La muralla medieval en el reino de Valencia a comienzos del Trescientos. Fiscalidad regia e identidad colectiva

Abstract

At the beginning of the 14th century, the intervention of the monarchy in the development of the valencian universitas took as a consequence the approval of a series of measures that strengthened the links between both spheres of power. Inside these links we emphasize the derivation of taxes paid for the cities and villages of the kingdom to destine them to the building and improvement of walls, which intensified the process of construction of the urban identity as group, but incorporating in turn elements of “privatization” of the above mentioned defensive systems. These factors can be studied in the kingdom of Valencia across the great number of privileges and of measures of grace established by Jaime II of Aragon to beginnings of the above mentioned century, documented across the record Gratiarum of the Archivo de la Corona de Aragon, which comparative analysis is the base of the present article. Thus, the construction or the maintenance of the walls would extend the meaning of these elements of protection in the cities of the kingdom, incorporating to his defensive capacity and of juridical delimiting, the possibility to establish links between diverse spheres of power and the contradiction between collective identity and particular needs.