YOUNG HEIRS: VIRTUES, OBLIGATIONS, FAMILY PRECEPTS AND CONFLICTS THROUGH THE CASTILIAN ENTAILED ESTATE (16TH-18TH CENTURIES)

The transmission of heritage constituted one of the most transcendental moments in the life of families. The nobiliary elites used the institution of the entailed estate as an effective and ideal means of preserving their patrimony and perpetuating their memory. In this way, the search for an ideal successor, who would pass on the legacy from generation to generation, was the object of the founders' concerns. The young successors, from birth, had to comply with the precepts and virtues set out in the deeds of foundation of the entailed estate, in addition to the social and familial obligations that their position required. This paper analyses the conditions and precepts that heirs had to fulfil from birth. It also deals with the conflicts that arose in obtaining the entailed estate, such as those disputes that affected the configuration and subsistence of the family.