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Privileges for the residents of Tavira
King D. Afonso V reigned from 1438 to 1481, date of his death. From 1440 onwards, he began to assign Letters of Privileges, and handed them to many people, including the residents ("vizinhos") of Tavira.
D. Afonso V, King of Portugal and of the Algarves, is known as "The African" due to his achievements in North Africa. King D. Afonso V governed the country in an absolutist way, that is, he concentrated all the political powers (executive, legislative and judicial), although the nobility received various benefits and privileges of all kind. Thus, during his reign , the nobles had a lot of power. From the administrative point of view, he was absent and little concerned with the development of commerce and administration.
King D. Afonso V granted some privileges to the municipality of Tavira. Tavira had a strategic importance, relatively to North Africa, because it was the nearest city. The Monarch not only granted privileges to the council in general, but also to the inhabitants of this city in particular, including the Hospital of Santo Espirito ('Holy Spirit Hospital'), having granted a rent and other privileges to it.
Although the nobility received many privileges, the King was an absolute sovereign and therefore he had the power to control all the aspects of population's life. In 1464, the King granted Fernão Gonçalves (who lived in Tavira), the privilege of not being defamed. Therefore, he could not be given any nicknames or surnames that could give him a bad reputation.
In 1465, a Genovese man who lived in Tavira, Desidério de Vivaldo, was granted a Letter
of Privileged, making him a Portuguese citizen, as long as he married, within two years, a Portuguese woman and did not obey to the Genovese community any more. His loyalty had to be to the King of Portugal.
This last letter. whose date is omitted, refers to a royal gentleman (nobleman), Diogo Contreiras, who asks the King to exempt Inês Álvares, who had been his nurse until he became a nobleman, from paying taxes and charges. Diogo Contreiras asked not only for the exemption of taxes and charges, but also for the right of hostel, which was a payment to the King, when he and the nobility visited a city, in order to support them.
Brasão da Casa Real de Aviz
Coat of Arms of the Royal House of Aviz
Privilege letters
PT/TT/CHR/I/0008/000729 (1465) acessível em https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=7679509 , acedido em 29/5/2018
PT/TT/CHR/I/0008/000882 (1464) acessível em
https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=7679662 , acedido em 29/5/2018