Increasing the nobiliary wealth. The II Marquis of Castellnovo before the courts and the altar

Abstract

The objective of this work is to examine the inheritance accession process conducted by Don Antonio de Cardona y Borja, II Marquis of Castellnovo. As a result of a well-considered marriage strategy and benefiting from the vicissitudes of the biological destiny of his relatives, he managed, in a few decades, to triple the real estate assets thathis House had at the time of his birth. Central to this was his marriage to Teresa del Milà, but also the consolidation of his influence both in the Court environment and inthe kingdom of Valencia. Thus, his authority and social networks were essential to achieve a certain preeminence before the justice courts in which the different inheritancedisputes that both he and his wife confronted throughout their lives were settled. An analysis that, in addition to showing us the success of the Cardona and Milà strategy,reveals the intricacies of the intra-family confrontations through the documentation emanating from the judicial processes.