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We analyze in this article the relations of the monarchy of Isabella I with the villages and with la Tierra of Ávila in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, observing what kind of political flows, and on what issues, were established between the royal power and no-privileged groups. These groups show that they were capable of doing politics despite not being part of the urban government institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines violent actions and crimes committed in the farmlands around Cordoba, in the south of the Crown of Castile, during the Late Middle Ages. The first section deals with the sources used in this study, especially Cordoba's municipal archive and the records of court cases preserved in the archive of the Chancellery in Granada -- a hitherto under-exploited source of information for the kingdom of Cordoba. Subsequently, I shall present some examples of personal confrontations that began with insults and threats and often led to physical assaults and murder. Then, I shall examine verbal insults and blasphemies, which were often the origins of more serious affrays, as well as their portrayal in the written record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Identities in the urban world are mental constructs of varying degrees of complexity that are built on the structure of the social groups to which they refer. But urban identity was a complex system also constructed based upon responsibilities and efforts, which served to cultivate common work. In Castile the towns and cities had a high capacity for management and organisation from their creation. The common identity was represented by the oligarchic government and the cities only brought before the king rivalries among themselves. This lack of sovereign urban identity leads to the supposition that the ambitions were absorbed in the feelings of identity with the community of the kingdom and monarchy would reserve an unquestionable leading role for the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]