The alpujarreño lordship in çéhel in the sixteenth century

Abstract

The formation of the primogeniture and the lordship in Çéhel was progressive and without a plan; it was only the fruit of the arisen chance as the territory got free after the Mudejars withdrawal. However, it seems deliberate the territorial reorganization where, roughly speaking, the boundaries were marked by the left side of Guadalfeo River, the cost on the South and the places such as Murtas, Turón, Berja and Adra on the East. Besides the graces given by the Catholic Monarchs to the Bachelor Zapata, he also negotiated with other owners the buying of a great quantity of properties in the surrounding in order to get an homogeneous territory. Its evolution along this century keeps a cióse relationship with the personality of the different successors. The heir to the Bachelor was Francisco Zapata of Chaves, who was able to reinforce the expansiveness which was started by his progenitor. Just at theopposite side, we have to place to the third lord of Çéhel, Luis Zapata of Chaves, dissolute administrator, court prototype, who was famous by his writings and by twenty-five years he spent in prison because of his economic mistakes.