Álvaro Sánchez de Ávila, ‘tenente’ of Rocha Forte. Or Galician late-medieval nobility on the transition to Modern Age

Abstract

The low-medieval crisis and the changes that the feudal system suffered from inside, from 14th century is clear in all social classes of the medieval Galicia, developing each of them its own adjustment strategies in order to survive. In the case of the nobility there are several moves in practice, from the fusion with urban oligarchies by matrimonial ways to the apprppriation of charges of the concejo. The present article centres its attention in one of the main figures of the nobilty of Galicia in 15th century: Álvaro Sánchez de Ávila. He was the tenente of the castles of Rocha Forte and A Barreira, the main knight of Santiago’s archbisphoric and he exemplifies perfectly the figure of the noble in the transition of the medieval period to the Modernity: mentality, social standing and relationship with other members of its environment. Our study deepens in its figure, its activity and all its implications from a social perspective, supported on a solid documentary sources base.