The Limits of Royal Authority

In what is sometimes called the age of absolutism Castilian nobles and commoners tribunes and towns were to a considerable degree able to resist and shape royal commands. Whereas there was little open conflict there was sometimes a surprising degree of autonomy rights and reciprocity on the part of the king''s vassals. This is a study of one such form of resistance: the opposition to military levies. This opposition took place during a period of crisis during the 1630s and 1640s when the Crown''s need to raise an army came into conflict with a notion of kingship that was far from absolute. From the king''s advisory councils to parliament from city councils and seigneurial estates to the most humble villages Castilians had recourse to a wide range of political and juridictional means with which to dispute the king''s claims and avoid conscription.