The Cry for Freedom: Between Resistance and Political Action in Castile at the End of the Middle Ages (1450–1520)

This chapter discusses forms of resistance, protest and popular political action in the Crown of Castile at the end of the Middle Ages, taking as a reference two specific scenarios: the first concerns the activity of the urban sectors and the second, the way in which the rural world opposed the violence of the powerful and sought, by different means, to contest the lordship and call into question its very existence. It is argued that late medieval societies, both in the countryside and the city, not only had multiple forms of resistance to oppression, but also ideas about autonomy and the assertion of political will characteristic of a dense network of public culture that served to channel the expectations of the population. In light of this, it is argued that while the concept of resistance is useful for describing asymmetries in the exercise of power, it is less helpful for assessing the possibilities of action and even the political imagination of subordinates.