[SPAIN – CASTILE – ROYAL PATENT OF HEREDITARY NOBILITY] Royal Executory Letter of Hidalguía de Sangre (Spanish royal patent of hereditary nobility), in favor of Don Juan Rayón and various other members of the Rayón family from Torrijos (Toledo) and other settlements throughout Spain.

Valladolid: Real Chancilleria de Valladolid, 1801. Folio (30 × 21.5 cm). Contemporary full red leather over six raised bands; gilt-tooling to boards and spine; red silk endpapers; edges gilt; red silk calque, full-page hand-painted coat of arms of the Rayón family on vellum; 162 leaves of manuscript text in a neat late eighteenth-century Spanish chancery hand arranged in a central column, to rectos and versos, on laid paper with watermark; [4] blank leaves, followed by two leaves of additional notarized documentation dating to 1801. First and last page of the "Ejecutoria" with official stamps of the Spanish Crown and official chancery and judicial signatures. Binding lightly stained and discolored; some rubbing to hinges and corners; minor toning and foxing throughout; overall about very good. Item #55541

Original Executory Letter of Hidalguía (Carta Ejecutoria de l Hidalguía), issued under Charles IV of Spain (r. 1788–1808) by the Royal Chancery of Valladolid, which confirmed the status of ancestral nobility for Don Juan Rayón and numerous other members of the Rayón family from Torrijos (Toledo) and other settlements throughout Spain (Almazán, Velada, and Santa María de Aguayo). The case was initiated in December 1799 and sentencing took place in August 1800, with the final certification on the concluding leaves following in 1801. The hidalgos were Spanish lesser nobility, without distinct titles, but with important legal privileges, tax exemptions, and the right to a coat of arms. Such extensive cases were often brought before the court at Valladolid (the highest in Castile), and in the case of a successful ruling, as was the case here, the claimants received permanent and irrefutable proof of their status after consideration of full genealogical evidence and other testimony. The length of the present Ejecutoria is due to the complexity of the case, which involved not only a network of kinship throughout the Castile region, but also multiple generations, including minors and widows, with many pages devoted to the requisite evidence. The volume concludes with a definitive confirmation of the status of nobility and asserts this privilege in perpetuity: “Hidalguía de Sangre en propiedad posesoria ganada a pedimento de Don Juan Rayón.” As a result, the document served as the definitive legal instrument handed over the the family. It not only cemented its social status, but could also be used to enforce their legal and tax privileges before municipal authorities.

Price: €2,500.00

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