Chapter 4 – ROYAL RECOGNITION

No one knows the origin of the place name Porches, but there have been some interesting guesses. One suggestion is that it dates back to Hispania Lusitania, the Roman province that included much of Portugal and part of Spain. The word Porches has disappeared from the Portuguese language but is still used in Spanish and means the same as ‘porch’ in English. It is thought to have been used in Roman times to denote a slightly elevated space with a fine view. That would have been a fitting name in the days of long ago.

Others have suggested that Porches may have evolved from the word ‘Portimunt’, which was used by a Crusader writing about the conquest of the Moorish capital of Silves in the 12th or 13th century. He was referring to one of the capital’s fortified outposts. Porches was just that at the time. The Crusader cannot have been referring to Portimão because it was not a fortified place. Yet another theory is that Porches derived from Portius or Portia, the name of a Roman family living in the Algarve.

Porches is pronounced the same as the plural of that famous make of German cars. Any resemblance to the cars ends there. There is nothing fast or sleek about the village or the parish. And there never has been.

The earliest known written record concerning Porches was a document issued in either 1250 or 1252. It proclaimed that D. Afonso III had given overall rights to the fortress and neighbouring lands at Porches to one of his nobles, Estevão Anes. The precise location of this original village or Porches (Porches Velho) is not known for sure but it is believed to have been much closer to the sea than the present village.  Nor is it clear if the fortress referred was the fortified headland of Nossa Senhora da Rocha or a separate bastion.

As far as is known, nothing further was officially recorded until 1286, the landmark year when Afonso III’s son and successor, D. Dinis, issued a royal charter laying out the way Porches was to be administered. The king was only 25 at the time but the charter was an early indication of the focus of his reign that would last 46 years.

D. Dinis, who became known as the ‘Farmer King’ (Rei Lavrador), placed far less emphasis on military affairs and more on civic and judicial organisation, agricultural development and bolstering the rights of the lower classes.

Written in Latin, the charter began: “In the name of God, amen. Let it be known to all those present as future generations that I, D. Dinis, by the grace of God King of Portugal and the Algarve, jointly with Queen D. Isabel, my wife, daughter of the illustrious King of Aragon, make this charter to you the people of Porches, both present and future…..”

The charter was intended “as a way of maximising energies for social and military organisation in the extreme south of the country.” It gives a fascinating glimpse into the way of life in the 13th century.

Overall control in Porches was in the hands of a nobleman appointed by the king. Members of the Knights Hospitallers religious military order were among its most distinguished inhabitants and thus endowed with considerable rights, but the charter also sought to protect citizens’ freedom and promote trade.

A council of officials was to be elected by the local people, each with specific fields of responsibility such as justice, salaries, commerce and taxes. It was clear from the 1286 document that fishing and farming were the main economic activities in the area, as they were all across the Algarve.

Seventy-five percent of the population of Porches specifically identified in the charter were military men. Of those fifty-five percent were knights. Top officers, crossbow men, foot soldiers and legal officials accounted for the other twenty-five percent of the military.

The remainder of those covered by the charter included roughly equal numbers of clergy, merchants and artisans.

The main commodities produced and traded in the area seem to have been cereals, rice, bread, wine, fish, figs, olives, vegetables, salt, livestock, leatherwear, linen clothes and handicrafts, especially practical everyday things like utensils.

The king kept some key facilities and enterprises for himself and his successors. For example, he reserved the rights to all saltpans, windmills, slaughterhouses, bread ovens and baths. He insisted on being patron of all existing and future churches – and on all whaling activity in the Porches area.

The king kept ownership of all the fig trees and trading stalls handed down by the ‘Saracens’, meaning the previous Muslim monarchs. Other stalls were owned by Porches inhabitants who paid a monthly licence fee. Traders from outside the area were charged a toll per cartload of goods brought in, but there was no toll on the way out provided they were carrying an equivalent value of local produce. 

Winemakers were strongly discouraged from ignoring the stipulated resting period for wine after fermentation. The first two violations brought about fines. A third resulted in the all the vintner’s wine being thrown out and his vats and other containers being destroyed.

The charter laid down a comprehensive system of taxes on everything from hauls of fish and trade in donkeys to the buying and selling of Moorish slaves. Even noble landowners and monasteries had to pay dues to the king. Bakers had to give him one in every 30 loaves of bread.

The currency at the time seems to have been a mixture of soldos, marabotims and mealhas. Soldos were a gold coin currency originally issued by the Romans but still widely in use in medieval Europe. Marabotims were a gold currency based on the dinar introduced by the Moors and still in use in southern Portugal after the Moors relinquished power. Mealhas seem to have been used most in markets and travelling fairs.
       Crime during the reign of D. Dinis was punishable by fines, some of which seem disproportionate by today’s standards. For example, murder or rape attracted a fine of 500 soldos. Those guilty of murder outside of Porches got away with a fine of just 60 soldos – the same as for a person who drew a weapon in anger even if though no one was injured. A fine of 60 soldos was also levied on those guilty of verbal abuse.

No one was allowed to seize or harm a clergyman caught in a shameful act with a woman, but the woman herself could be seized.

The owner of a property who killed a violent intruder was fined one marabotim. If the intruder was only wounded, he, the intruder, had to pay half a  marabotim. Half a marabotim was the fixed tax on buying a Moorish slave – the same price payable to the king by those from outside the Porches area who wanted to purchase a vat of Porches wine. Half a marabotim was also the tax on every mule, hinny or horse that men from outside the parish bought or sold, whether worth ten marabotims or less. All of the inhabitants of Porches, including the underprivileged were exempt from death duties.

Some of the arrangements seem quite odd nowadays. If a horse killed someone, the owner had to pay with the horse or settle up in some other agreed way. If cattle became lost, the inspector of taxes could impound them for three months and after that do whatever he wanted if the owner did not show up.

In summary, the royal document concluded that those who firmly respected the charter would receive blessings. “Those who act against it will be damned by myself and by God,” declared D. Dinis.