Real Estate, Blood Ties, and Power in Conquered Valencia

This paper will trace the successive owners of a superior property lot in Valencia in the aftermath of the Christian conquest of 1238. The new Christian owners feature influential individuals connected to the court of James I of Aragon: a churchman (Vidal de Canellas), a patrician from Barcelona (Marimon de Plegamans), a concubine of the monarch (Teresa Gil de Vidaure), and a member of a prominent Genoese merchant family (Oberto della Volta). By analyzing the Llibre del repartiment de València and other documents, this paper will show how real estate connected these men and woman to the Crown. Either through diplomatic missions, arbitration, holding of office, companionship, friendship, or counsel, they all partook in power-sharing strategies that made the business of the crown their own, while at the same time allowing them to pursue their own interests and connections outside the court.