Portugal in the 13th century: society and borders — History, 11–13
How medieval Portuguese society was organised, and how the borders we still recognise today were fixed.
Three groups, one territory
In the 13th century, Portuguese society was divided into three large groups: the clergy, who prayed and managed the Church's lands; the nobility, who owned land and fought; and the common people, who worked the land and supported the other two through their labour. In towns and countryside, Jewish and Muslim communities also lived, with their own laws and neighbourhoods.
Why society and territory go together
How society was organised — who held land, who paid taxes, who fought — is directly linked to how the territory was used and defended. It was also in the 13th century that Portugal first clearly fixed its borders with the Kingdoms of León and Castile, a process that happened at the same time society was being organised.
A case: the Treaty of Alcañices
Step 1: throughout the 13th century, Portugal and Castile dispute small border areas, with advances and retreats. Step 2: the two kingdoms negotiate to end these disputes. Step 3: in 1297, they sign the Treaty of Alcañices, which fixes the border between the two countries. Step 4: that border has remained, with few changes, to this day — one of the oldest in Europe.
The trap: assuming only the nobility mattered
History books often talk about kings and nobles, because they are the ones who appear in official documents. But it was the common people — peasants, craftspeople, market traders — who produced the food, built the houses, and paid, through their labour and taxes, the cost of maintaining kingdoms and wars. A century's history is not only the history of those in charge.
Where you can still see this today
The border between Portugal and Spain, one of the oldest and most stable in Europe, has one of its roots in the 1297 Treaty of Alcañices. And the concelhos and forais — the documents that gave a town its rights and duties — which began to take shape in this period, left names and traditions still recognisable in many Portuguese town councils today.
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