The Cortes of León or Decreta of León from year 1188 was a

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

body in the medieval

Kingdom of León The Kingdom of León; es, Reino de León; gl, Reino de León; pt, Reino de Leão; la, Regnum Legionense; mwl, Reino de Lhion was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when t ...

. According to UNESCO it is the first documented example of parliamentarism in history. After coming to power, King

Alfonso IX Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, facing an attack by his neighbours, Castile and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, decided to summon the or king's court/royal council to the

Basilica of San Isidoro, León The is a church in León, Spain, located on the site of an ancient Roman temple. Its Christian roots can be traced back to the early 10th century when a monastery for Saint John the Baptist was erected on the grounds. In 1063 the basilica was ...

. This was a gathering of the nobility and the higher clergy called to advise the king, used in numerous countries during the Middle Ages. Because of the seriousness of the situation, Alfonso IX also called in representatives of the wealthy merchants and tradesmen from the most important cities of the kingdom, thus uniting the three

Estates of the Realm The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and ...

in one council. However, all these meetings were exceptional and did not lead to a regular attendance of

commoners A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

(the Third Estate) in the council. León's Cortes dealt with matters like the right to

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...

, the inviolability of domicile, the right to appeal to justice opposite the King and the obligation of the King to consult the Cortes before entering a war.

References

Sources

* Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911: "History of Europe" (Birth of parliamentary bodies) * O'Callaghan, Joseph F. "The beginnings of the Cortes of León-Castile», American History Review 1969, p. 1504. * O'Callaghan, Joseph F. "A History of Medieval Spain". Ithaca 1975. * Procter, Evelyn. "Curia and Cortes in León and Castile 1072-1295". Cambridge 1980. * Procter, Evelyn."The Interpretation of Clause 3 in the Decrees of León," EHR 85 (1970 * Merriman, Roger B. "The Cortes of the Spanish Kingdoms in the Later Middle Ages," AHR 16 (1911) * Keane, John. "The Life and Death of Democracy". Simon & Schuster, London, 2009.
The ''Decreta'' of León of 1188. Spanish version.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon's Spanish Parliament Medieval organizations 12th-century establishments in the Kingdom of León 1180s establishments in Europe 1188 establishments in Europe Memory of the World Register in Spain Defunct national legislatures

See also

References

Sources