The University of Coimbra: The Lordship institution in long term

Abstract

The University of Coimbra was, in the modern era, a multifaceted institution. Historiography has revealed its role as a producer of knowledge and a trainer of scholars who held positions in the kingdom and the empire.
The University of Coimbra was also a territorial lordship, which constituted the material basis of its financing, and a jurisdictional lordship endowed with various prerogatives that conferred real and symbolic power. Endowed with intermediate lordship jurisdiction, it enjoyed the prerogative of exemption from correction, the verification of municipal justice elections conducted by the Rector or the auditor, and the knowledge of appeals and grievances. The University also held various privileges, notably the private forum that freed members of the university corporation and many people who interacted with it from royal justice. In a long-term analysis (1290-1835), the phases of structuring and consolidation of the lordship system are understood, which coincide with periods of reform in studies, as well as the institution's difficulties in obtaining the human and material resources necessary to control a geographically dispersed lordship territory inhabited by emphyteutas and parishioners who did not allow themselves to be caught in the meshes of private lordship justices.