Forged documents have worried historians for centuries, but it is only relatively recently that they have begun to be appreciated as essential gateways in the study of the ideology of the periods in which such forgeries were created. A skilled forger is able to link to key components of his contemporaries’ ideology in search for credibility for his work and legitimation for his goals. This article discusses the ideological context in which some of the most successful forgeries in medieval Castile were created. The focus is especialy set upon those pieces which were attributed to either fully fi ctional characters or real characters which had been largely fi ctionalized by the epic literature, the role of which in the making of a Castilian political identity is recognized as crucial.

La falsificación de documentos es un tema que ha preocupado a los historiadores desde hace siglos, pero sólo de forma relativamente reciente se ha em pezado a valorar su potencial para iluminar aspectos clave de la ideología de la época en que dich as falsifi caciones fueron elaboradas. El falsario apela a elementos clave del imaginario colectivo qu e pueden dar credibilidad a su obra y legitimar sus fi nes. En este artículo se discute el contexto ideológico en el que se forjaron algunas de las falsifi caciones más exitosas de la Castilla medieval, caracterizadas por su atribución a personajes que, o bien eran fi cticios, o bien habían sido radicalmente fi ccionalizados a través de la literatura épica, cuyo papel en la creación de u na identidad política castellana fue crucial.