Medieval Frontier History in New Catalonia

by Lawrence J. McCrank

Overview

Lawrence McCrank addresses here the processes and consequences of the Christian reconquests in Northeastern Spain during the 12th century, focusing specifically on ’New Catalonia’ then being won back from the Muslims. The history of this region, he argues, can be analysed best in terms of the concepts of frontier historiography because this frontier context gave the institutions and organizations that emerged there a distinctive and persistent character. In particular, these studies look at the role of the Cistercians of Poblet and Santes Creus and the Church of Tarragona as colonial agents fostering the resettlement and reorganization of the frontier. This consolidation prepared the way for the next wave of Reconquest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780860785828
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/24/1996
Series:	Variorum Collected Studies , #528
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 8.81(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Contents: Documenting reconquest and reform: the growth of archives in the Medieval Crown of Aragon; Monastic inland empires and the Mediterranean coastal reconquest in New Catalonia, 1050-1276; The foundation of the confraternity of Tarragona by Archbishop Oleguer Bonestruga, 1126-29; Norman crusaders in the Catalan reconquest: Robert Burdet and the principality of Tarragona, 1129-55; The frontier of the Spanish reconquest and the land acquisitions of the Cistercians of Poblet, 1150-1276; The Cistercians of Poblet as Medieval frontiersmen; The Cistercians of Poblet as landlords: protection, litigation, and violence on the Medieval Catalan frontier; The economic administration of a monastic domain by the Cistercians of Poblet, 1150-1276; The fiscal anatomy of the post-restoration Church of Tarragona: an audit of the Rationes decimarum Hispaniae (1279-80); Index.