Catholics Jews Conversos Collaborated in the Bishopric of Plasencia

In 1442 as the fabulously wealthy and militarily powerful Catholic Counts of Bejar began to assert their seigniorial control over the Extremaduranvalley city of Plasencia Spain a tightly knit network of Catholic converso and Jewish families utilized the Cathedral of Plasencia to not only outmaneuver the Counts of Bejar but more importantly to shield Jewish families and their properties from the Counts of Bejar In a period better known for its religious intolerance and violence toward Jews beginning with the devastating antiJewish riots across the Kingdom of Castile and Leon in the 1390s and peaking with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 the Bishopric and city of Plasencia retained a vital adherence to interreligious collaboration and negotiation With the stroke of his ecclesiastical quill in March 1442 Licentiate and Archdeacon Rodrigo de Carvajal facilitated the postdated purchase and leaseback of multiple Jewish properties owned by Juan de Bergara Dana de Cerjo and Sr Alenabar to one of Rodrigo’s nephews Diego Gonzalez de Carvajal By recording in the year 1442 and in the Cathedral of Plasencia’s Book of Acts that these property transactions occurred in 1430 and 1436 Rodrigo de Carvajal ensured the Counts of Bejar would neither dictate justice to nor collect valuable taxes from these Jewish families Further these leaseFback properties now fell under the authority of the Catholic Carvajal family a faithful fortyyear ally of the converso Santa Mará­a/HaLevi family and the Jewish aljama of Plasencia

Throughout the fifteenth century the Carvajal and Santa Mará­a families labored as critical leaders and administrators within the Cathedral of Plasencia negotiating their own unique form of Spanish convivencia or coexistence which required religious conversion for Jewish HaLevi family but cultural and intellectual transformation on the part of the Catholic Carvajal family While there is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating the intensive interaction of the Carvajal and Santa Mará­a families in Plasencia throughout the fifteenth century there are several central family members that dominate the period they include: Bishop Gonzalo Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a; Gonzalo Garcá­a de Carvajal Dean of the Council of the Cathedral of Plasencia; Alfonso Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a; Doctor Garci Lopez de Carvajal royal advisor to the crown; and Juan de Carvajal Cardinal and Bishop of Plasencia Tracking the lives work and properties owned by these families highlight the collective nature of the actions taken by the Santa Mará­a and Carvajal families to not only secure their own families’ prosperity and success but also the careful guarding of Jewish allies in Plasencia Continuously throughout the early fifteenth century the Santa Mará­a and Carvajal families appeared to commingle power property and wealth to their mutual benefit Equally fascinating but disturbing is how the Santa Mará­a family chartered a path of collaboration and conversion for its family lineage as a survival strategy as Spain became increasingly focused on creating a Catholic people in the late fifteenth century

These lives and events that transpired in fifteenth century Plasencia demonstrate medieval Iberia’s world of religious and cultural conflict and cooperation – what the Spanish historian Americo Castro characterized as the tension of convivencia did not evaporate overnight as the Spanish Catholic kingdoms marched south toward Granada In particular several late fourteenthmid fifteenth century events in Burgos the ancestral home of the HaLevi/Santa Mará­a family and in Plasencia demonstrate why and how key Jewish Catholic and converso families used the institution of the Catholic bishopric to advance their common interests Before exploring the world that the Carvajal and Santa Mará­a families lived in first consider the historical context of JewishCatholic interrelations in the Kingdom of Castile and Leon and the broader Iberian Peninsula

In 1429 a curious event occurred in Burgos that has received very little scholarly attention That is the Jewish aljama of Burgos purchased the succession of the Catholic Bishopric of Burgos in 1429 for one of their own converted brethren Alonso de Cartagena who himself was the son of Bishop Pablo de Santa Mará­a (formerly Rabbi Solomon HaLevi) In the heart of Catholic Castile and with the clear consent of the Spanish Crown the Jews of Burgos guaranteed the bishop’s hat for one of their own While most Spanish and Sephardic histories are quick to report on the deep partition between Jewish and Catholic populations – this is not the entire truth

How did this Jewish convert Alonso de Cartagena become a Catholic bishop – how did this all transpire? First consider that this event was not an isolated one but rather part of a centurylong intensive interaction between specific Catholic noble families and elite Jewish families In archival records littered across the municipal church and state archives of the old Kingdom of Castile and Leon one can encounter countless documents that speak of the close family and occupational associations of several Catholic families and the Jewish HaLevi and Leyva families (possibly the same family) from 1390 until 1480 in Burgos Plasencia Salamanca and Bejar Those families that readily engaged each other in business dealings (and possibly intermarried) included the Catholic Zuniga de Toledo Guzman and Carvajal families; and the Jewish Santa Mará­a (HaLevi) and Loaysa (Leyva) families

Why was this the case? Clearly there was something to be gained by both parties by coordinating their family and official activities in spite of the religious and cultural taboos of doing so Starting as early as the late fourteenth century as the Kingdom of Castile and Leon dragged itself out disastrous internal civil conflicts and interkingdom wars on the Iberian Peninsula elite Jewish families were presented with a dire situation and choices To survive and coexist on the Iberian Peninsula many prosperous Jewish families necessarily chose mass conversion to Catholicism as the prerequisite for their economic social and cultural survival In many ways this conversion was an extreme form of coexistence for Jewish families which demanded these families’ collaboration in the bolstering of royal and Catholic institutions In return those Jews willing to convert not only was there the opportunity to find a permanent social space within the broader Castilian society but the chance to influence and shape it Perhaps even the prospect of a future that recognized and celebrated both its Jewish and Catholic religious and cultural roots

Similarly these family alliances demanded that Catholics incorporate certain Jewish intellectual and cultural beliefs and practices into their lives as well If religious biases against Jews could be overcome by Castilian elites and peasants alike then the infusion of Jewish intellectual cultural and financial resources could propel the hybridized Catholic families into superior positions within the church and the royal bureaucracy in addition to their existing strength in the Catholic military orders

The chain of events that initiated this Catholic and Jewish family trade and alliance commenced as early as 1390 in Burgos when Rabbi Solomon HaLevi converted to Catholicism and became Pablo de Santa Mará­a Pablo’s five siblings who took varied surnames including Burgos Garcá­a Santa Mará­a Cartagena Diaz and Nuñez similarly converted to Catholicism and could be found in Cartagena Burgos Valladolid Salamanca and several cities in the Extremadura

While many of Bishop Pablo de Santa Mará­a’s family members did remain in Burgos at least two of his sons traveled on a regular basis to Plasencia in the Extremadura and at least one settled there Gonzalo Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a was made the Bishop of Plasencia in 1423 and served in this role until at least 1446 and possibly as late as 1451 Additionally his sibling Alvar Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a (a Jewish converso caballero) simultaneously arrived in this region of the Extremadura precisely when the Catholic Carvajal family began a process of converting themselves from lesser caballeros and men of war to learned ecclesiastical leaders

However it was the year 1405 when the bold moves of the HaLevi clan (now the converted Santa Mará­a family) became readily apparent when the former rabbi was named Bishop of Cartagena As bishop Pablo would establish several of his sons in leading ecclesiastical positions and see to it that others participated in the military Reconquista Pablo’s sons in turn promoted several Carvajales into new ecclesiastical positions opening up pathways to economic and status successes

Capturing the Institution of the Bishopric

In the year 1415 the designs of these associated Jewish and Catholic families becomes crystal clear – generating familial power and wealth through the Catholic institution of the bishopric In this same year convert Pablo de Santa Mará­a was installed as Archbishop of Burgos in 1415 and one of Diego Lopez de Zuniga and Juana Garcá­a de Leyva’s sons Gonzalo de Zuniga is placed into the position of Bishop of Plasencia The Plasencia bishopric is of critical importance because will be passed within these collaborative families starting in the fifteenth century and well into the 16th century

Within two decades the Santa Mará­a clan not only established itself in the Catholic hierarchy but also insured the success of its next generation On the heels of the retirements of the Archbishop Pablo de Santa Mará­a (HaLevi) and the Bishop Gonzalo de Zuniga in the 1420s and 1430s the sons of Pablo secured significant ecclesiastical positions and the remaining Jews of the aljama of Burgos made a significant investment in this next generation of Jewish converso leaders and their strongest of allies the Carvajal family As I discussed before these close associations of the Catholic Jewish and converso families generated great consternation among those Old Christians that regarded the Jews anathema to Christianity and the purity of Catholic genealogies

The first of Pablo’s sons to succeed him in the Catholic leadership was Alonso de Cartagena who was named the Bishop of Burgos in 1429 and was later reconfirmed by the Church council of the Cathedral of Burgos and the Jewish aljama in 1439 Alonso was a powerful voice for fair treatment of Jewish conversos during the midfifteenth century arguing in his Defensorium Unitatis Christiane (“In Defense of Christian Unity”) that not only did “sacred law” dictate that Jewish converts to Christianity and “Old Christians” were “brothers” but Old Christian noble and Jewish families were heavily intermarried and shared blood lineages Further the bishop emphatically stated that there was no truth to blood purity and Old Christian labels since most of the Catholic nobility were intermarried with Jews including the Manrique Mendoza Guzman Zuniga and Lopez clans but most importantly for our discussion Diego Lopez de Zuniga’s family Our fifteenth century eyewitness Alonso was well positioned to know these hidden facts given his own family lineage the HaLevi family and his position as intermediary between Jewish and Catholic communities when he served as Bishop of Burgos

Unresolved Complications with the Carvajal Lineage

Now to fully complicate the matter of religious identity for these “old” versus “new” Catholic families let us take a closer look at a manuscript from the Cathedral of Burgos that recorded Alonso de Cartagena as bishop In this 1439 document twenty elite members of the Jewish aljama guaranteed that the Jewish community of Burgos would regularly pay the Council of the Cathedral of Burgos for protection of their rights as well as to confirm Alonso as the bishop Interestingly among the twenty Jews named in the document was one Yucef de Carvajal

Although the Carvajal family was clearly dominated in numbers by its Old Christian lineages the appearance of a Jewish Yucef de Carvajal in Burgos leads one to believe that some Carvajal lineages were a part of the Sephardim

What I also find intriguing is that Alonso de Cartagena’s treatise In Defense of Christian Unity did not name the Carvajal family as a CatholicJewish intermarried family He also did not name his own family surnames Garcá­a Santa Mará­a Cartagena Burgos Diaz or Nuñez Perhaps by 1449 Alonso de Cartagena suspected his pleas for tolerance were falling on deaf ears? Perhaps he did not want to jeopardize the safety and positions of some his own extended family and their allies like the Carvajal family?

Precisely what was the relationship of the prominent Jewish Yucef de Carvajal to the Carvajal family circulating in Castile and Leon and the Extremadura I have not been able to ascertain But his appearance in the middle of this rather important and very public transaction leads one to suspect that at least one arm of the Carvajal was Jewish and also directly involved in the broader transactions interlocking the ZunigaLeyvaSanta Mará­a/HaLeviCarvajal families in Burgos and Plasencia Unfortunately the archival record has not yet revealed any definitive confessional secrets about the Carvajal family but their collaborative efforts with the Jewish Santa Mará­a family in Plasencia generate a repetitive chatter in many of the manuscripts in the care of the Cathedral of Plasencia which we will turn to now

Together the Santa Mará­a and Carvajal clans of Plasencia intensively utilized the local church to further enhance each other’s familial wealth and opportunities For instance in 1427 Bishop Gonzalo Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a demonstrated his close affinity with the Carvajal not only in words but with significant financial returns At that time Bishop Gonzalo Garcá­a conceded a twofifths portion of church property known as “El Berrocal” as well as 15 maravedies in annual rents from a house on Calle de Trujillo to Dr Garci Lopez de Carvajal Although the Cathedral of Plasencia had collected 600 maravedies in rent off El Berrocal in the recent past Bishop Gonzalo gave these properties to Garci Lopez de Carvajal in perpetuity provided he pay the church only half of its former rents (See Figure 1) Bishop Gonzalo’s rational for granting these rents and properties to Garci Lopez then a royal counselor to King Juan II was that he had provided the bishop with “assistance and council” in certain business affairs

This seems an important finding because Doctor Garci Lopez de Carvajal is one of the first Carvajal’s to change the family profession from caballeros to royal counselors and to begin accumulating substantial family wealth Prior to Dr Garci Lopez de Carvajal most Carvajales were modestly wealthy caballeros like his father Don Alvar Garcá­a de Orellana/Bejarano and his maternal grandfather Don Diego Gonzalez de Carvajal y Vargas

Likewise the Carvajales returned these favors to the Santa Mará­as For instance in 1433 Gonzalo Garcá­a de Carvajal Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Plasencia granted Bishop Gonzalo’s relative Canon Alfonso Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a a portion of lands along the Parrales river which was previously wholly owned by the Carvajal family In addition to these land transfers there is also the issue of the geographic proximity of the Santa Mará­a and Carvajal properties

Another example that we can highlight relates to a property owned by Alfonso Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a on Calle de Trujillo in 1435 These properties are adjacent to the vineyards of Dona Sevilla Lopez de Villalobos the spouse of Don Diego de Gonzales de Carvajal de Vargas And yet in another document in the same year the Church council rents “una casa vergel corral y establo” previously held by Gonzalo Garcá­a de Carvajal to Alfonso Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a for the total sum of 5 maravedies a year These expansive properties were also adjacent to other homes owned by Dr Garcá­a Lopez de Carvajal

Time and time again the Santa Mará­a and Carvajal families appeared to commingle power property and wealth to their mutual benefit This constant shifting of ownership and renting of church council and personal properties clearly generated financial and material benefits to these families but I am also curious about the extent of these transactions that seem to shuffle and confuse the longterm ownership of these church and personal properties At the end of the process in the late fifteenth century the Santa Mará­as appear not only to have disappeared from the archival record in Plasencia but their rented and owned properties seem to have either returned to the local church or transferred in ownership to the Carvajals

Beyond the immediate benefits of these financial transactions to the Carvajal and Santa Mará­a families the Santa Mará­ainstalled Carvajal clerics also seem to have used their religious authority to cast protective umbrellas over some Jewish families and their properties in Plasencia One of the emerging familial conflicts in the mid to late fifteenth century in Plasencia was waged by the Zuniga lineage or the wealthy Counts of Bejar and the lesser caballeros and risingroyal and ecclesiastical leaders the Carvajales While it is impossible to discuss this conflict in detail at this time I will briefly explain that the Carvajales allied themselves with the Reyes Católicos (Ferdinand and Isabel) in a power struggle that removed the city of Plasencia from the jurisdiction of Condes de Bejar or the Zuniga clan’s Mayorazgo (the Spanish version of primogeniture and its passing of family lands to the eldest son) Some of those persons caught in the middle of this conflict were Jewish families in Plasencia which was a contested city by the royal crown and the Condes of Bejar When cities moved from local lord to royal jurisdiction and vice versa so did jurisdiction More importantly local justice taxes and rents were transferred as well

Almost immediately from the year (1441) King Juan II gave the city of Plasencia to the Zuniga clan in return for their donation of the cities of Trujillo and Ledesma to the crown the Carvajales and Zunigas entered into aggressive brinksmanship through the power they administered through the church council of the Cathedral of Plasencia Using the council the Carvajales transferred Jewish properties out of the jurisdiction of Condes of Bejar and into the stewardship of the local bishopric and the Carvajales

For instance in March 1442 about six months after the Zuniga’s assumed control of the city of Plasencia the Licentiate and Archdeacon Rodrigo de Carvajal facilitated the purchase of multiple Jewish properties owned by Juan de Bergara Dana de Cerjo and Alenabar to one of his nephews Diego Gonzalez de Carvajal After these purchases were complete these same properties were rented back to these same Jewish families Interestingly the sale of these properties occurred purportedly in 1430 and 1436 but the transaction was not recorded until 1442 after the Zuniga’s assumption of the city Likewise other members of the Carvajal clan worked in concert with the sheltering of Jewish assets In what appear to be related transactions in 1441 Diego de Carvajal y Vargas brotherinlaw of Garcá­a Lopez de Carvajal is reportedly a landlord to the Jewish families of Haranon and Chapus Here to it appears the Carvajal family may have previously purchased Jewish homes to prevent their transfer to the jurisdiction of the Zunigas The Carvajales continued these landgathering but protective actions well into the mid and late1400s under the authority of the future Bishop of Plasencia Cardinal Juan de Carvajal

By preventing these Jewish properties from moving into the Zuniga’s Mayorazgo and instead passing them into the Carvajal’s possession the Carvajales were able to simultaneously deny the Zuniga’s valuable rents and remove the Jews from the legal jurisdiction of the Zuniga’s authority I am not certain why these jurisdictional transfers took place and I am still studying the documents but clearly there was something to be gained by the Jews and the Carvajales in the process Given the Carvajales’ close association with the Santa Mará­as and their own dealings with conversos and Jews alike it seems that the Carvajales were a more favorable local landlord and ally

As tensions developed in Plasencia between the Zuniga and Carvajal clans the Carvajal family finally found itself a new master of its own destiny with the rise of own elite clergymen It appears that the Santa Mará­a family made this possible as they transitioned out of leadership positions in Plasencia and made those available to their allies the Carvajales

One confusing element of this transition is the transfer of the Bishopric of Plasencia from Gonzalo Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a to the Juan de Carvajal While historians like Don Francisco Gonzalez Cuesta report that Juan assumed the position in 1446 it appears both men are simultaneously using the title of bishop in local church records from 1446 through 1451 Why there is this discrepancy in who is reportedly the bishop is difficult to explain but it does suggest that the title may have been utilized more loosely possibly shared among key leaders in the local Plasencia church

With the phased retirement of Plasencia Bishop Gonzalo Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a and the Carvajal firmly planted within the royal bureaucracy and the military orders the Plasenciabased family pushed forward its first candidate for bishop Juan de Carvajal Juan was a new type of Carvajal While he retained the Carvajal’s fierce militarism as demonstrated by his caballero brethren he also was an upcoming intellectual and capable administrator

Juan first “attained distinction” not at home in the Extremadura but within the holy city of the Vatican as auditor of the Rota and governor of the city From 1441 to 1448 he served in the Vatican’s foreign service as a papal legate to the German princes that had allied themselves against Pope Eugene IV It is because these activities required Juan de Carvajal to be absent from Plasencia that it is plausible that Gonzalo held the position during his absence

At home like his predecessor Gonzalo Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a and his other Carvajal family members Bishop Juan de Carvajal also actively granted lucrative business deals to Jewish families with the assistance of his brother Archdeacon Rodrigo de Carvajal For instance on May 6 1450 Rodrigo under the authority of Bishop Juan de Carvajal oversaw the lease of a bountiful vineyard at the ford (the river narrows) of the San Juan to the jubete maker Salamon Abenhabibe Here again we see that the Carvajal family provide choice lands that could generate agricultural and wineproducing income for some Jewish families Likewise it is interesting to note that Salamon was in the business of outfitting caballeros and fighting men like the Carvajal family with military wares which is further suggestive of the integrated churchmilitary relations of leading Catholic and Jewish families

In a similar transaction on May 22 1450 another vineyard was rented to Salamon Abenhabibe this time not only were the Carvajales involved but also witnessing the transaction were their Jewishconvert allies including cathedral treasurer Alfonso Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a and the archdeacon of Trujillo Pedro Gonzalez de Ylliescas

Most importantly from the perspective of the Carvajales transformation from a caballero to an ecclesiastical family is the role Juan served as fountainhead for the family’s illustrious expansion in the Catholic Church To give one a sense of the family network that led back to Juan consider the following relationships Juan de Carvajal was the son of Sara de Carvajal of Plasencia and Licentiate and “hijo noble” Juan de Tamayo of Trujillo In Plasencia his previously mentioned brother Rodrigo de Carvajal served as archdeacon; while his sister Catalina de Carvajal married into the illustrious converso de Toledo family Catalina’s son Juan Suarez de Carvajal would move on to the Bishopric of Lugo from 15391561 and later served on the Council of the Indies and as an advisor to King Phillip II The most famous of Carvajal clerics Cardinal Bernardino Lopez de Carvajal and who sought wrestle the papacy away from Pope Julius II through the schismatic Council of Pisa in 1511 initially found his way to Vatican opportunities through his uncle Juan de Carvajal

In summary by positioning these events that transpired in Burgos and Plasencia together a remarkable picture of collaboration and coordination emerges for the Carvajal and Santa Mará­a/HaLevi families as well as their associated families in both the Jewish and Catholic communities These closelyknit family ties only made possible through the mechanisms of the Catholic bishopric illuminate a fifteenth century Spain that has altogether almost vanished because of the Inquisitorial dangers it posed to many early modern Spanish families

The intensive coordination of church affairs including financial transactions and institutional positions by these collaborative Catholic Jewish and converso families also generated intensive animosities by everyday Castilians especially those that considered themselves too pure to commingle with Jews and their converted descendents

Why Catholic families like the Carvajales converts like the HaLevi/Santa Mará­a family and the Spanish Castilian crown pursued these intensive relationships in spite of growing antiJewish biases during the fifteenth century might be explained by their perceived need of each other’s assistance

I believe the Catholic families like the Carvajales offered physical and financial protection and cultural survival to the elite Jewish families in return for religiointellectual skills and financial resources The genesis and maintenance of CatholicJewish cooperation depended on this exchange If Catholic religious biases against Jews could be overcome by Castilian elites and peasants alike then the infusion of Jewish skills and resources could help propel some Catholic families into superior positions within the church and the royal bureaucracy in addition to their existing strengths in the Catholic military orders For those Jews willing to convert to Catholicism or to work closely with Catholics not only was there the opportunity to find a permanent social space within the broader Castilian society but the chance to influence and shape it Perhaps even the prospect of a future that recognized and celebrated both its Jewish and Catholic religious and cultural roots

The benefits of this CatholicJewish trade to the crown centered on the Castilians’ fourteenth to fifteenth century bid for peninsular supremacy over the Aragonese and Portuguese This coordination of Catholic and Jewish families could be put to work in the crown’s vanguard of ecclesiastical bureaucratic and military leadership positions and this the kingdom’s competitive position visá vis other Catholic kingdoms would certainly improve Similarly in order for the Castilians to ensure a successful march to reclaim the last remaining lands held by the Muslim Nasrid Kingdom of Granada the Spanish kingdom would need this interfamily cooperation to complete the financially expensive and manpowerintensive task

Where the boundaries of Catholic and Jewish cultural familial and religious values are to be found in fifteenth century Spain are difficult to locate What remains from this still vibrant period of convivencia are often inconclusive and difficult to interpret documents and many guesses concerns and suspicions about the true intentions and interests of the Santa Mará­a and Carvajal clans What we can acknowledge is that the Carvajales Santa Mará­as and the Jews of Burgos and Plasencia were readily collaborating and working together throughout the early and mid fifteenth centuries And one of those tools they employed to make this possible was none other than Catholic Church and its institutions

End Notes

1. Although my research is inconclusive it may be the case that the HaLevi and Leyva families are either the same family or two branches of a common ancestral family
2. Real Academia de Historia (RAH) Coleccion Floranes B16; Canteros Burgos 1952 32 120 154
3. Gonzalez Cuesta Los Obispos de Plasencia: Aproximacion al Espiscopologio Placentino 106
4. Canteros Burgos Francisco Alvar Garcá­a de Santa Mará­a: Historia de la Juderia de Burgos y de sus conversos mas egregious (Madrid: Instituto Arias Montano 1952) 120 154 164; RAH Coleccion Salazar y Castro C20 Folio 211214
5. Walter Drum “Paul of Burgos” The Catholic Encyclopedia Online Edition vol XI (New York: Robert Appleton Company [K Knight] 1911) (Catholic Encyclopedia)
6. Gonzalez Cuesta Francisco Los Obispos de Plasencia: Aproximacion al Espiscopologio Placentino (Plasencia: Excmo Ayuntamiento de Plasencia 2002) 95; Catholic Encyclopedia Ibid
7. Alonso de Cartagena Defensorium Unitatus Christianae trans P Manuel Alonso SI (Madrid: CSIC 1943) 3502 See also George Mariscal’s “The Role of Spain in Contemporary Race Theory” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 2 (1998)
8. Ibid 35255
9. Archivo de la Catedral de Burgos (ACB) Volumen 46 Folio 424
10. Ibid Folio 97v98v
11. The maravedi was a medieval coinage standard adopted by the Spanish Christian Kingdoms from the Islamic Almoravids The word maravedi is derived from the Mozarabic word relating to “devotion to God” as used by Almoravid ruler Abd AllahbenYasim While maravedis were minted by Christian kingdoms in gold silver and copper the coin standard was increasingly debased into silver and copper coinage in the later middle Ages See: Cayon Juan R and Carlos Castan Las Monedas desde D Pelayo (718) a Juan Carlos I (1980) (Madrid: Artegraf 1979) 17
12. bid; Garcá­a Carraffa Alberto y Arturo Diccionario Heraldico y Genealogico de Apellidos Espanoles y Americanos Vol XXII (Madrid: Imprenta de Antonio Marzo 1926) 271
13. RAH Colección Salazar y Castro C20 213v 214v
14. ACP Actas Capitulares 13991453 Libro 1 Folio 71v
15. Ibid Folio 8686v; RAH Coleccion Salazar y Castro C20 214v
16. Archivo de la Catedral de Plasencia (ACP) Actas Capitulares 13991453 Libro 1 Folio 83
17. Archivo Historico Nacional Seccion Nobleza (AHNSN) Osuna Legajo 300 f 1v4v
18. Archivo Municipal de Plasencia (AMP) uncatalogued document “Expediente a instancia de Dona Ines Mará­a de Vargas: 1815”
19. ACP Actas Capitulares 13991453 Libro 1 Folio 125127
20. Gonzalez Cuesta Los Obispos de Plasencia: Aproximacion al Espiscopologio Placentino 111; ACP Actas Capitulares 14591476 Libro 3 Folio 195v196; ACP Legajo 269 No 25; ACP Legajo Benavides Checa “Notas del Cabildo de Plasencia”; ACP Legajo 282 No 9; ACP Libro de Extratos Tomo 2 fol 11v12
21. Thomas Shahan “Juan Carvajal” The Catholic Encyclopedia Online Edition vol III (New York: Robert Appleton Company [K Knight] 1908)
22. Ibid
23. Fernandez Alonso Historia y Anales de la Ciudad y Obispado de Plasencia (Caceres: Publicaciones del Departamento Provincial de Seminarios de FET y de las JONS 1952) 174; RAH Coleccion Salazar y Castro C12 f160
24. According to the Real Academia de Espana’s Diccionario a “jubete” is “coleto cubierto de malla de hierro que usaron los soldados españoles hasta fines del siglo XV” or a type of soldier’s jacket that was typical covered with chain mail”
25. ACP Actas Capitulares 14591476 Libro 3 fol 195v196
26. ACP Actas Capitulares Libro 3 fol 195v198
27. RAH Salazar y Castro C20 211v 215; RAH Salazar y Castro C12 f160; Alonso Fernandez Historia y Anales de la Ciudad y Obispado de Plasencia 174
28. Alonso Fernandez Historia y Anales de la Ciudad y Obispado de Plasencia 175; AHNSN Frias Caja 1017/3; AHNSN Mocejon caja 7 legajo sin numero
29. AHNSN Mocejon Caja 7 Legajo sin numero; RAH Coleccion Pellicer 9/4058 Folio 16 100
30. Thomas Shahan “Bernardino Lopez De Carvajal” The Catholic vol III (New York: Robert Appleton Company [K Knight] 1908) Encyclopedia Online Edition