SUICIDE IN THE OLD SPANISH REGIME

This research is part of the studies on death from the approach of cultural history. From the analysis of the discourse of biblical and juridical texts and the records of Hispanic institutions the reader can observe that suicide was an existing phenomenon and that despite being a negative act in most cases it was tolerated according to the quality of the individual and the socio-political moment that was lived in the kingdom. Throughout the work the singularity of the Castilian legal tradition is highlighted which unlike other European kingdoms was characterized by being more lenient towards the suicide and his relatives.Everyday life is the arena where suicide burst violently into the news. The civil and ecclesiastical authorities investigated some of the cases to the point of punishing the suicide or exonerating him for being mentally ill. The causes are as different as the women and men who practiced it in sudden or premeditated acts. Despair became a way out for religious military slaves merchants and anyone who found their existence more unbearable than death.