ABSTRACT

Two of the legal codes produced during the reign of the thirteenth-century Iberian king, Alfonso X (r.1252–84), ruler of Castile and León, contain whole sections dedicated to the king, his family and the court, as well as to the households of both the king and the queen. The Especulo and the Siete Partidas were compiled at a time when both political thought and the ambitions of thirteenth-century rulers were transforming. Each code was produced in notably different political circumstances. Consequently, a careful comparative analysis can reveal the significant changes that took place in a period when concepts of monarchy were still very much under construction on the Iberian Peninsula.