This was the gigantic network of public brothels that the Catholic Monarchs built for their kingdoms

2023-05-23 13:07:03

In the last stages of the Granada campaign, the Catholic Monarchs awarded the brave captain Alonso Yanez Fajardo the license to establish brothels in the conquered towns and to be conquered in Granada, something like the ‘biggest whorehouse of the kingdom’. That concession was not a trivial matter, but the icing on the cake to the spectacular network of public brothels that extended through Christian territory. Since San Agustin had recognized that brothels were “a lesser evil” in the eternal struggle against corrupt morals and sexual disorders, Christian kings had decided to look elsewhere throughout Europe.

The objective of the brothels, as these spaces were called, was to try to put an end to street or clandestine prostitution. In Aragon and Castile These regulated spaces already existed, but the Catholic Monarchs upped the ante by promoting this model of prostitution at the national level by sending orders to the different councils, towns or places of the monarchy for the creation of houses and the drafting of ordinances.

In Valencia, one of the largest brothels in all of medieval Europe was built, which, around 1501, had “between 200 and 300” workers. It was not a building as such, but was made up of several streets around which different hostels were built (about fifteen in the best times of the brothel). The flamenco Anthony of Lalaing he was amazed by a macro brothel that “is as big as a small town” and praised its organization: with doormen who controlled the entrance, doctors paid by the city to carry out weekly inspections of the women and all kinds of services.

What was exceptional in the Spanish case was the strict zeal that was put into ensuring that women were subjected to sanitary controls and the insistence of religious authorities for preaching to them, even if it was out of order. Easter to Palms, so that they would leave that bad life and give themselves up to prayer. In Lent, Friar Hernando de Talavera he used to shut himself up in his palace with the prostitutes of Granada to exhaust them with homilies.

Fernando and Isabel promoted these brothels thinking about the spiritual health of women, but also about their pockets. The model had a great benefit for the councils through the so-called “renta de la mancebía” or “rent from the whorehouse”, which was integrated not only into what the landlord of the mancebía paid to the coffers of the council, but also also for the call “partridge right”, an ancient privilege that the bailiffs of the different parts of the kingdom charged for the protection they offered to the prostitutes. In Córdobathe brothels were directly on land rented by the cathedral.

Under surveillance and medical care

Already in the time of Felipe II, pragmatics were issued so that all the big cities of Castile They had a “brothel”, especially those that were near a port or a university, since the sailors and students were dedicated to these centers. According to the law, the young woman who wanted to dedicate herself to the trade had to prove to the judge of her neighborhood that she was over twelve years old, that she had lost her virginity, that she was an orphan and that she was not noble. Even so, the judge tried to dissuade her from her intention with a moral talk that, if unsuccessful, gave way to a written authorization for her to practice the oldest trade in the world.

‘The surrender of Granada’, by Francisco Pradilla.

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A doctor visited the brothel from time to time to certify that they were healthy, and in case of finding a possible infection, those affected were prohibited from practicing the profession. prevention against syphilis They were a priority, as stated in a general proclamation for “the good governance of this court” dated 1585:

“Otherwise they order that no woman in love who has been, or is sick with buboes, if she were a neighbor of this Villa, does not win in it or in the mancebía, under penalty of a hundred lashes, and that so that she was not a neighbor or natural, she did not win, and then leave the Court, under penalty of one hundred lashes.

Felipe IV, tormented by his own bad conscience and by the new morality that came out of the Council of Trent, slammed these brothels and turned the laws towards prohibition

In the period of Felipe IVa man known for his endless legion of illegitimate children, the number exceeded 800 public houses at night in Madrid, according to figures collected by Jose Deleito y Pinuela in his book ‘The bad life in the Spain of Felipe IV’. However, this Monarch, tormented by his own bad conscience and by the new morality that came out of the Council of Trentshut down these brothels and turned the laws towards prohibition, the great victims were again them, forced to go underground and be confined in the so-called Galeras de Mujeres, “to atone for their guilt and separate them from evil.”

“The unfortunate women who become prostitutes are taken to jails, when the bailiffs feel like it,” Goya noted in one of his Caprichos centuries later.