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María Helena da Cruz Coelho
In this article, Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho shows how the pressure put on the Crown by the endemic state of war in later medieval Portugal advanced the regular participation of the Cortes in public affairs. The article establishes the almost unbroken series of wars, external and internal, which arose from dynastic competition with the other Iberian monarchies, the ongoing wars between England and France and the beginnings of Portuguese colonial expansion into Morocco and the Azores. The effects of royal demands for money and manpower on the communities are analysed and their reflection in the agendas of the sessions of the Cortes, where military-financial issues predominated, is noted. These pressures thrust the Third Estate into a leading position, since it represented the ruling oligarchies of the urban communities, which generated much of the revenues and manpower. The analysis of the records of the Cortes shows how a strong royal administration was enabled to function through a continuous process of negotiation with the Estates, which made the urban oligarchies partners in government, and enabled them to protect their group interests, as the price of their support for the ongoing military enterprises of the monarchy.
