The “veinticuatros” knights of Cordoba at the end of the seventeenth century. Wealth, duties and lineage of a powerful elite

Dentro del indudable atractivo que provoca hoy día el estudio del siglo XVII, queremos ofrecer la visión de un trabajo local, realizado bajo la óptica particular de un grupo oligárquico: el de los caballeros veinticuatros. Pretendemos dar una imagen integral del individuo y el grupo social en el que se desenvolvía y actuaba. Por ello analizamos las bases de su economía, el poder que alcanzaron con sus títulos, cargos relaciones y la mentalidad estamental asumida por todo el colectivo para delimitar, en lo posible, el alcance de su gran poder sobre el municipio.Within the doubtless attraction that the study of the seventeenth century rouses these days, we want to offer the view of a local work, that has been made under the particular optics of an oligarchical group: the one formed by the “veinticuatros” knights. The aim of this work is to show an integral image of the individual and the social group which they used to act in. For that reason, we analyse the means of their economy, the power that they achieved with their titles, positions, relations and their mentality, as an estate, assumed by the whole group in order to delimit, as far as possible, the ability of their great influence upon the township.