Hidalgo (nobility)

Members of the Spanish and Portuguese nobility; a nobleman without a hereditary title

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A sixteenth-century French depiction of a hidalgo in Spanish America with a Black servant The heraldic crown of Spanish hidalgos

A hidalgo (/hɪˈdælɡoʊ/;[1] Spanish: [iˈðalɣo]) or a fidalgo (Portuguese: [fiˈðalɣu], Galician: [fiˈðalɣʊ]) is a member of the Spanish or Portuguese nobility; the feminine forms of the terms are hidalga, in Spanish, and fidalga, in Portuguese and Galician. Legally, a hidalgo is a nobleman by blood who can pass his noble condition to his children, as opposed to someone who acquired his nobility by royal grace. In practice, hidalgos enjoyed important privileges, such as being exempt from paying taxes, having the right to bear arms, having a coat of arms, having a separate legal and court system whereby they could only be judged by their peers, not being subject to the death sentence unless it was authorized by the king, etc.

Contrary to popular belief, hidalguía (i.e. the condition of being a hidalgo) is not a nobility rank, but rather a type of nobility. Not all hidalgos lacked nobility titles, and not all members of the titled nobility were hidalgos. For example, the Kings of Spain are hidalgos, because their nobility was acquired by blood from time immemorial. In modern times, hidalgos are represented through various organizations, such as the Real Asociación de Hidalgos, the Real Cuerpo de la Nobleza de Madrid, and the orders of chivalry.

## Etymology

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From the twelfth century, the phrase fijo d'algo (lit. son of something[2]) and its contraction, fidalgo,[3] were used in the Kingdom of Castile and in the Kingdom of Portugal to identify a type of nobility. In Portugal, the cognate remained fidalgo, which identified nobles of a similar status to a hidalgo in Spain. In the Kingdom of Aragón, the infanzón was the noble counterpart of the Castilian hidalgo. The pronunciation changes in Spanish occurred during the late Middle Ages, the f- sound in the word-initial position developed into a h-sound, leading to the spelling of hidalgo[4] (see History of the Spanish language) or “hijo-dalgo” in some formal contexts, etc.

In time, the term included the lower-ranking gentry, the untitled, lower stratum of the nobility who were still exempted from taxation. The Siete Partidas (Leyes de Partidas), suggests that the word hidalgo derives from itálico ("italic"), a man with full Roman citizenship.[citation needed]

In the previous Visigoth monarchies, the condition of the hidalgo was that of a freeman without land wealth, but with the nobleman's rights to bear arms and to be exempt from taxation, in compensation for military service; the military obligation and the social condition remained in force by the Fuero Juzgo law.[citation needed]

## Origins

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The hidalguía has its origins in fighting men of the Reconquista. By the tenth century the term infanzón appears in Asturian-Leonese documents as a synonym for the Spanish and Medieval Latin terms caballero and miles (both, "knight"). These infanzones were vassals of the great magnates and prelates and ran their estates for them as petty nobility. In these first centuries it was still possible to become a miles simply by being able to provide, and afford the costs of, mounted military service.[5]

Only by the mid-twelfth century did the ranks of the knights begin to be—in theory—closed by lineage. In the frontier towns that were created as the Christian kingdoms pushed into Muslim land, the caballeros, and not the magnates who often were far away, came to dominate politics, society and cultural patronage. From their ranks were also drawn the representatives of the towns and cities when the cortes were convened by kings. It was in the twelfth century that this class, along with the upper nobility, began to be referred to as hidalgos.[5]

## Types

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Hidalgos de sangre (by virtue of lineage) are "those for whom there is no memory of its origin and there is no knowledge of any document mentioning a royal grant, which obscurity is universally praised even more than those noblemen who know otherwise their origin", or in other words, an immemorial noble.[6] When challenged, a hidalgo de sangre may obtain a judicial sentence validating his nobility from the Royal Chancillería of Valladolid or Granada, if he can prove that it has been accepted by local society and custom. In this case, the resulting legal document that verifies his nobility is called a carta ejecutoria de hidalguia (letters patent of nobility).[7][8]

To qualify as a hidalgo solariego ("ancestral hidalgo"), one had to prove that all four of one's grandparents were hidalgos. Hidalgos solariegos were regarded as the most noble and treated with the most respect.

Hidalgos de privilegio (by virtue of royal privilege) and hidalgos de Real Provision (by virtue of meritorious acts) entail a grant of nobility from His Majesty the King of Spain in his position as monarch, or from his position as protector of a military confraternity or hermandad.

Hidalgo de bragueta[9] ("fly-of-the-trousers hidalgo") obtained tax exemption for having seven sons in lawful wedlock.

In Asturias, Cantabria and other regions of Spain every seven years the King ordered the creation of padrones ("registers") where the population was classified either as hidalgos nobles, and therefore, exempt from taxation due to their military status or pecheros (from an archaic verb, pechar, "to pay")[10] who comprised the estado llano ("lower ranks") and were excluded from military service and had to pay taxes. These padrones constitute nowadays a source of information about population genealogy and distribution as well as proof of nobility in certain cases.

On March 22, 1697, Charles II of Spain issued a royal cedula that, among other matters, extended to the indigenous nobles of the Philippines, the principalía), as well as to their descendants, the preeminence and honors customarily attributed to the hidalgos of Castile.[11]: 234–235 [a]

Over the years the title lost its significance, especially in Spain. Kings routinely awarded the title in exchange for personal favors. By the time of the reign of the House of Bourbon, over half a million people enjoyed tax exemptions, putting tremendous strain on the royal state which wasn't calling their services to arms but relied more on professional armies and costly mercenaries.

Attempts were made to reform the title and by the early nineteenth century with the forced levies to military service of all citizens by conscription without any minimum requirements of nobility or pay or loyalty by honour but by coercion on desertion, it had entirely disappeared, along with the social class it had originally signified and most of its centuries-old developed code of honour in the nation's social culture.

Influenced by policies in France, hidalgos all became pecheros (taxpayers), without the privileges of the former title, and along with all citizens were also subject to conscription. Both estates of the realm (social classes) became combined, compulsorily contributing to the nation in service and taxes without exemption, while the titled nobility and royalty kept their former privileges and exemptions.[12][13]

## Literature

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The prototypical fictional hidalgo is Don Quixote, who was given the sobriquet 'the Ingenious Hidalgo' by his creator, Miguel de Cervantes. In the novel Cervantes has Don Quixote satirically present himself as a hidalgo de sangre and aspire to live the life of a knight-errant despite the fact that his economic position does not allow him to truly do so.[14] Don Quixote's possessions allowed to him a meager life devoted to his reading obsession, yet his concept of honour led him to emulate the knights-errant.

The picaresque novel Lazarillo features a hidalgo so poor that he spreads breadcrumbs on his clothes, to simulate having eaten a meal. His hidalgo honour forbids him manual work but does not provide him with subsistence.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn includes "The Theologian's Tale" which recounts the tragedy of Hidalgo who betrays his two daughters to the Grand Inquisitor. Hidalgo himself lights the fires, then from a tower casts himself into the depths of despair.

## See also

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* Cuban nobility
* Principalía

## Notes

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1. ^ Por cuanto teniendo presentes las leyes y cédulas que se mandaron despachar por los Señores Reyes mis progenitores y por mí, encargo el buen tratamiento, amparo, protección y defensa de los indios naturales de la América, y que sean atendidos, mantenidos, favorecidos y honrados como todos los demás vasallos de mi Corona, y que por el trascurso del tiempo se detiene la práctica y uso de ellas, y siento tan conveniente su puntual cumplimiento al bien público y utilidad de los Indios y al servicio de Dios y mío, y que en esta consecuencia por lo que toca a los indios mestizos está encargo a los Arzobispos y Obispos de las Indias, por la Ley Siete, Título Siete, del Libro Primero, de la Recopilación, los ordenen de sacerdotes, concurriendo las calidades y circunstancias que en ella se disponen y que si algunas mestizas quisieren ser religiosas dispongan el que se las admita en los monasterios y a las profesiones, y aunque en lo especial de que quedan ascender los indios a puestos eclesiásticos o seculares, gubernativos, políticos y de guerra, que todos piden limpieza de sangre y por estatuto la calidad de nobles, hay distinción entre los Indios y mestizos, o como descendentes de los indios principales que se llaman caciques, o como procedidos de indios menos principales que son los tributarios, y que en su gentilidad reconocieron vasallaje, se considera que a los primeros y sus descendentes se les deben todas las preeminencias y honores, así en lo eclesiástico como en lo secular que se acostumbran conferir a los nobles Hijosdalgo de Castilla y pueden participar de cualesquier comunidades que por estatuto pidan nobleza, pues es constante que estos en su gentilismo eran nobles a quienes sus inferiores reconocían vasallaje y tributaban, cuya especie de nobleza todavía se les conserva y considera, guardándoles en lo posible, o privilegios, como así se reconoce y declara por todo el Título de los caciques, que es el Siete, del Libro Seis, de la Recopilación, donde por distinción de los indios inferiores se les dejó el señorío con nombre de cacicazgo, transmisible de mayor en mayor, a sus posterioridades...

## References

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1. ^ "hidalgo". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
2. ^ "hidalgo, ga". Diccionario de la lengua española - Edición del Tricentenario (in Spanish). Real Academia Española. 2019. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
3. ^ Walter W. Skeat (1993). The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. Wordsworth Editions. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-85326-311-8.
4. ^ Corominas, Joan and José A Pascual (1981). "Hijo" in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Vol. G-Ma (3). Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 359-360. ISBN 84-249-1362-0
5. ^ a b Sánchez-Albornoz, "España y el feudalismo carolingio", 778-787; Suárez Fernández, Historia de España, 141-142; MacKay, Spain in the Middle Ages, 47-50, 56-57, 103-104, 155; and Menéndez Pidal, La España del Cid, 86-88, 544-545.
6. ^ Huarte de San Juan, Juan (1989) [1575], Serés, Guillermo (ed.), Examen de ingenios para las ciencias (in Spanish), Madrid: Cátedra, ISBN 978-84-376-0872-3 Also quoted in Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier, ed. (1948), Floreto de anécdotas y noticias diversas que recopiló un fraile dominico residente en Sevilla a mediados del siglo XVI, Memorial Histórico Español (in Spanish), vol. 48, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid: Maestre, p. 355, OCLC 5723566
7. ^ Ruiz García, Elisa (2006), "La carta ejecutoria de hidalguía: Un espacio gráfico privilegiado", En la España medieval, 1 (in Spanish), Extra: 251–276, ISSN 0214-3038, retrieved 2009-05-30
8. ^ Basanta de la Riva, Alfredo (1955), Sala de los Hijosdalgo: Catálogo de todos sus pleitos, expedientes y probanzas (in Spanish), Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid, Madrid: Ediciones Hidalguía, Instituto Internacional de Genealogía y Heráldica, OCLC 2831583
9. ^ hidalgo at the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.
10. ^ Suárez Fernández, 144
11. ^ DE CADENAS Y VICENT, Vicente (1993). Las Pruebas de Nobleza y Genealogia en Filipinas y Los Archivios en Donde se Pueden Encontrar Antecedentes de Ellas in Heraldica, Genealogia y Nobleza en los Editoriales de "Hidalguia", 1953–1993: 40 años de un pensamiento (in Spanish). Madrid: HIDALGUIA. ISBN 9788487204548.
12. ^ VV, AA (2007). Historia de Cantabria. Editorial Cantabria S.A. ISBN 978-84-86420-50-5.
13. ^ Lenero Ferrari, Juan Jose. "La Hidalguia en el pueblo Cantabro". Valle de Anievas. Archived from the original on April 22, 2006.
14. ^ Rey Hazas, Antonio, "El 'Quijote' y la picaresca: la figura del hidalgo en el nacimiento de la novela moderna", Edad de Oro (in Spanish), 15: 141–160, retrieved 2009-06-02

## Bibliography

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* Claude, Dietrich (1980), "Freedmen in the Visigothic Kingdom", in Edward James (ed.), Visigothic Spain: New Approaches, Oxford University Press, pp. 159–188, ISBN 0-19-822543-1
* MacKay, Angus (1977), Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000–1500, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-74978-3
* Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1967), La España del Cid (in Spanish) (6th ed.), Madrid: Espasa-Calpe
* Pérez de Tudela y Velasco, M. I. (1979), Infanzones y caballeros: su proyeccion en la esfera nobiliaria castellano-leonesa, Madrid`{{citation}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
* Sánchez-Albornoz, Claudio (1965), "España y el feudalismo carolingio", Estudios sobre las instituciones medievales españolas, Serie de Historia General (in Spanish), Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, OCLC 951198
* Suárez Fernández, Luis (1970), Historia de España: Edad media (in Spanish), Madrid: Editorial Gredos, OCLC 270090
* Thompson, E. A (2000) [1969], The Goths in Spain, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-814271-3

## External links

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Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Hidalgo.

* In Spanish: Hidalgos de España (Association of Spanish nobles)