Campesinado y derecho: la vía legal de su lucha (Castilla y León, siglos X-XIII)

This article questions the general assumption that the medieval peasantry was ruled by norms imposed from above. It argues that relations between lords and peasants were subject to a continuous process of negotiation and conflict. Legal disputes between organized communities of peasants (concejos), and their lords sometimes ended with a record (fuero) of provisions to regulate their mutual relations thereafter. These fueros embody an idea of legitimate power and also of the limits of legitimate power. It also argues that formal, legal disputes were closely connected with the everyday resistance that peasants often made to seignorial demands. This connection should be studied to understand the political activities of the peasantry.