1788. Carta anónima para Pedro Alcántara López de Zúñiga, conde de Miranda.

Anonymous letter to Pedro Alcántara López de Zúñiga, count of Miranda.

The anonymous author, who identifies himself as being a religious, warns the count of Miranda of his serfs´ intentions to mutiny. Apparently he had this information through their confession and the reasons they explained included the excesses of those ruling in his lordship´s villages, specially the ones committed by Antonio Castillo.

In 1789 the reeve from Ponferrada proceeded against Joaquín Rubio, the mayor of La Bañeza; Antonio del Castillo and Antonio María Ramón de Linacero. The first measure was to take them out of La Bañeza and keep them under surveillance in Ponferrada and León. The reason was the popular discontent in La Bañeza, which had provoked many complains by anonymous senders to the jurisdictional lord, the count of Miranda. The letters denounced the excesses the neighbours had gone through. Once the investigation began, it was found out that their reasons to denounce it were true, specially Antonio del Castillo´s brutality. So, it was verified that Antonio del Castillo had too much influence on Joaquín Rubio, to such an extent that the latter had no power on the former, even though Joaquín Rubio was a higher authority. The general opinion was that Joaquín Rubio was not a bad ruler, but he was subjugated and that made them vulnerable to Castillo´s blunders. The list of accusations was not short. He had imprisoned the masons who were building a fish monger; he had cut the ears of those pigs that were not taken to the fields; he had ordered indiscriminate logging and he had overly increased the price of the coal. Besides, Castillo´s record was not very clean: he was accused of riotous and had been banished from the villages of Coca and Benavente. Likewise, he had disagreements with Antonio María Ramón de Linacero and with the mayors from the surrounding villages. But there were not only these men who had this kind of behaviour, also their wives incurred in futile amusements and murmuring. The defendants were questioned and denied all the accusations, stating they ignored the reeve´s reasons to act that way. Once the proceeding was initiated, the count of Miranda was asked to elect a new reeve to bring the peace back to the village. Regarding the three defendants: Antonio del Castillo was banished from the village and he was prohibited of carrying out further governmental or economic work; Linacero was also banished and disabled, but only from Bañeza; Joaquín Rubio had to leave the village, although he could keep being a mayor in any other place. Finally, they had to pay the expenses of the trial.