Negotiating Fines in the Early Middle Ages: Local Communities, Mediators and the Instrumentalization of Justice in the Kingdom of León

Abstract

[EN] In the kingdom of León we find peasant communities which were well developed and consolidated from the tenth century. The relationship between local peasant communities and different power groups (ecclesiastical institutions such as monasteries and the bishopric of León, as well as lay aristocracies) sometimes led to conflicts which were often solved through litigation, which usually went in favour of these powerful groups. The study of such litigation is useful for gaining a better understanding of the use of justice by groups in power as a tool to gain access to lands and property controlled by members of local communities after the mediation of boni homines.