Os forais medievais do burgo velho do Porto. Rutura ou continuidade

Abstract

The medieval foraisof Gaia and Vila Nova, from 1255 and 1288, respectively, were assigned to the same locality, the “Burgo Velho do Porto”. Theseforaisare the only ones of royal origin attributed to a vast territory located between the Ave river, in the north, and the Mondego river, in the south. A profusely populated and “seignorized” territory. The pertinence of the analysis of these two acts is to understand in what political context they were carried out. What objective did D. Afonso III and D. Dinis have when they granted them? Are they two complementary documents and substitutes for each other or different foundational acts? What powers were confronted in that territory that led those two monarchs to intervene? Our analysis is not about the local political organization or the socioeconomic characterization of the community. But to observe what impact these contracts had as an instrument of the royal affirmation policy in the medieval world