INFLUENCIA DE LAS REDES NOBILIARIAS EN LA EXPANSIÓN CRISTIANA DEL SIGLO XII. EL CASO DE SORIA

Offering land tenure was a way for kings to deal with the endemic problems derived from the need to populate a given territory, which was in turn aggravated by weak demographic numbers and a high cost of defence. [...]the kings of Aragon and Pamplona used the concession of land grants to nobles so that they would guarantee establishing a settlement and defending it: this is what is known as tenure (tenencias), an institution that stipulates a series of rights and obligations for those who received them, while the king maintained the property of the domain and allowed for the increased influence of a certain family or lineage. Virtually since the origin of the kingdom of Aragon, the barons of Pamplona formed a circle of great influence around the kings and tried to extend it through marriages and increasing certain land holdings. Keywords Lehet; Land Tenure; igo L pez; Fort n L pez; Alfonso I of Aragon and Pamplona; Soria.