Nobles and magistrates: a discussion on the concept of nobility

In this work we will discuss the importance of the concept of nobility for a particular group, the magistrates. Unlike the other royal officials due to the formation in Law, they stood out from the other groups for exercising and interpreting the laws and for representing the most visible face of the Monarchs, Justice. The magistrates were participants of a larger and heterogeneous group in their obligations and personal interests, that is, of the literate ones and that they influenced all the Portuguese modern period. Over time, the indispensability of placing the concept of nobility and its subdivisions in order to construct the profile, the careers, the hierarchies and strategies / stratagems of these individuals and the other constituent groups of the Portuguese administration and its conquests arose.