[8] The authenticity of the "Fuero de Soprarbe" has been keenly debated by the Aragonese and Navarrese writers. Moret, in refutation of Blancas, who espouses it, (see Commentarii, p. 289,) states, that after a diligent investigation of the archives of that region, he finds no mention of the laws, nor even of the name, of Soprarbe, until the eleventh century; a startling circumstance for the antiquary. (Investigaciones Históricas de las Antiguedades del Reyno de Navarra, (Pamplona, 1766,) tom. vi. lib. 2, cap. 11.) Indeed, the historians of Aragon admit, that the public documents previous to the fourteenth century suffered so much from various causes as to leave comparatively few materials for authentic narrative. (Blancas, Commentarii, Pref.—Risco, España Sagrada, tom. xxx. Prólogo.) Blancas transcribed his extract of the laws of Soprarbe principally from Prince Charles of Viana's History, written in the fifteenth century. See Commentarii, p. 25.
[9] Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, pp. 39, 40.—Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 333, 334, 340.—Fueros y Observancias del Reyno de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1667,) tom. i. fol. 130.—The ricos hombres, thus created by the monarch, were styled de mesnada, signifying "of the household." It was lawful for a rico hombre to bequeath his honors to whichsoever of his legitimate children he might prefer, and, in default of issue, to his nearest of kin. He was bound to distribute the bulk of his estates in fiefs among his knights, so that a complete system of sub-infeudation was established. The knights, on restoring their fiefs, might change their suzerains at pleasure.
[10] Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, p. 41.—Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 307, 322, 331.
[11] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 130.—Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes en Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) p. 98.—Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 306, 312-317, 323, 360.—Asso y Manual, Instituciones, pp. 40-43.
[12] Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 124.
[13] Blancas, Commentarii, p. 334.
[14] See the partition of Saragossa by Alonso the Warrior. Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 43.
[15] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 198.—Blancas, Commentarii, p. 218. [16] See a register of these at the beginning of the sixteenth century, apud L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 25.
[17] Zurita, Anales, tom. ii. fol. 127.—Blancas, Commentarii, p. 324.— "Adhaec Ricis hominibus ipsis majorum more institutisque concedebatur, ut sese possent, dum ipsi vellent, a nostrorum Regum jure et potestare, quasi nodum aliquem, expedire; neque expedire solum, sed dimisso prius, quo potirentur, Honore, bellum ipsis inferre; Reges vero Rici hominis sic expediti uxorem, filios, familiam, res, bona, et fortunas omnes in suam recipere fidem tenebantur. Neque ulla erat eorum utilitatis facienda jactura."
[18] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. p. 84.—Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 350.