the town councils of Belandia, Lendoño de Abajo, Lendoño de Arriba and Mendeica; the Ordunte council, which was formed by Sojoguti, Retes de Tudela, Santa Coloma and Mendieta; the Armuru council that contained the town councils of Amurrio, Larrimbe, Saracho, Echegoyen and Olábezar; in Santo Tomás de Amondo, Hermita de Lezama, the town councils of Lecamaña, Lezama, Astóbiza and Barambio met; councils of Arrastaria, of Murguía, of Valdegobía, etc. These meetings, which we can call small due to their scarce territorial scope, were held from immemorial time in the "Campo de Saraube", close to Amurrio, and they served the government of the Land of Ayala. Before 1373 the territory of Ayala was governed by a common municipal charter of will, that was not written, as is highlighted in the Preface of the municipal charter that in this year Fernán Pérez de Ayala granted: "In as much as the land and rule of Ayala is old, that the lord populated it and appraised it with the municipal charters by which it is always governed without appeal before the Kings of Castile, nor is there clerk, or written demand, unless the lord understood that in some things there charter is not correct, the lord, situated the whole land, and the five mayors can amend this charter and reject one charter and draw up another, and the mayors will be chosen by the land and confirmed by the lord, if he considers them to be suitable". The written municipal charter of 1373 consists of 95 chapters, of which 15 are literally inspired in the Royal Municipal Charter, and the remaining 80 cover the common law of the Land of Ayala. The Councils of Saraube continued meeting until 1841, and were presided over by the lord of Ayala or by his delegates and the officials in charge of the territory government were chosen in them, and who later swore their position in the Santa María de Respaldiza church. The Land of Ayala was divided, from the administrative point of view, into five groups, Lezama, Amurrio, La Sopeña, Llanteno and Oquendo, each of which had its mayor: "That the lord being in the Brotherhood situated in Saraube, and this Brotherhood with the lord that will place five noblemen as mayors, and that one will be the great mayor, the abbot, and that this mayoralty cannot be taken from him in his lifetime, except if the mayor did something that the gentleman and the council, being in Saraube, considered to be worthy of loosing the position." Rules and Fraternities In spite of the existence of an appreciable "council tradition" in the territory of Alava in the medieval period, it is not possible to establish any continuity with the process that in the second half of the 15th Century lead to the origin of the General Councils of Alava that constituted the maximum political and representative expression of the Provincial Fraternity of Alava. From 1332 practically the whole territory of Alava was integrated in Castilian State land, with the exception of Laguardia, Labraza and Bernedo that were still under Navarre sovereignty. In the second half of the 14th Century, as G. Martínez Diez has stated, two simultaneous processes were started, although they were of a different nature: one was the disintegrating of the state land in multiple individual rules and the other was the grouping of towns, rules and state territories which, after some unsuccessful attempts, would end up in the creation of a Provincial Fraternity and, as a result, the General Councils of Alava. In 1332 the brothers of Alava had received Alfonso XI's promise that the territory given to the state land at that time would never be transferred from it: "that we will not give or transfer this land of Alava to any town or any other but that it will stay forever royal and in the Crown of our Kingdom of Castile and León". For more than thirty years this situation did not vary, with the only exceptions of Hueto Arriba and Hueto Abajo that Alfonso XI handed over to Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, and the rules that Pedro I gave to Pedro González de Mendoza, Domaiquia and Aríñez, and Fernán Pérez de Ayala, Valley of Cuartango. In 1366, when the civil war started that would confront Pedro I with his stepbrother Enrique de Trastámara, it can be confirmed that practically all of Alava was still state land, with the above-mentioned exceptions and those of Mendoza-Mendívil, which corresponded to the rule of Hurtado de Mendoza; Guevara that belonged to the noble family of its name; the valley of Valderejo, which up to 1379 belonged to the lords of Biscay, and the rule of the Ayalas. In 1389, when Enrique de Trastámar asserted his authority to gain the Castilian throne, he preserved a policy that was faithfully followed by his successors, for wide concessions to the noblemen that had collaborated in his victory. They were the famous "mercedes enriquenas" (graces of Enrique) that would give rise to an impressive nobilisation process of Castile, through which the nobility would confront the feudalism crisis, restore its rents and secure its hegemonic position as a social class. The case of Alava perfectly adjusted to this global interpretation. Indeed, the noble families of the Ayalas, Mendozas, Hurtado de Mendozas, Rojas, Manriques, Gaonas, Abendaños, etc., who in their day were "great brothers", would be integrated in the front line of what S. de Molxó had named "new nobility", holding noble titles, manors and a very large influence in the Court of Castile, where they held very important positions. In the second half of the 14th Century, these noble families essentially received numerous manors in lands of Alava, in such a way that, at the end of the Middle Ages, all of Alava, except for the district of Vitoria, which meant 80% of the territory of Alava, as G. Martínez Diez highlighted, had returned to the hands of the nobility, in other words it had been re-nobilised. While exercising the jurisdictional power at the head of their manors, although not only through these proceedings, the nobility of Alava, which was fleetingly eclipsed in the years immediately after 1332, managed to recuperate their sources of revenue and positively respond to the fall in their rents. The participation of Alava in what I have called the "brotherhood movement" has an interesting bibliography at present, however it is still insufficient. We can mention, among other contributions, the works of G. Martínez Diez, A. Alvarez de Morales, L.M. Diez de Salazar, A. Esteban Recio, J.L. de Orella or my own work. The fraternity was conceived as an expression of an associative and integrative towns and areas movement and constituted a deep-rooted institution throughout the whole Basque territory, in which a general characteristic phenomenon of lower medieval history in the Kingdom of Castile is reflected with unusual strength. These council alliances express a clear solidarity between the town councils or perhaps between the oligarchies that controlled them, to defend their interests and their actual articulation in the feudal power structure. In the participation of Alava in the brotherhood movement we can distinguish two well differentiated stages. We can separate the stages in the first years of the second half of the 14th Century. In the first stage, Vitoria and other towns of Alava would participate in the general fraternities that would constitute numerous Castilian town councils from the end of the 8th Century. These fraternities arose in moments when the royal authority was clearly weak, as a result of Prince Sancho's rebellion and the minorities of Fernando IV and Alfonso XI, and they expressed a certain political awareness on the part of the town councils that joined forces to guarantee their municipal charters and privileges. At the same time the fraternities set up certain defence mechanisms in order to put an end to public disorder, guarantee that justice was exercised and, mainly, to put an end to the abuses or "crimes" of the feudal nobility. The first council fraternity of a general nature was signed in Burgos in 1282, for thirty town councils, three of which were from Alava: Vitoria, Salvatierra and Salinillas de Buradón. This fraternity was formed during Prince Sancho's rebellion against his father Alfonso X and it was justified by the "many outrages, many damages and many forces and deaths and prisoners and ill-doings and shameful acts and other many things without need that were... against the municipal charter and cause great damage to all the kingdoms". This fraternity only lasted for a brief amount of time, as it was suppressed by Sancho IV, who was already King, in 1284. New fraternities arose during the minority of Fernando IV, the successor of Sancho IV. In the summer of 1295 three large fraternities were formed, one from the town councils of Castile, one from the town councils of León and Galicia, and another from the town councils of the Archbishop of Toledo and Castilian Extremadura, and they were confirmed in the Courts of Valladolid in the same year. According to G. Martínez Diez the following towns of Alavas participated in the Castilian fraternity: Salinas de Añana, Salinillas de Buradón, Treviño, Vitoria, La Puebla de Arganzon, Santa Cruz de Campezo, Labastida, Peñacerrada, Antoñana, Corres and Salvatierra. Two new fraternities arose in 1296, one called the "Fraternity of the coastal towns of Castile" and another that was signed in Haro. In the first one, Vitoria joined forces with Santander, Laredo, Castro-Urdiales, Bermeo, Guetaria, San Sebastián and Fuenterrabía essentially in order to defend its commercial interests. In the second, six towns of La Rioja participated along side Miranda de Ebro: Logroño, Nájera, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Haro, Briones and Abalos, and eleven towns of Alava, the same ones that in 1295 were integrated in the general fraternity of the town councils of Castile. This second fraternity was created to solve the deficiencies that had been observed in the brief operation of the general fraternity and, at the same time, to put an end to the "many discredits and harm and damages and deaths of men and robberies that we have received without reason and right from some men of the land". In short, it was to protect the district formed by Salvatierra, Logroño, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Salinas de Añana from criminals. In 1315, during the minority of Alfonso XI, an important general fraternity was formed in Burgos, by a hundred town councils from Castile, León, Galicia, Toledo and Extremadura. Alava was represented in it by Vitoria, Treviño, Salinas de Añana, Salvatierra, Peñacerrada, Portilla de Ibda and Berantevilla. When Alfonso XI came of age he suppressed this fraternity in the Courts of Valladolid 1325. As regards the formation of a provincial fraternity of Alava, a series of local fraternities have greater importance than those already mentioned. These fraternities were documented from the end of the 13th Century, nevertheless we have little information about them. In 1293 a fraternity was agreed between the town council of Salvatierra and the town councils of Eulate, Aranarache and the seven towns of Amescoa, that were situated in the road between Salvatierra and Estella. The objective of this fraternity was to ensure that "we all are better defended and protected from many harms and damage that you and we receive". In April of the same year a fraternity charter was signed between Salvatierra and Contrasta and all the town councils of the valley of Arana. The aim was to defend against the damage and robberies that were carried out in the area by rich men and other lords and that essentially affected livestock owners, traders and merchants. There is also documentation on the fraternities of the Ribera and Lacozmonte, in 1347, or the fraternity of Aríñez and Cigoltia, in 1417. There is more information about the fraternity of Eguílaz, whose councils met at least once a year for the celebration of San Miguel in the church of San Millán de Ordoñana. The fraternity's bylaws are known and were written in 1360 and have been published by L.M. Diez de Salazar. In this year it was said that these bylaws were now "old bylaws", we can therefore suppose that the origins of the fraternity were quite a while earlier. The territorial environment of the fraternity was formed by twelve villages: Aspuru, Narvaja, Zuazo, Luzuriaga, Galarreta and Ordoñana that formed the "upper" group, and Albéniz, San Román, Eguílaz, VicuÑa, Munaín and Mezquía that formed the "lower" group, each one of them sent a representative to the fraternity meetings that were presided over by a General Member. In order to belong to the fraternity the bylaws specified that it was necessary to be a citizen and resident of these villages and to hold the condition of noble squire, "of blood and possession... of a good life, reputation and habits... that are old Christians of clean blood, without being Jews or Arabs". The fraternity of Eguílaz was "one of the fourteen fraternities that were once present in the province of Alava", as is stated in the bylaws of 1360. The number of local fraternities did not vary after this time and in 1449 there were still fourteen. From the second half of the 14th Century, the so-called "factionalist struggles" deeply affected the Basque feudal society. This fact coincided with an accentuation of the general depression that forced the noble class to use the most varied procedures to compensate for the fall in the noble rents, even of a violent nature, among which the most typical, but not the only one, was banditry. The increase in the feudal nobility pressure produced different types of popular responses: the constitution of new towns, anti-nobility revolts or simply fleeing from the territory or installing in the towns. Nevertheless the most effective instruments in the anti-nobility struggle were the fraternities, which aimed to maintain public order and put an end to the endemic banditry and abuses of the powerful. The formation process of the Basque fraternities, which was parallel in the three counties, must therefore be situated inside the general framework of the lower medieval crisis. We must not forget that it was the reflection of a phenomenon that affected the whole Kingdom of Castile, from the first years of the reign of Enrique II de Trastámara. What impact did it have on the territory of Alava?. In the 14th and 15th Centuries the frontier of Alava and Guipúzcoa with the Kingdom of Navarre was especially conflictive, to the extent that it was known as the "criminals' frontier". Real bands of hijackers acted along the frontier, in many cases at the service of powerful noblemen, and they were formed by people of Navarre, Guipuzcoa and Alava whose main refuges were the mountains of Aralar and Urbasa. These bands acted indiscriminately, both on Navarre and Castilian land, and there were frequent conflicts between the respective Kingdoms caused by their activity. With the aim of putting an end to this type of criminal actions, and with the excuse of the difficult situation that Pedro I de Castilla was in, as he was about to lose the civil war and finally his own life in Montiel, Carlos XI de Navarra who was now also named King of Guipúzcoa and Alava, decided to form a fraternity, in which the town councils of Alava, Guipúzcoa and Navarre were integrated which were more seriously affected by the activity of the criminals. The foundational document of the fraternity was signed in the convent of San Francisco de Vitoria on 12th March 1369, and was renewed six years later. The fraternity was directed against all those that "stole, forced or burnt or killed or caused other ill-doing".The bylaws established very severe sentences for the criminals and very quick legal proceedings. The fraternity could mobilise an army of up to 1820 men, which came from each of the participating towns, according to their population. Vitoria and Salvatierra contributed the most with 150 and 100 men, respectively. When Carlos II created the fraternity he did not act due to the need to guarantee public order in a border area with difficult orography, he also wanted to have an important military tool to ensure the Navarre control of the areas that had been conquered not long before in the Castilian Kingdom. In 1388, when Castile had already recovered its old frontiers, Juan I, son and successor of Enrique II, and Carlos II held a meeting in Calahorra, on 9th February and they agreed on the reciprocal handing over of all criminals of one Kingdom that took refuge in the other, annulling the right to asylum of some towns, Alfaro in Castile and Corella in Navarre, which offered refuge to criminals. However, all these royal initiatives did not seem to be enough to put an end to the border conflicts and the criminal activity. In 1412, Juan II de Castilla and Carlos III de Navarra ratified the prohibition that no person could pass from one Kingdom to another to carry out crimes and if this happened the person responsible would be "put up against the mayors and judges of the Kingdom's fraternity for this event and ill-doing" who would process them and condemn them with the maximum severity. The Provincial Fraternity of Alava Vitoria, Treviño and Salvatierra created a fraternity that was strictly of Alava and whose bylaws were approved by Juan II in Valladolid, on 6th February 1417, after introducing some modifications in the proposal that the three towns had presented. The creation of the fraternity was justified because "in these towns and their lands and districts many large serious crimes had been committed and perpetrated, by night and by day, stealing, and begging for bread, wine and eating food in the town and outside of it and challenging without reason and killing the innocent blameless people". Juan II de Castilla granted the fraternity certain legal and penal jurisdiction. From the territorial point of view, the bylaws established that: "to govern and protect this Fraternity well" it was necessary to integrated the following into it: La Puebla de Arganzón, Nanclares de la Oca, Ollávarre, the fraternity of Aríñez and Cigoitia, Zuya, Ubarrundia, Villarreal de Alava, Eguílaz, Barrundia, Gamboa, Iruraiz, Arraya, Araya, Contrasta, Peñacerrada and "the other areas that are in the middle of them". Juan II ruled that the three founding towns could summon the above-mentioned places to enter in the fraternity and in the case that they rejected the offer they would be denied any help "to pursue the criminals or carry out any charges against them". The executive agents of the fraternity, who were responsible for carrying out its criminal jurisdiction were the mayors of fraternity that were chosen or named by some members among "good men honest subscribers and without common suspicion, who fear God and the King and endeavour to make justice". There were also two commissioners whose mission was "to over see and correct the mayors who were placed in this fraternity if they did not exercise the law and justice on the defendants in the way that should". Although it is not regulated in the bylaws of 1417, the fraternity also had its General Councils, which the following attended: "mayors, commissioners and members of the cities, towns and areas of the Fraternity of Alava", as stated in Councils that were held in Jócano, on 21st November 1457. As R Díaz de Durana. has highlighted, the social conflict in the territory of Alava reached a great peak in the 15th Century. This was related in a special way to the increase in the noble pressure, both in the towns, where they tried to control government bodies, and in the rural world, where there were frequent increases in the taxes and traditional ground rents, the demand for "new impositions" or the usurpation of communal goods, all of which were of course not the only ones issued and used by the nobility to increase their rents. The limitless desire of the noblemen to increase their patrimony and rents, in the permanent search for the ideal that the factionalist Lope García de Salazar defined as who was worth more, also frequently lead to violent inter-nobility confrontations, another one of the most significant components in the struggle between the different sides. The common people, peasants and inhabitants of the towns, reacted against the excesses of the nobility through rural revolts, anti-nobility movements and setting up the fraternities. The fraternity of 1417 did not seem to be able to place order in the territory of Alava and put an end to the activity of the feudal criminals, as I have mentioned in another place. A clear testimony of the inefficiency of the fraternity of 1417 is shown in the Juan II's Chronicle, when it refers to the formation of certain banners or factions that it defines as fraternities. Some authors identify these fraternities with the fraternity of 1417. An evaluation of the polysemic nature of the word fraternity and the actual chronicle context in which it appears leads us to think that these popular fraternities were completely different to the fraternity of 1417. It is necessary to highlight how these popular fraternities, which were markedly anti-nobility, tried to exercise, in short, the role that corresponded to the fraternity of 1417, but which in practice it did not carry out. Let's go over the chronicle information. In Alava in 1442 they created "many fraternities of popular people, by the Count of Castañeda and Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, that were different and discordant, on certain vassals of this land; but they did not last long, and they were then moderated and calmed down". The following year, these same popular fraternities, with the royal approval, "began to demolish houses of lords, and other undue things, among which they surrounded Pedro López de Ayala... in one of his towns called Salvatierra". his cousin, Count Pedro Fernández de Velasco, came in his aid, who at the front of numerous men lifted the blockade and carried out a hard repression: "And as the fraternities that had surrounded Pedro López de Ayala knew the Count was coming, they fled, and the Count followed them and killed and captured many of them, and demolish their houses and caused damage to them and they paid well for what they had done; and the fraternities were suppressed and from then on were not able to remain". Evidently, those that did not remain were the popular fraternities, however the fraternity of 1417 still existed, although it was not able to achieve its objectives. This is how it is stated in a report by the academic Juan Martínez de Alava, resident of Vitoria, addressed to Juan II, in which it is stated how "in this city and its jurisdiction there have been many deaths and ill-doings and events perpetrated and other offences" and that the "criminals and delinquents are not punished", because they find safe refuge in the manors of the noblemen of the district, and they therefore avoid being judged in the courts of Vitoria. In 1448, in order to put an end to this situation, Juan II ordered the noblemen not to welcome the criminals into their houses and manors and when required by the mayors and judges of Vitoria to give them to them to "prosecute them to administer justice". In 1449, Juan II tried to start up a large regional fraternity. The territorial environment of the fraternity would include Biscay, Guipúzcoa, Alava, and the north of Burgos and part of Cantabria and La Rioja. The objective was to keep the peace and order, and try to impede "strong events, or robberies, or other wrongs, or damages, or offences without any reason or right be any person or people". Surprisingly, and in spite of the requirement that Juan II made, Vitoria refused to be part of this fraternity, "for fear of it, after non-divided excuses and not accepting what is performed in the service of God and my service and the execution of my justice and the public well-being of my kingdoms". Throughout Juan II's reign the fraternities reached an extraordinary peak in the whole Kingdom of Castile, acting as fighting tools against the abuses of the nobility and to keep the public order, punish the criminals and protect justice. It is necessary to situate the fraternities of 1417 and 1449 in this general context. The only information about the second one is the foundational testimonies, and it seems that it was not consolidated. As for the fraternity of 1417, it is necessary to point out its precarious existence and inefficiency in carrying out its objectives, although we cannot deny that somehow it prepared the way for the final provincial fraternity of Alava in 1458. Like Juan II, his son and successor, Enrique IV, also favoured the creation of fraternities. In the first days of the spring in 1457, when passing through Guipúzcoa, Enrique IV would receive in Vitoria accurate information on the operation of the fraternity of 1417 and its operative deficiencies. It is at this time when the idea would be forged, promoted by Enrique IV, to reorganise this fraternity to improve its effectiveness. The book of bylaws of the new fraternity was drawn up by the  "members of the cities and towns and areas of the land of Alava" and once it had been examined by the Royal Council, it was approved by Enrique IV in Madrid on March 22nd 1458. In the document's preamble it is pointed out how in Alava there were still "robberies and forces and burning and deaths and men hurt and excesses and crimes and ill-doings that... they were carried out and committed every day by some people, criminals, and deceivers and lackeys and other people", and therefore Enrique IV ordered a "Fraternity of these cities and towns and areas of the land of Alava and citizens and residents of them for the things that I exercise in my service and execution of my justice and for the common good and peace and serenity of the this land of Alava". The bylaws of 1458 are not particularly original, as they are the same as those approved in 1417 by Juan II, of which on this occasion articles 17 and 34 were omitted. We can interpret this fact in the sense that the fraternity of 1458 is a re-foundation or confirmation of the fraternity of 1417, as there is solution of continuity between the two. The aim now was to give it a permanent nature, with a future vocation: "... that this Fraternity of Alava remains and is not corrupted or dissolved..." Insisting on this point, but also to increase its effectiveness in the fight against the criminals, Enrique IV ordered "to the mayors and members and other officials and any other people of the fraternities of Biscay and Guipúzcoa and the Summons and of land of Mena, and to any others my chief magistrates and justices... give all their favour and help to meet the needs so that this fraternity is protected and conserved and so that it is not corrupted or dissolved, and for the other things carried out at my service and execution of my justice". There is not much information about the first years of operation of the fraternity of 1458. It comes from the Salvatierra Municipal File and has been studied by L.M. Diez de Salazar and E. Pastor Díaz de Garayo. The summons of, at least, four General Councils: 23rd March 1458, in the convent of San Francisco de Vitoria; 7th March 1461, in Caicedo de Yuso; 26th November 1461, in Aránguiz, and 5th May 1462, once again in the convent of San Francisco de Vitoria. The main matter dealt with in them was the differences between Salvatierra and the fraternity of Eguílaz in order to appoint the mayors of fraternity, that the town aimed to exercise exclusively. On the other hand, we can mention the lack of authority that the General Councils had at this time, over which Vitoria and Salvatierra exercised a clear influence, and the lack of effectiveness of the fraternity in order to achieve the objectives for which it had been created. The realistic evaluation of the lack of results would lead Enrique IV to name a commission formed by four members, "the doctors Fernand Gonçalez de Toledo and Diego Martynez de Çamora and the graduates Pedro Alonso de Valdlvyelso and Juan García de Sancto Domingo", in order to correct and reform "the fraternities of Alava with the city of Vitoria and towns of Salvatierra and Miranda and Pancorvo and others that are linked to this fraternity". On 4th May 1463 the commission was given wide powers by Enrique IV, who closely followed their actions, to draw up new bylaws that regulated the operation of the fraternity. After different vicissitudes, the commission was decreased to only one member, the graduate Pedro Alonso de Valdivielso, who on 11th and 12th of October 1463 presided over a meeting in Rivabellosa with sixteen members of the fraternity, and Juan López de Letona, faithful clerk of the fraternity. During these days the drawing up of the new fraternity bylaws was culminated, sixty in total, that were known as "The Book of Laws and Bylaws by which the M.N. and M.L. Province of Alava are governed", because, indeed, for four centuries they had been the fundamental centre of the laws of the Province, to which during this time the regulations emanated from the General Councils of the fraternity would be added along with other new privileges granted by the Kings. The creation of the fraternity of 1463, or better still, the drawing up of the new fraternity bylaws in this year, constituted the term of arrival of a long process essentially gestated throughout the 15th Century, when the social instability was greatest in Alava, even though its history dates somewhat further back. The new bylaws designed a new very different organisational structure of power, with a greater integrative capacity than those that are reflected in the old bylaws of 1417, which were reiterated in 1458. In short, we are talking about the creation of a powerful tool presumed to be effective to achieve the objectives for which it was devised, which were the repression of the criminals, the keeping of public order and the defence of justice. Its origins are united with the patent solidarity of peasants, artisans and small nobility, whether they inhabited villages or towns, united to face the abuses and the increase in the noble pressure by the rich men of Alava. The fraternity's territorial action environment, on the other hand, ended up consolidating the territorial action environment of the Province of Alava whose final profile would be known at the end of the 15th Century and in the century following its last modifications. Lastly, the bylaws of 1463 strictly established the meetings, composition and attributions of the General Councils that constituted the supreme governing and jurisdictional body of the fraternity and would generate a political and legislative activity of the utmost importance: "We order and demand that two general councils will be formed every year for this fraternity; and that one of these councils be formed in the city of Vitoria and the other in the place to be agreed in this council; and that in this way these councils are followed for what this council may order, and that these councils are not held in other places unless their is just cause; and that one of the councils be held each year on the first day of the month of May, and the other council on Sanct Martín's day in the month of November, and that in these general councils they are not in each one of them for more than fifteen days", as stated in the ninth bylaw. As regards the composition, the eleventh bylaw establishes that "the town councils and universities that usually send members to these councils must only send one or two members to the councils and no more, and they must send as members to the councils good men and of good fame and ideal and suitable, rich men who have each paid the amount of forty thousand maravedis, and that are men of good desires and authority so they will carry out and order the matters of this Council well. And they must not send to these councils members that have been and are criminals, or men who are members of the lords and elder relatives, or men who have to liberate in these councils things for themselves or for others, and they must not bring in auction this procurement stating who is for less, according to what until now some have done, or place it for rent unless they send those they know are ideal and suitable for it". As for the attributions, the fifteenth bylaw states that "these councils do not carry out order except for the matters concerning the cases of the fraternity and to the execution of justice and on those matters that they can and ought according to the books alien to the above-mentioned that are not worthy or obeyed or completed by the fraternity" In conclusion, I feel it is appropriate to select the three above-mentioned texts from the bylaws, since they form the key elements that define the origins of the General Councils of Alava, however, the exhaustive analysis of them and the historical evaluation of their content will be carried out in the next section.