The Archives of the Marshals of Castile and the Marquises of Malagón

Abstract

A branch of the Saavedra family, that held the office of Marshal of Castile on the border with the kingdom of Granada during the Middle Ages, reappears during the Modern period when this office was transferred to the Pardo-Tavera family, who bought two old commanderies (encomiendas) and turned them into permanent lordships. This was the case with Malagón, which became a marquisate in 1599. From the seventeenth century onwards, these marquises married into other noble families in Spain. Their family archive passed into the hands of the Dukes of Santisteban del Puerto during the eighteenth century and eventually ended up with the Dukes of Medinaceli in 1818. This paper aims to trace the history of the archives of the Marquises of Malagón from its creation to the present day. We will provide a thorough analysis of the documents contained in this archive and examine their organization and current arrangement as a guide for future studies on these documents. In terms of the methodology used, we have not only worked on the archival collection kept in the ducal archives of Medinaceli –the main object of this study– reviewing their inventories and analysing the marks on the backside of each documentary piece, but also contrasting the records with important documents preserved in other archives.