Ricohombre
With Ricohombre (plural: ricoshombres ) in was the Middle Ages a person referred to the uppermost of four noble layers of the Iberian peninsula belonged. The origin of the term is explained by the fact that in early times the bravest warriors had the largest share of the booty and were thus the wealthiest.
Ricoshombres existed in the kingdoms of Aragon , Castile , Navarre and Portugal , but not in Catalonia . In Aragón they formed one of four classes ("brazos") of the Cortes , next to the Caballeros , ie the simple nobility, the clergy and the cities, unlike in Catalonia, where the Cortes only consisted of three classes, the nobility, the clergy and the cities.
In Aragón, the Ricoshombres regarded themselves as descendants of the original conquerors of the country and assumed that they were initially direct vassals of the Franconian kings in the Spanish march , and the king himself only a primus inter pares (different in Castile: here was the king the representative of God on earth). They rendered him military service, personally and by providing knights, and in return received land or pension payments from certain cities for life ( honores ), which were initially not hereditary, but lapsed until 1196 (the year Alfonso II died ) with the change of monarch and redistributed each time by the new king. The Ricoshombres thus belonged to the nobility and property nobility and thereby also differed from the nobility of Catalonia.
They could not be easily brought to justice, were exempt from corporal punishment, and were only under the jurisdiction of their own kind. They had to do military service for two months a year, longer if the king paid for them. King Peter II (ruled 1196–1213) finally granted heredity and in return received supreme jurisdiction. However, only one son of a Ricohombre could inherit the title, while the rest fell back into the lower class of the Caballeros.
When King James I (reigned 1213–1276) created a new group of Ricoshombres, the "Ricoshombres de la mesnada", a service aristocracy consisting of people who belonged to the royal household, this decision generated so strong resistance that he agreed in 1265 on the Cortes of Exea to send honores only to the previous Ricoshombres.
In the 14th century the title Ricohombre was so widespread in Castile that a new title was created, that of the grande , which was sometimes used in parallel by owners until the new title completely replaced the old one.