page_title: Pedro Muñoz
section_title: 16th century
hierarchical_section_title: Pedro Muñoz / History / 16th century
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato de la emperatriz Isabel de Portugal (1503-1539), que fue hija del rey Manuel I de Portugal y de la reina María de Aragón y esposa del emperador Carlos I de España, siendo además la madre del rey Felipe II.English: Titian, Empress Isabel of Portugal, 1548, oil on canvas, 117 x 98 cm, Prado museum (Madrid, Spain)
context_page_description: Pedro Muñoz is a municipality in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is located in the northeast corner of the province of Ciudad Real, on the bank of the Záncara river. It is in the La Mancha region, in the "Mancha Alta" sub-region. It was founded in 1284 by the Archdeacon of Alcaraz, Pero Muñoz, as one of a series of defensible points in the La Mancha plains. The village was abandoned in 1410, due to a severe drought, and re-established in 1525. Since the late 19th century, Pedro Muñoz had been an important economic center in the region.
  The village has an important architectural heritage of manor houses, hermitages and the Renaissance and Baroque church of St Peter the Apostle. It also has a natural and ecological heritage composed of a protected complex of wetlands, visited by many species of migratory birds.
context_section_description: In 1525 the town was resettled by the Mayordomo family whose patriarch, Juan Mayordomo, had heard about the fertility of its lands – and also had to abandon their old village, Cervera del Llano, Cuenca, due to a confrontation with the Marquis de Villena over taxation. Juan Mayordomo later informed his relatives that it was a suitable and welcoming place and persuaded them to settle and encourage others to join them. Mayordomo's family was responsible for spreading this message and soon other families began to arrive until the town was reborn. Mayordomo became the first mayor of the municipality due to his leadership.
  Farmers residing in the neighbouring villages of Socuéllamos, El Toboso, Campo de Criptana and Mota del Cuervo attempted to destroy the houses where the newcomers had settled. They were fearful that they would lose their new borders, forests and meadows they had gained when the village was abandoned in 1410. To avoid this, Mayordomo and other residents took their case to the courts of Ocaña, Toledo, Avila and Madrid, asking for town powers to be granted. However the councils of Socuéllamos, El Toboso, Campo de Criptana and Mota del Cuervo also filed a lawsuit to prevent this concession, vying for favor against Pedro Muñoz.
  Spain was at that time positioned as one of the major European powers, and Emperor Charles I had to leave Spain to resolve issues in its European territories. In his place, Queen Isabella of Portugal and Aragon granted town privileges to Pedro Muñoz on 10 August 1531, saving the town from future threats against its homes. For this reason there appears in the right lower quarter of the town's heraldic shield a crown in gratitude to the monarchy, specifically Isabel, for her decision to grant township privileges in a difficult time.
caption: Queen Isabella gave the Privilege Ville to Pedro Muñoz, 10 August 1531.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1586", "Image ImageLength": "1920", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:02:09 20:01:38", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6841", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1540", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1868"}