Os vereadores não são temidos como é razão: o governo de uma vila portuária do senhorio da Ordem Militar de Santiago no final da Idade Média

The study of the exercise of municipal government in Setúbal during the final centuries of the Middle Ages shows that the Order of Santiago exercised an increased control over municipal power, both through its intervention in the process of appointing the most important municipal magistrates and through its interference in the production of municipal regulations. These aspects do not constitute a particularity of this medieval port town, but also occur in other urban settlements integrated in the jurisdiction of the Order of Santiago. The strategies of control and reproduction of power detected are based on the establishment of a wide range of links connecting various individuals who belonged to the municipal administration with the administrative structure of the Order of Santiago.