ABSTRACT

The approach taken by António Manuel Hespanha regarding the exercise of political power in Ancien Regime Portugal had a considerable impact on historiography, with intriguing developments which can still be observed and appreciated by its outstanding contribution to studies of Modern and Brazilian Colonial History. The ground-breaking way of his pluralistic view of political power, instead of a monolithic tradition founded on a centralistic-type, provided for more effective research on the nature of complex structures of power. Nonetheless, his innovative approach failed to have the same influence upon medievalists, who stick by the traditional perspective as the adequate type for knowing the political past in the Middle Ages.

KEYWORDS
António Hespanha; political centralization; juridical pluralism