Servir al Señor. Una aproximación a las obligaciones militares de la sociedad castellano-leonesa durante el los siglos XII y XIII

The fundamental principle of the art of war is victory, a doctrine also present in the facts of arms, known through numerous quotations, in the complex peninsular political-military context in the central centuries of the Middle Ages. However, the Hispanic exceptionable granted by the permeable border with Al-Andalus integrates this principle, if we confront it with Western Europe. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, due to the advance towards the south of the Christian kingdoms that strengthen their territory A militarized society is formed regulated by a series of provisions that govern the military obligations feudal-vassal, of the different social groups, among them are the inhabitants of the towns and cities of the Christian kingdoms giving rise to the term “a society for war”, characterized by special rules and jurisdictions regulatingt the relations between the border settlements and their lords, in substance a particular border law different from the rules governing the interior of the kingdom. The one that contemplates the service of arms, in its different modalities (apellido, cabalgada o hueste) as an essential element of its provisions.