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The Templars in the Corona de Aragón

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Author Topic: The Templars in the Corona de Aragón  (Read 7189 times)
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Savannah
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« on: January 11, 2009, 04:05:57 am »

Many benefactors of the Temple thus wished not only to further the work of the Order and gain spiritual reward; they also sought material benefits for themselves. But in any discussion of corrodies and the other payments made for gifts, it must be remembered that the desire to share in the life of a religious house was common amongst the laity in this period, and also that there were few ways of providing for one's old age or for the welfare of one's dependants except by making a gift to an ecclesiastical institution. It must also be remembered that the patronage of the Church which was expected of laymen must have placed a considerable burden on some individuals and families. Some individuals could scarcely afford to make an outright donation of any size during their lives. Gifts post obitum were therefore made in many instances; (238) but an alternative was to make a grant which was to be effective immediately and to seek maintenance in return. But many donors had to consider not only their own livelihood but also that of their descendants, and this may explain some of the money payments which were made in return for gifts. Donors had to ensure that their family estates were not eroded too much by the donations which were expected from each generation. They might therefore stipulate that the property they gave to a religious foundation should be held of it by their descendants; (239) or they might seek some monetary return for their gift.

Although some of the rights which the Templars paid for were said to have been given to the Order, straightforward sales of property to the Temple in the Corona de Aragón were very common. The Order began to purchase land there in the middle of the fourth decade of the twelfth century, and in many areas [49] records of sales to the Order are more numerous than charters of donation. Sales of property in and around Huesca to the Temple occurred almost twice as frequently as gifts, (240) and while some twenty grants of landed property in the city of Zaragoza are recorded, nearly fifty sales of rights there to the Temple are known. (241) Sales of rights over landed property in and around Tortosa were similarly more than twice as numerous as donations there to the Templars. (242) This does not necessarily mean, however, that the Order acquired more property through sales than through donations. Most purchases by the Order were of only minor significance.

The purchase of landed property was one way in which the Templars could invest the wealth derived from the rights given to the Order, from grants of money and from the profits of war. By purchasing rights over land the Templars were also able to concentrate their possessions, and this end was also achieved through exchanges. Much of the property bought by the Templars bordered on land already held by the Order. Of seventeen purchases which they made in the parish of St. Mary in Zaragoza, twelve were of property adjoining lands belonging to the Order; (243) and a similar situation is encountered in many other places. The Temple also sought to concentrate its property by purchasing rights in lands where it already had certain claims. It often, for example, bought out the rights enjoyed by an overlord, as in 1150 when it purchased Raymond of Gurb's rights over land which had been left to the Temple at Parets, to the north of Barcelona. (244) At other times when it acquired the lordship of a town or village, it bought up fees held there: thus in the second half of the thirteenth century, after it had gained the lordship of Espluga de Francoli, the Order purchased a number of fees there, including those of Hugh of Cervellón, William of Jorba, and Arnold of Malgrat. (245) The Templars' acquisition of a mill at Cascajo, just to the north of Zaragoza, illustrates well the way in which through purchase they sometimes gradually built up their rights over a particular piece of property. In 1162 García of Albero and his wife Mary sold to the Temple the rent of 80s.J. per annum which they received for the mill from Duranda, the widow of a certain Folquer, and her children. (246) In the years following this initial sale, the Order gradually through a series of purchases acquired the rights of the tenants. In 1168 four of the children [50] sold a half share in the mill to the Templars for 400s.J., and three years later a further eighth was purchased from one of Duranda's sons for 12m. (247) In 1173 the Templars spent another 12m. in buying from the bishop of Zaragoza the share of another son, who was then a canon of Zaragoza, (248) and finally in 1178 the portion belonging to Arnold, a son of Duranda by her marriage to Alamán of Atrosillo, was purchased for 13m. (249) Such purchases not only led to a concentration of Templar property; they also served to prevent the disputes which were almost inevitable when rights over landed property were divided. After the Temple had gained the lordship of Espluga de Francolí, for example, it recognized Hugh of Cervellón's claim to a fee there; (250) but disputes arose about particular revenues and it was necessary to resort to arbitration in 1257 and 1268. (251) When, therefore, the Templars bought this fee in 1289 they were probably seeking not only to achieve a concentration of property but also to avoid further dispute. Besides purchasing land bordering on Templar possessions and buying rights over property in which they already had an interest, the Templars also through purchase concentrated their property to some extent in the neighbourhood of Templar convents. This tendency may be illustrated with reference to the convent of Palau, to the north of Barcelona, which was one of the earliest Templar foundations in Catalonia. (252) While grants of property to that convent were scattered over a wide area, the lands purchased by that house tended to be concentrated in Barcelona and in the district of Vallés, just to the north -- in Palau itself in Parets del Vallés, and in Sta. Perpetua de Mogudá. (253) Only occasional purchases are recorded at places further away from the convent, and the only property of any importance that was bought outside Barcelona and the district of Vallés was at Gurb, to the northWest of Vich, where in 1200 the Order paid 800s. to Ferrer of Andrea for a manse. (254) But although it is clear that the Templars tried to concentrate their possessions in various ways, at times when they were making a large number of purchases they were obliged to buy whatever land was available, and they inevitably bought a certain amount of property which neither adjoined the Order's possessions nor was already partly under Templar control.

Opportunities for purchasing land were often, of course, provided by the financial difficulties of landholders, and this is sometimes made clear in the documents of sale. In 1163 the Order was [51] able to buy property at Montjuich in Barcelona because a certain Saurina needed money to redeem her son from captivity, (255) and difficulty in paying debts led the prior of St. Mary in Tarrasa to sell land there to the Templars in 1190; (256) and William of Anglesola in 1303 similarly stated that he was selling Culla to the Order because

we are liable for so many debts and injuries that we do not think that all the landed property we have in the kingdom of Valencia is sufficient for satisfying and emending them. (257)
But it would be wrong to assume that all those who sold property to the Order were in financial difficulties. Since marriage portions, for example, were often expressed in money terms, land was not infrequently sold in order to make payments to widows. (258) On other occasions the initiative in a transaction may have come from the Order, which wanted a particular piece of land and was prepared to pay a good price for it, so that the holder of the property would be persuaded to sell even if he had no need to do so for financial reasons. And in the reconquered districts, where land had often to be settled and brought under cultivation before it could be made profitable, landlords probably needed little persuasion before agreeing to sell. Some transactions which are recorded as sales, moreover, were really agreements following disputes over land. At a time when it was often difficult to establish clearly what rights different individuals enjoyed in a piece of property, it was a common practice for disputes to be settled by assigning the land in question to one claimant, who would then be obliged to compensate the other party by paying him a sum of money. And the documents recording such settlements are sometimes worded as instruments of sale: a charter drawn up in 1166 thus records that the Templars bought certain land in Razazol for 35s., but it also states that in return for this payment the sellers were abandoning the claims they had been making against the Temple about this property.(259)
The gradual growth of Templar property through gift and sale which was taking place throughout the Corona de Aragón while the Aragonese rulers were granting the Order large estates near the Moorish frontier in return for military aid inevitably owed little to the Crown; the Aragonese rulers appear to have made few other donations to the Temple. (260) Nor does the clergy [52] appear usually to have been an enthusiastic patron of the Order. Admittedly most of the churches and many of the tithes gained by the Temple in the Corona de Aragón were given to the Order by bishops, but the great majority of these acquisitions lay in the reconquered areas, and the gifts appear to have been made in order to stimulate resettlement, which would in turn increase episcopal revenues. The bishops' point of view is made clear in a charter recording a grant of tithes at Horta to the Templars by the bishop of Tortosa in 1185, for this includes the clauses

you are to resettle the aforesaid castle of Horta and its territories and the settlers of that place are to give us and our churches established there the primicias of all produce and animals faithfully. (261)
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