The Right of Troncalidad in Castilian Inheritance Law in the High Middle Ages

Abstract

In order to solve the problem that arose when organizing the succession of those who died without issue and without having indicated to whom his/her assets should be left through a testamentary provision, historically different solutions were adopted, which can be separated into two broad models. One, followed, for example, in Roman Justinian law, seeking to preserve its unity, opted for giving the inheritance of the deceased to the closest relative, in the order of kinship or of affectivity. The other, preferred to guarantee that each of the assets was returned to the respective hereditary bloodline from which it came, paternal or maternal, even at the cost of breaking the homogeneity of the gross estate left by the deceased. In a society such as the Castilian one in the High Middle Ages, in which the family group had an extraordinarily important function in the social order and in which its strength, cohesion and continuity depended, to a large extent, on the wealth of its real estate and the conservation of this through the generations, within the kinship circle, the second model was better adapted to achieving this aim. This explains the existence of the so-called "right of troncalidad", which can be defined as a succession principle applicable only in ab intestato succession of s/he who dies without legitimate issue, in which those assets owned by the deceased, having obtained them through inheritance, should be awarded exclusively to the relatives from the original bloodline. This paper will analyze the different documentary and regulatory manifestations that show the validity of this principle, its content and scope.