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This article presents a double reflection on historical heuristics and hermeneutics: the multiple perspectives that each historical time casts on the past are the consequence of specific inheritance received from tradition and historical contexts which allow room for eventually original innovations. They all have equal moral and epistemological status, including our present view, if not in terms of the quality of the factual reconstruction or final aims, rather in terms of its nature. They all are reconstructions of a narrative representation with a specific semiotic, political and social dimension of the position, interests and understanding of groups in dialogue with their present and future audiences. The various historiographical views on the figure of the controversial Twelfth-century Queen Urraca of Castile and Leon is the case study used to put in context the continuities and discontinuities in the representation of the feminine gender, in order to perform an exercise in intellectual humility. ; Este artículo plantea al lector una doble reflexión de carácter heurístico y hermenéutico sobre la historia: los enfoques que realiza cada época histórica sobre el pasado son el producto de herencias recibidas de tradiciones anteriores en unos contextos que determinan que se produzcan innovaciones interpretativas, más o menos audaces. En términos de legitimidad, todos estos discursos, incluidos los realizados en el presente, tienen el mismo rango, si no con respecto a la calidad de la reconstrucción factual o los fines últimos, sí en cuanto a su naturaleza. Todos ellos son construcciones narrativas con una dimensión semiológica y político-social específica, representativos de los colectivos que los producen en diálogo con sus audiencias presentes y futuras. Las diversas miradas de la historiografía a la controvertida figura de la reina del siglo XII, Urraca de Castilla y León, son la excusa para revisar las continuidades y discontinuidades de las representaciones del género femenino en su contexto, con el objetivo de hacer un ejercicio de humildad intelectual.

This paper examines the case of sheep raising in Aragon from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century to explore the political dynamics and social criteria that rural communities used to manage their common land, and their role in larger economic and political frameworks. In the line of recent historiography about the commons, the research connects the strength of rural communities, institutional arrangements governing access to natural resources, and environmental efficiency. The hypothesis is that the "social reproduction" of the community was the aim that defined the collective action of strong and horizontal communities. They preserved their natural resources and defended large swathes of common land from foreigners. However, when these communities acted in a more complex system of transhumance within the framework of poorly articulated kingdoms, they would tend to predate others' resources and keep others' commons open to their free access. The outcome was the existence of large, but very different, and contested, kinds of commons.

This paper examines the case of sheep raising in Aragon from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century to explore the political dynamics and social criteria that rural communities used to manage their common land, and their role in larger economic and political frameworks. In the line of recent historiography about the commons, the research connects the strength of rural communities, institutional arrangements governing access to natural resources, and environmental efficiency. The hypothesis is that the "social reproduction" of the community was the aim that defined the collective action of strong and horizontal communities. They preserved their natural resources and defended large swathes of common land from foreigners. However, when these communities acted in a more complex system of transhumance within the framework of poorly articulated kingdoms, they would tend to predate others' resources and keep others' commons open to their free access. The outcome was the existence of large, but very different, and contested, kinds of commons.

[ES] El siglo XII todavía está considerado como un momento clave en el cambio de la sociedad y el pensamiento medieval, a pesar de los debates sobre el periodo. Para los historiadores de lo política, el siglo XII representa el origen de la aparición de estructuras políticas centradas en la figura del rey con poder sobre territorios específicos; lo que se ha dado en llamar "las monarquías feudales". Este artículo aborda la descripción, más que la explicación, de estos cambios en la Península Ibérica. El siglo XII se presenta como un momento en el que paradójicamente coexistieron poderosos reyes y casas nobiliarias. lísto se expresó en recurrentes rebeliones de magnates contra los reyes, pero también en intrincados tratados de paz firmados entre los monarcas y sus cortes contra la nobleza. En este escenario de competencia, la dinámica de guerra y pactos llevada a cabo precisamente por cortes enemigas mvo como consecuencia la definición de un nivel superior de decisión política sobre aquél de la nobleza. El artículo muestra que, a largo plazo, el poder regio, mediante una espiral creciente de tratados negociados entre "enemigos de igual status", desarrolló complejos procedimientos y compromisos que implicaban por igual a nobleza e iglesia y, así, se convirtió en centro obligado de toda malla de relaciones políticas. ; [EN] The twelfth century has been regarded as a milestone for changes at almost all levels of the medieval society. Some scholars consider it a starting point to trace back the origin of more centralised political structures with power over a specific territon?, what we call the feudal monarchies. This paper tries to describe how these changes occurred in the Iberian kingdoms. It presents the co-existence of powerful kings and strong nobilities during the twelfth century that resulted in recurrent baronial rebellions against the kings but also in peace treaties signed by the monarchs against them. A dynamic of war and pacts between enemy courts turned out to define an upper decision-making level above the nobility. The paper concludes that the long-term outcome was in favour of the royal power which, by an increasing spiral of treaties negotiated with their "hostile equals", succeeded in building up complex procedures and commitments that involved both the nobility and the Church, becoming unique centres of political networks.