DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47347#0137
APPENDIX.
1-21
able only in cases which cannot be decided by the established
laws, ordinances, and decrees. This quotation is inaccurate;
for king Alphonso XI. expressly says : “We command that
suits and disputes which cannot be decided by the laws that
we have given and by the fueros, shall be tried by the laws
of las Partidas, which we recognize as being our laws
It is evident from this that the laws of las Partidas had as
much force as the other laws of king Alphonso XI. in all
cases in which the latter, as special laws, did not supersede
them. It is also clear that the laws of Toro, as the latest
and the most special, must have been preferred to those of
las Partidas for cases in which those two laws disagreed.
The laws of Toro, of 1505, contain no different disposition
respecting the succession to the throne, any more than those
of Alphonso XI.; on the contrary, they literally repeat the
dispositions of las Siete Partidas as practical law, and apply
them to majorats. These laws prove, in an irrefragable
manner, that, under every legitimate government in Spain
since the 13th century, the laws of las Partidas have been
acknowledged to be in force. To omit nothing, we may
further quote the will of queen Isabella the Catholic (1504),
in which she directs that her daughter Dona Juana shall
succeed to the throne: “ Guardando la ley de las Partidas,
que dispone sobre la sucesion de estos Reynos, y conforman-
dome con su resolution, mando,” &c.
The practical validity of the laws of las Partidas, through-
out the whole period preceding the establishment of the
auto acordado of 1713, is therefore proved in an incontestable
manner. The most rigid criticism cannot require other
proofs than those which we have given.
The anonymous author of the work, which we are here
examining, has not advanced this last argument; but we
J Textus primus ad leges Taurinas, in comment. Ant. Gomez.
1-21
able only in cases which cannot be decided by the established
laws, ordinances, and decrees. This quotation is inaccurate;
for king Alphonso XI. expressly says : “We command that
suits and disputes which cannot be decided by the laws that
we have given and by the fueros, shall be tried by the laws
of las Partidas, which we recognize as being our laws
It is evident from this that the laws of las Partidas had as
much force as the other laws of king Alphonso XI. in all
cases in which the latter, as special laws, did not supersede
them. It is also clear that the laws of Toro, as the latest
and the most special, must have been preferred to those of
las Partidas for cases in which those two laws disagreed.
The laws of Toro, of 1505, contain no different disposition
respecting the succession to the throne, any more than those
of Alphonso XI.; on the contrary, they literally repeat the
dispositions of las Siete Partidas as practical law, and apply
them to majorats. These laws prove, in an irrefragable
manner, that, under every legitimate government in Spain
since the 13th century, the laws of las Partidas have been
acknowledged to be in force. To omit nothing, we may
further quote the will of queen Isabella the Catholic (1504),
in which she directs that her daughter Dona Juana shall
succeed to the throne: “ Guardando la ley de las Partidas,
que dispone sobre la sucesion de estos Reynos, y conforman-
dome con su resolution, mando,” &c.
The practical validity of the laws of las Partidas, through-
out the whole period preceding the establishment of the
auto acordado of 1713, is therefore proved in an incontestable
manner. The most rigid criticism cannot require other
proofs than those which we have given.
The anonymous author of the work, which we are here
examining, has not advanced this last argument; but we
J Textus primus ad leges Taurinas, in comment. Ant. Gomez.