This book tells the turbulent story of a family – that of Silva – and of its leading House in the 17th century – that of Pastrana – put together from the problematical life-stories of some of its lords. The narrative analyses the virtually unexplored subject of nobiliary litigation between members of the same family in the modern era: this is conceived as the juridical setting in which, in the dynastic ethos of the House of Silva-Pastrana – based on membership and fidelity to the family and loyalty to the senior kinsman – there took place a confrontation between the essential interests of some of its members, who found themselves obliged to litigate against others, nearly always very close relations, to try to obtain parts of the family inheritance that were denied to them by the laws of entail, the wishes of the founders of lordships, and the rigours of primogeniture. We have here the story of a noble family and the narrative of the lives of some of its title-holders and members, all of it also seen as an expression of the contradictions inherent in the structure, nature and composition of the Habsburg kingdom of Spain.

Antonio Terrasa Lozano (born in Palma de Mallorca, 1975) is a graduate in Arts (specialising in History) of the University of the Balearic Islands. In 2002 he followed doctorate studies in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he obtained the Diploma in Advanced Studies the following year after presenting his dissertation on the economic enterprises of the 4th Duke of Pastrana. In 2009 he obtained a doctorate in History and Civilisation in the European University Institute of Florence with a thesis on nobility and in-family litigation. Since 2010 he is a researcher at CIDEHUS-University of Évora.