Editing Mesta (section)

===After 1085===
The captures by Castile of [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] in 1085 and of [[Zaragoza]] by the [[Kingdom of Aragon]] in 1118 greatly increased the sizes of these Christian kingdoms and, particularly for Aragon, their populations.<ref>Reilly, pp.99-100, 109-10</ref> However, the increase in Castile's population was not commensurate with its increased size. Much of the Muslim population of the southern territories, renamed [[New Castile (Spain)|New Castile]], left for North Africa or the [[Emirate of Granada]], and the increasing use of the heavy [[plough]] in the north of the kingdom raised cereal production and discouraged its population from southward migration into areas less suitable for mixed farming.<ref name="Reilly, pp.139-40">Reilly, pp.139-40</ref>
 
In the 12th and 13th centuries, many sheep-herders in Old Castile and León began transhumance to more distant pastures, within or without those provinces,<ref name="pastor 364" /> This was both of the ''normal'' variety, moving from the home farm to summer pastures within the same province, and an ''inverse'' movement to winter pastures further away.<ref>Braudel, p.85-6</ref> Two examples of normal transhumance are first, when many Castilian cities and towns were granted royal charters in the 12th century, they gained control over large areas of upland pasturage and granted grazing rights to their citizens.<ref>Pascua Echegaray, pp.230-2</ref><ref>Diago Hernando, p.63</ref> and, second, after the Aragónese conquest of the Ebro valley in the first quarter of the 12th century, sheep wintering in the valley were granted rights by the king to summer pasture in the foothills of the [[Pyrenees]].<ref>Butzer, p.39</ref>