Contested Treasure

In Contested Treasure, Thomas Barton examines how the Jews in the Crown of Aragon in the twelfth through fourteenth centuries negotiated the overlapping jurisdictions and power relations of local lords and the crown. The thirteenth century was a formative period for the growth of royal bureaucracy and the development of the crown’s legal claims regarding the Jews. While many Jews were under direct royal authority, significant numbers of Jews also lived under nonroyal and seigniorial jurisdiction. Barton argues that royal authority over the Jews (as well as Muslims) was far more modest and contingent on local factors than is usually recognized. Diverse case studies reveal that the monarchy’s Jewish policy emerged slowly, faced considerable resistance, and witnessed limited application within numerous localities under nonroyal control, thus allowing for more highly differentiated local modes of Jewish administration and coexistence. Contested Treasure refines and complicates our portrait of interfaith relations and the limits of royal authority in medieval Spain, and it presents a new approach to the study of ethnoreligious relations and administrative history in medieval European society.

“This is an outstandingly good book. It is skillfully researched, thoughtful, carefully argued and solid in its conclusions. It is a very fine contribution to its various subjects and especially helps us to deepen our understanding of the nature and extent of royal authority, not only in lands of the Crown of Aragon but elsewhere in Medieval Europe.”—Damian J. Smith, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, “Barton’s thorough archival work and measured analysis are of undeniable value. With them, he offers ample proof that the legal status of minorities was in flux throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and that as a result it is essential to avoid generalizations that assume a uniform and universal royal policy or a consistent minority experience of royal protection.”—Ryan Szpiech, Speculum, “Administrative history seldom makes riveting reading, but Barton wisely calls repeated attention to how the Tortosan case illumines similar developments elsewhere in Iberia and western Europe. Tortosa was neither an anomaly nor a fixed precedent for the evolution of regalian rights and baronial lordship vis-à-vis Jewish subjects, and this finely argued book reminds us of the protean nature of that evolution.”—Clifford Backman, The Medieval Review, “[Contested Treasure] is closely researched and well written, offering valuable insights into the often tragic experiences of this religious minority whose residence in one of the more liberal kingdoms of medieval Europe nonetheless required the utmost survival skills to maintain a precarious position.”—J. F. Powers, Choice, “This finely grained analysis provides an important guide to understanding medieval Jewry law in the Kingdom of Aragon and other medieval kingdoms. Contested Treasure is an important contribution to medieval European history, Sephardic studies, and Iberian history.”—Jane S. Gerber, Renaissance Quarterly

Thomas W. Barton is Associate Professor of History at the University of San Diego.