2 - Establishing authority

Summary

Illustrious gentlemen of high birth who govern Toledo city;

As you ascend these stairs renounce ties, greed, love, and anxiety.

Eschew private benefit for the community's good and trust;

For this God gave you power, making you pillars of the state, strong and just.

This plea for civic responsibility, which graces the broad sweep of the principal staircase in Toledo's Casas Consistoriales, has been attributed to Gómez Manrique. He, and other corregidores, arrived at their posts at a time when the urban oligarchies were certainly in need of instruction and restraint. While preserving the traditional forms of representative assemblies and elections a handful of dominant men gutted the substance of self-government. Making ostentatious claims to constitutional rights, this powerful minority suppressed the aspirations of all others to play a significant role in political life.

Closed corporations

Fundamental changes in the way municipalities were governed took place in the late Middle Ages. Perhaps at one time town government in Old and New Castile had actually been run by an open council (concejo abierto) which incorporated all male citizens (vecinos) who met qualifications of property holding and birth, beyond being mere residents (moradores). The royal charters of privilege (fueros) allowed the citizens to make all the decisions for their comunidad y tierra, or municipality and its lands. No provision was made in the fueros for councilors to be appointed by the crown, either to select magistrates or to make decisions in the name of the community.