The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville

29. Posting Guard

29 posting guard We will assign a very honorable man and of confidence. —the plague commission W hen the count of villar met with the plague commission on 2 April, he pointed out that now that Seville was surrounded by plague-stricken communities, greater care needed to be taken to protect it. He ordered jurados and constables to guard the city gates, and he set their salary at ten reales a day. Furthermore, he posted eight mounted constables to keep watch in the areas outside city walls. He charged the city’s steward, Diego del Postigo, with selecting them and paying them the same daily stipend as those guarding the city gates. The councilors present at the meeting decided to make a list of all the veinticuatros and jurados currently in Seville who could inspect the city gates daily and at all hours. To ensure that the mounted constables were diligent in their patrols, they agreed to assign “a very honorable man and of confidence” to supervise the horsemen. Of the thirteen entrances leading into the city, the councilors determined to keep only eight open. Extra guards were needed for the Slaughterhouse and Arenal Gates because they remained open at night. Two days later the assignments were made, to be effective for the next fifteen days: Alonso de Avila, Macarena Gate Pedro Ruíz de Santiago, Carmona Gate Luis Alvarez de Soria, Slaughterhouse Gate Juan Jara, Postigo del Carbón (Coal Gate) Francisco de Alburquerque, Postigo del Aceite (Oil Gate) Luis de Troya, Arenal Gate Diego Gutiérrez Barba, Triana Gate Alonso de Andrada Avendaño, Royal Gate 220 | the plague files 1. AMS, sec. 13, siglo XVI, vol. 5. The next day, though, the governor modified the gate openings. The extramural Monastery of the Santísima Trinidad requested that the Sol Gate, the closest communication point with the city for the monks, be kept open. The Count of Villar obliged and assigned the jurado Juan Gómez Corona to guard it. At the same time the count ordered the Postigo del Carbón closed, though the Postigo del Aceite remained open because it was Lent, and the gate was near the fish market. The governor had received the nominations for the eight mounted constables from Diego del Postigo, and on 6 April he officially assigned the men, each armed with a lance and a leather shield, to guard the immediate environs of the city. The count instructed the constables to work in pairs in four specific locations. From these locations, each guard would be responsible for a certain territory. For example, two horsemen were posted at the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo to patrol the area on the “other bank of the Guadalquivir ,”beyond Triana. One constable was to guard the northwest area between the monastery and the towns of Santiponce and La Algaba, and the other the territory to the west of the monastery up to the village of Salteras.1 Three days after these assignments were issued, the plague commission met in the Count of Villar’s quarters in the Alcázar to discuss the situation in the outlying communities. Jurado Suárez de Venegas, who had just returned to Seville, reported on conditions in Castilblanco, Constantina, Puebla de los Infantes , and Cazalla de la Sierra. After listening to the jurado, the plague commissioners agreed that the situation in Constantina was exacerbated by the fact that the sick were not properly treated for lack of funds. They ordered that anyone newly stricken should be taken to a hospital, and they advised Constantina ’s officials to use the town’s sisa to cover plague expenses. If that was insuf ficient, there were always forced loans from wealthy residents. The central government in Seville placed the financial burden on the local council and reminded Constantina’s officials that if they failed to provide the necessary treatment for their community’s plague-stricken poor, they were entirely to blame for the consequences. Jurado Suárez de Venegas informed the commission of the severe bread shortage in Puebla de los Infantes. The count and the plague deputies adopted a strategy similar to that applied in the case of Castilblanco. One hundred fane- posting guard | 221 2. Ibid. 3. AMS, sec. 13, siglo XVI, vol. 6. gas of Sicilian wheat from Seville’s public granary would be transported to Puebla under the...