The archive of the Marquesado de Alcalá de la Alameda

Abstract

This paper talks about the history of the state of Alcalá de la Alameda, an unknown anda-lousian nobilial archive located north of the Guadalquivir marshes, in the ancient sevillian Aljarafe, created between the XV and XVI centuries by the Portocarrero family, proceeding of the line of the lords of Moguer and Villanueva del Fresno. through the acquisition, first, of the Chucena’s manor and, immediately, of the so-called Alcalá de Juana de Orta, in a new collateral family line. These lands became in marquesado with the title of Alcala de la Alameda by concession of Felipe II in 1574, a state that came back in the seventeenth century when the titular marquises inherited the Ducal House of Alcalá de los Gazules, with which it remained integrated immediately into that of Medina-celi.
The Marquisate of Alcalá de la Alameda generated an own archive, small but very complete (the sources start from the thirteenth century and the are not yet well studied), which we study in this pages from its creation until it was added in a higher archives, mainly The Ducal Archive of Medina-celi, incorporated at the beginning of the eighteenth century as an independent section called “Alcalá (Marquisate)”. The results of this paper talk about on the diplomatic history of this archive, its charac-teristics, system of organization, installation and description.