“Ir contra el fecho de Dios”: regicides and regicidas in medieval castillian chronicles

Abstract

This work researches about one of the most controversial problems inside the medieval political thought. That is to say the topic of legitimacy and illegitimacy of the assassination of a King and its political and ideological consequences. In this way, it tracks the theme through out the castillian laws since the visigothic times to the 14th century, analysing the rules imposed by the local authorities in order to avoid this type of murders. Secondly, it studies how these assassinations are shown in the castillian chronicles from the Middle Ages, pointing out in the arguments embraced by each chronicler in order to support or reject the murder of the king.