16th century: Universal Nobility

From the fourteenth century hidalguía, a minor rank of nobility with the privilege of legal freedom and no payment of “pechos” or personal taxes, was won by the Gipuzkoan towns, starting with Tolosa and extending to the remaining towns during the rest of the fourteenth century, such that the natives of these towns all became hidalgos, even though they worked and traded (unlike the rest of the nobility). This was the so-called universal nobility.

Theirnobility made it possible for Gipuzkoans to carve out careers in the armed forces and in the Crown’s administrative services, where many figures are remembered, contributing with their taxes to the building of monuments across the territory (palaces, churches, convents and monasteries, etc.)