Doña Mariana Venegas, noblewoman and landowner: purchase of Moorish goods in the Vega of Granada (1566-1594)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Through documentation of the archives of notarial protocols and the Royal Chancery of Granada, the biography of the matriarch of the family Hinojosa Granada, a branch of the illustrious Granada Venegas lineage, can be outlined. This study analyses the important rural heritage acquired in a communityproperty marriage regime of six agricultural properties of the fertile valley of Granada bordering the city. The large state consisted of 224 plots of arable  land, orchards and olive groves, with more than 1,500 marshes of land, some of which were purchased from the Moriscos before 1570, and most of which from. the Royal Treasury through public auctions of confiscated and purchased Moorish assets over a period of three decades. This type of  acquisition can be considered a representative example of the actions performed by the Granada oligarchy with the aim of gaining possession of these requisitioned properties. This analysis also details the income generated by this large state at the end of the sixteenth century, accounts for an increase in the number of Moorish that were either expelled from or that remained in the city of Granada and studies the agricultural landscape according to the information obtained on this large property.