Adelaide Costa

Resumen: En este artículo se plantean las competencias políticas de las ciudades y villas portuguesas en los siglos XV e inicios del XVI, conjugadas con su defi nición o evolución jurisdiccional. Así, el factor político corresponde al enfoque de observación de una posible jerarquía de las comunidades urbanas-de acuerdo con ciertos criterios de delimitación del grupo y, en su interior, del rango asig-nado a cada una-; mientras que el elemento jurisdiccional es la variable en función de la cual vamos a profundizar en el tema. Se asume la perspectiva de sistematizar el conocimiento ya producido y de presentar nuevos datos, problemas e interpretaciones, estrategia que creemos pueda ser productiva en el contexto de este monográfi co, pues hace posible la comparación con realidades de otros reinos. Palabras clave: Edad Media; ciudades y villas; comunicación política; jerarquía urbana; cortes. Abstract: In this article we propose an analysis of the political competences of Portuguese cities and towns in the 15 th and early 16 th centuries, combined with their defi nition or jurisdictional evolution. In this context, the political factor refl ects an approach that analyses the existence of a possible hierarchy of urban communities-according to certain delimitation criteria for the group as a whole and, within it, of the rank assigned to each-whereas the jurisdictional element is the variable which will enable us to deal with the subject in greater depth. We adopt a perspective that involves systematizing already produced knowledge and presenting new data, problems and interpretations; we believe that this strategy can be productive in the context of this monograph, making comparison with the situation existing in other kingdoms possible.

The concept of small cities adopted in this article corresponds to urban centres with low relevance in the Portuguese political system. To identify these territorial communities, several classification criteria are suggested (namely the legal status and the political profile of the town) that, after being exploited in monographic studies, may allow conceiving an interpretative model. The most important criterion discussed in this article is the political culture that the concelhos (" municipalities ") preserved in the dialogue they established with the crown. It can be asserted that for the 14 th century we have not identified any difference between the discourse delivered by the most important and the less important municipalities in this institutional relationship. This is not the case for the 15 th century. Indeed, while small cities keep merely defending the legal order, large cities created an autonomous political identity.