Honor estamental y merced real. La configuración del Brazo Militar en las Cortes de Navarra, 1512-1828

Abstract

The Arm of the nobility in the Cortes was profoundly reorganised after 1512 because there never existed a “nómina antigua” prior to the conquest. The viceroys brought in a considerable number of new families up to the midsixteenth century and exercised significant patronage. Control of admittance was later exercised from Madrid although the Kingdom did have a say. The Military Arm was greatly renewed during the seventeenth century, its members doubling, while it stagnated and became smaller in the eighteenth century. Service to the Monarchy, particularly in terms of arms, but also through the written word, made for the formation of an elite of noble families with interests in the country and, at the same time, experience of the needs...