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Auction: 14035 - Postal History, Autographs and Historical Documents
Lot: 3099

Historical Documents
1540 (c.) a Spanish Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguia of 22 pages written in the neat, official hand with the title page beautifully illuminated in tempera and ink on vellum. The initial capital features the combined arms of Castile, Aragon and Leon with various figures, fruit and flowers surround. The document is made in the favor of Hernan Ponce de Leon and Pedro de Valbuena de Vega. The text includes three to five line illuminated capitals in gold with either blue or red background. Various signatures on the first and last pages and with the original metal seal (slight wear) tying the coloured roped threads. Some age faults to the cover, particularly to the back flap, otherwise fine and in a good state of preservation. Photo



Charles V (1500 – 1558) was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I as Holy Roman Emperor and his son Philip II as King of Spain in 1556.

Hernando Ponce de Leon was a conquistador and explorer. In 1516 he participated in the expedition organized by Pedrarias Dávila to the west coast of the Isthmus of Panama and the conquest of Nicaragua. Towards 1536 he joined Hernando de Soto in the conquest of Peru.

These letters patent of nobility both established noble lineage and served as tangible evidence of nobility. During the early modern period in Spain the nobility and the clergy formed an estate far removed from the rest of the population. The property of the nobility was exempt from taxation and protected from civil suits. Nobles could not be imprisoned for indebtedness, or tortured (except for treason), and if sentenced to execution had the option of decapitation rather than hanging.

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Estimate
£2,500 to £3,000