What is community? Reflections on a political concept and its implications in Castile in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the different meanings given to the concept of community in the politics of the late Middle Ages in the kingdom of Castile. Special attention will be paid to analyse its meanings in urban political society. In this article we will call into question traditional interpretations which assume an identity of meaning for concepts such as Comunidad and Hermandad. Community could refer to different things depending on the context of utterance, but the term was accurately used in politics both in theory and in practice. In fact these different usages of the term will be found in the conflict called “War of the Communities of Castile”. A close reading of the term during this conflict would reveal that it was used by different actors in different political discourses. Thus, this takes us away from the interpretation of the conflict as a consequence of a unifying comunero thought.