Spain in the Middle Ages

Dr MacKay brings clarity to the medieval history of Spain by concentrating on two themes which provide the key to much of Spanish historical development: ‘the frontier’ from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries; and ‘the preparation for Empire' during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.The central theme of Part I is the way in which the existence of the frontier and the task of reconquest shaped the growth of a distinctive way of life in the Christian kingdoms of Spain. In discussing the elements of this evolution the author also focuses attention on changing attitudes to the Muslims and the way in which the various processes of ‘borrowing’ and ‘rejection’ affected cultural life.Part II presents the later Middle Ages in Spain as constituting, as it were, a laboratory for testing and developing many of the governmental institutions and socio-economic features which were to be prevalent in early modern Spain and parts of its Empire. Of particular interest arc the discussion of the relationships between Crown and nobility, and the analysis of the social and economic features which, along with religious tensions, led to an increasing victimisation of the Jews and the conversos the setting up of the Inquisition, and the end of acculturation on the Moorish frontier.Dr MacKay presents an interpretative synthesis, with new evaluations and new material in respect of particular problems and episodes in the history of Spanish society, economy and governmental institutions.Angus MacKay is Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Edinburgh; he previously taught at the University of Reading, and has done extensive research work in Spain.