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nglo-Saxon law and custom so thoroughly informs our culture that we can occasionally forget how other nations developed different practices. In medieval Castile, situated in the heart of present-day Spain, the Christian monarchs’ plan of Reconquista—the process of reclaiming the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, by force or by cultural influence—created an ever-changing frontier. Miles of territory remained contested for centuries. Towns fell to the Christians and were reclaimed by the Moors, then back again.

Men greatly outnumbered women in frontier towns, and bachelor knights were considered as great a threat as Moorish invasion. Itinerancy and irresponsibility would not promote Reconquista, neither militarily nor culturally. Thus towns enacted fueros, or laws, to promote stability among these rogue, potentially dangerous knights, namely time off from military service after marriage, financial rewards for bearing children, and even the social acceptance of illegitimate sexual relations.