Bulls in the Medieval Period

This chapter presents the beginning of the path mapped out to understand the social and historical evolution of bullfighting. This chapter deals with the medieval period and, more specifically, the relationship between bullfighting activities and the omnipresence of violence in warfare which was inseparable from the construction of the kingdom of Portugal, and in people’s daily lives. This context is fundamental to understanding why hunting, killing or playing with bulls was essentially a practice linked to the nobility.