the wills of the kings of portugal between the 12thand14thcenturies 238 it was at the beginningof the12th century that, in a more institutionalized way, the Portuguese monarchy began to assert itself. In 1128, the heir of the Portuguese Counts, Afonso, won an important battle that founded the kingdom. In the following years he would expand its territory, integrating into it in 1147 Lisbon, a city he conquered with the help of the Crusaders, culminating in 1179 with the pontifical recognition of the kingdom’s independence by Pope Alexander III through the bull Manifestis probatum, and therefore granting the legitimacy of its founding king, with the right of succession reserved for his children and their successors.1 Multiple and complex factors and agents intertwined in the composition of this kingdom of Portugal. Among them is the royal chancellery, emerging from the chancellery of the Counts of Portucale, in some ways close to and inspired by the writing models typical of the rich royal (and imperial) chancellery of Leon, communicating with manorial and especially ecclesiastical chancelleries, with emphasis on the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra and the cathedral of Braga, whose archbishops received, in the manner of Compostela in fact, the privilege of supervising the royal chancellery.2 Cathedrals, monasteries, and military orders in Portugal shared the privileges of preserving royal documentation, some of great political relevance, without prejudice to the Crown having its own chancellery and archive; these institutions we know reached a high level of organization and complexity in the first decades of the 13th century.3 To control diplomas, by 1220 the Portuguese royal chancellery used four record books, innovative in forms of royal validation, including the introduction of the king’s lead seal, and revealing a great capacity for documentary production, which resulted in the review and confirmation of letters of concession of privileges, exemptions, and donations granted by previous monarchs; in the promotion of inquiries throughout the 1 Mattoso 2006. 2 Azevedo 1958. 3 Costa 1992, pp. 135–166; Azevedo 1967, pp. 35–74; Coelho et al. 1995; Coelho et al. 2004; Coelho 2018; Branco 2005, pp. 183–190 and 191–198; Gomes 2007, pp. 601–622.
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