TO THE ORIGINS OF PRIVANZA: WORDS AND POLITICAL MODELS

This article examines the interplay of influences whereby the words privado and privanza-which do not refer to a specific office, but to a position of proximity to the king-none the less come to constitute a means of identifying certain protagonists in Castilian politics from the thirteenth century onwards. The analysis of historiographical and literary sources from the period makes it possible to pinpoint, in particular, those moments at which there appears to operate an appropriation of those terms. To begin with, this occurs hesitantly, as can be seen in the Libro de Alexandre and in certain passages of the Primera cronica of Alfonso the Wise, and via a whole range of models that act as mirrors, such as the privatz, or courtly lover, of Occitan lyrics; Dior, Charlemagne's paladin; the Arab wasir; and various positions within the power structure of ancient Rome that implied a privileged relationship with the caesar. From all of these, the Castilian privado borrows some characteristics, while rejecting others.