Vnde Venis Inquisitor? The members of the commissions of the Portuguese medieval general royal enquiries (1220-1307)

Résumé 0

The surviving documentation of the 13th and 14th centuries Portuguese royal enquiries - the Inquirições Gerais -, facilitates the reconstruction of the majority of their underlying process, beginning with the royal charter, mentioning the men who would conduct them, to the records on parchment by those same individuals, predominantly. Their role was of crucial importance, not only for the kings they served, granting them a registry of properties, goods and taxes, that belonged to them or that were being usurped, but also for the Inquirições’ historiography, since, due to their diligent record, it is possible to conceive some hypothesis about other facets than their fiscal nature - e.g., questions related to the administrative organization of the parishes, the exploration of the natural landscape, or the identity of noblemen and ecclesiastic institutions and their possessions, that serves as support for various genealogical studies. This paper presents some of the results of the author’s master dissertation about Inquirições Gerais, namely those relating the enquirers, their provenance and their consequent nomination. If it is fairly known where the enquirers were going, after being appointed, the same cannot be stated in relation to where they were coming from?