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Rh new class of nobles, the infanzones, more immediately dependent on the king. In this period, too, first appear the milites (caballeros), free men who received certain privileges in return for military service, and also the infanzones de fuero, nobles of a peculiar kind chosen by the king from inhabitants of cities or boroughs. Some men too put themselves under the protection of nobles, giving personal services and payments in return for it; this protection was known as encomienda or benefactoria.

The serfs were divided as in the Visigothic period into those belonging to the State (fiscales), those owned by ecclesiastics (ecclesiásticos) and those who were the property of private individuals (particulares). According to their status they might be either personal property (personales) or bound to the soil (colonos). The latter were indissolubly tied to the soil (gleba), so that they were regarded as part of the land like trees or buildings, and were therefore included in contracts for sale or purchase. The status of a serf might be acquired by birth, by debt, by captivity or by voluntary assignment to a lord (obnoxacion). These last had a higher status and were called oblati. Freedom night be recovered by manumission, which was due to the influence of Christianity and to economic necessities, by revolt or flight; hence arose a class of freedmen with special privileges and more advantages than the primitive serf. By the end of the tenth century these freedmen formed the majority of the population and were known as juniores. They spoke of themselves as tenants-in-chief (de cabeza), though they were liable to personal service, and were regarded as part and parcel of the inheritance (heredad) or ancestral demesne (solariegos); even when they worked elsewhere or lived away on an alien plot, they still paid tribute. Such was their condition as it appears in the charter of Leon at the beginning of the eleventh century; but afterwards it steadily improved.

The king was at the head of the government, but his power varied in different cases. He combined legislative and judicial functions, and claimed the sole prerogative of coining money as well as the right to summon his vassals to war (fonsadera). There was, however, considerable variation in practice. In the lands directly dependent on the king (realengas) he had full jurisdiction over all orders, and was himself their mesne lord. But the nobles sometimes exercised over their own lands an authority that practically superseded the king's. All the inhabitants of the domain were dependent on their feudal lord, some as serfs, others under his patronage. He collected tribute from them, he accepted their personal services; he compelled them to go out on military duty; in a sense he dictated their laws and divided the functions of government between the judex, mayordomus, villicus, and sagio who presided over the concilium. He could not extend his privileges over lands newly acquired without the express leave of the king. The powers of the king over the lands of ecclesiastical vassals were also