Metadata: Archive of the Duchy of Frias (2)
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- Historical Archive of the Nobility
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archivo Historico de la Nobleza
- Postal address:
- Calle Duque de Lerma 2. 45003 – Toledo
- Phone number:
- +34 925 210 354
- Email:
- nobleza@cultura.gob.es
- Reference number:
- ES.45168.AHNOB/2//FRIAS
- Title:
- Archive of the Duchy of Frias (2)
- Title (official language):
- Archivo de los Duques de Frias (2)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Duchy of Frias
- Date(s):
- 744/1979
- Language:
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 1,918 boxes and 36 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The Archive of the Duchy of Frias is a rich collection, since it gathers documents belonging to various aristocratic houses with a decisive political and social influence in Spanish history. The archive constitutes a source of research for the history of the territorial dominion of the Frias family. It also reflects the government and foreign policy of Spain beginning in the Middle Ages. It gathers a considerable volume of political documents, among which stand out those of the reigns of Juan II, Enrique IV, Carlos V, and the Habsburg dynasty.
This documentary archive contains 18 sections; the following contain medieval documents: Duchy of Frias, Marquisate of Villena, County of Oropesa, County of Fuensalida, Duchy of Uceda, County of Peñaranda de Bracamonte, County of Luna, Marquisate of Toral, Marquisate of Fromista, County of Alba de Liste, Marquisate of Villanueva del Fresno, County of Orgaz, Duchy of Infantado, Duchy of Osuna, Entailed Estate of Villanueva del Pitamo.
The documents are classified in several series according to their type:
1) Genealogy, noble titles, and entailed estate (“mayorazgo”).
2) Nobiliary jurisdiction: This series gathers all the documents generated or related to the exercise of nobiliary jurisdiction: granting of lordships or jurisdictional rights and the transfers, agreements, and lawsuits over them; support of the seigniories to the Crown of Castile, especially in military matters; and jurisdiction over vassals in aspects of government, justice, and taxation.
3) Estate: It contains all the documents related to the familial estate and its administration: managing of assets, domain transfers, delimitation, and increase or decrease of patrimony (through dowries, marital capitulations, etc.). It is, together with the section of estate administration, the largest documentary series and occupies a large part of the collection.
4) Estate administration: This series includes those documents generated or received by the administration of the estate: maintenance and use of properties, estate inventories, accounting, and payment of taxes. Documents produced by archival activity are also included in this series. The documentation, which occupies a huge volume, is organized by manorial administrations with geographical criteria and deals with correspondence between the administrators and the head of general administration, accountability, and expenses. Otherwise, the documentation produced by the general administration itself includes sumptuary and household expenses, in addition to the record books.
5) Private: This series contains the personal files of each of the family members: for example, work-related, academic, and professional documents and non-hereditary appointments and honors such as decorations, membership in associations and Military Orders, and appointments for offices and positions. Documents produced for familial celebrations and social meetings are included.
6) Staff: tasks performed.
7) Board of pious works (documents related to charitable works and expenses related to religious worship).
8) Collections.
Concerning Jews, see the following Yerusha collections: Duchy of Frias; Marquisate of Villena; County of Oropesa; County of Luna; Marquisate of Fromista.
- Archival history:
- Between 1988 and 1997, the Archive of the Duchy of Frias was acquired by the Spanish State from Doña Maria de Silva y Azlor, widow of the Duke of Frias. Before then, the archive was kept at the Castle of Montemayor (Cordoba). The organization and a description of its contents were made by the archivists of the Spanish National Historical Archive, Pilar Leon Tello and Maria Teresa de la Peña; the description was published between 1955 and 1973. In 1987 most of the archive was transferred to Madrid. A small part of it remained in Montemayor, mostly documents from the administration of properties from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries and the confiscation of manors. Several original titles and privileges were also in the hands of the family. In March 1994, the archive was transferred from the National Historical Archive (Madrid) to the Nobility Section in Toledo, now the Historical Archive of the Nobility, a state-owned archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The archive is constructed around the Fernandez de Velasco family that since the fifteenth century held some of the most important political positions in the Kingdom of Castile. In 1430, Pedro Fernandez de Velasco received from Juan II the title and estate of the County of Haro. His son, Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, obtained the rank of Constable of Castile from Enrique IV, since then linked to the family up to the eighteenth century. In 1492, the title of Duke of Frias was granted by the Catholic Monarchs to Don Bernardino Fernandez de Velasco, II Constable of Castile, III Count of Haro and Captain General and Viceroy of Granada. Successive marriages linked the House of Frias with a large number of titles and properties.
- Access points: locations:
- Castile
- Córdoba
- Fuensalida
- Montemayor
- Oropesa
- Peñaranda de Bracamonte
- Spain
- Uceda
- System of arrangement:
- This archive is classified thusly: 2. Archivo de los Duques de Frias, 745-1979; 2.1. Frias, ducado de, 745-1955; 2.2. Villena, marquesado de, 1241-1957; 2.3. Oropesa, condado de, 1101-1979; 2.4. Fuensalida, condado de 1139-1921; 2.5. Uceda, ducado de, 1152-1881; 2.6. Peñaranda de Bracamonte, condado de, 1409-1860; 2.7. Luna, condado de, 1238-1840; 2.8. Toral, marquesado de, 1400-1799; 2.9. Fromista, marquesado de, 1300-1866; 2.10. Alba de Liste, condado de, 1459-1844; 2.11. Malagon, marquesado de, 1548-1627; 2.12. Villanueva del Fresno, marquesado de, 1332-1825; 2.13. Orgaz, condado de, 1584-1890; 2.14. Infantado, ducado del, 1355-1695; 2.15. Osuna, ducado de, 1400-1816; 2.16. Villanueva del Pitamo, mayorazgo de, 1437-1764; 2.17. Jodar, marquesado de, 1671-1705; 2.18. Tovar, marquesado de, 1773
- Access, restrictions:
- Free access regulated by the current legal environment on access to Spanish historical archives (law 16/1985 of Spanish Historical Patrimony).
- Finding aids:
- Data on the collection are also available at the website of the Spanish National Archives (PARES).
- Links to finding aids:
- https://pares.culturaydeporte.gob.es/inicio.html
- Yerusha Network member:
- Spanish National Research Council
- Author of the description:
- Marina Girona Berenguer; ILC, CSIC; April 2020
