“Aristocracy Of Two Worlds”. The “Oikonomia” Front To The Death In The High Castilian Nobility

Abstract

This article gives us a perspective of thinking about death in
the late medieval Castilian nobility, represented for this particular
study, by the house of the Velasco. One reason for this is
that in the course of this writing three strands are intertwined:
the importance of the social and political ascent of a noble
family, the fundamental relationship of the reform with the
franciscan secular world, and the imprint of an exceptional
character, Doña Mencía de Mendoza y Velasco, wife of don

Pedro Fernandez de Velasco III. It is through the study of this
female figure that the fundamental importance of women in
the so called “oikonomia of death” becomes evident, in the
construction of a certain “politics in the face of death”, based
on the reconciliation of spirit and matter from a deep religious
devotion. Finally, it must be emphasized that this political response
to death acquires particular importance, because it is
an expression of a female sphere of action.

Keywords: Castilian dominant elites - testamentary registers
- oikonomia of death - Franciscan Reform - Doña Mencía de
Mendoza y Velasco.