Hermandad
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Hermandad, literally "brotherhood" in Spanish, was a peacekeeping association of armed individuals, which became characteristic of municipal life in medieval Spain, especially in Castile.
As medieval Spanish kings were often unable to offer adequate protection, protective municipal leagues began to emerge in the twelfth century against bandits and other rural criminals, as well as against the lawless nobility or to support a one or another claimant to the crown. These organizations were to be temporary, but became a long standing fixture of Spain.[1] The first recorded case of the formation of an hermandad occurred when the towns and the peasantry of the north united to police the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and protect the pilgrims against robber knights. Throughout the Middle Ages such brotherhoods were frequently formed by leagues of towns to protect the roads connecting them. The hermandades were occasionally used for political purposes. They acted to some extent like the Fehmic courts of Germany. Among the most powerful was the league of northern Castilian and Basque ports, the Hermandad de las Marismas: Toledo, Talavera, and Villa Real.
As one of their first acts after the war of succession, Ferdinand and Isabella established a centrally organized and efficient Holy Hermandad (Santa Hermandad) with themselves at its head. They adapted the existing form of the hermandad to the purpose of creating a general police force under the direction of officials appointed by themselves, and endowed with large powers of summary jurisdiction, even in capital cases. The original hermandades continued to serve as modest local police units until their final suppression in 1835.
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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- ^ O'Callaghan, Joseph F. O. A History of Medieval Spain. (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1975), 448. ISBN 0-8014-0880-6
