Editing Boal (section)

===Modern Ages===
This system of municipalities was in force until the arrival of [[Philip II of Spain|King Felipe II]], who obtained permission from [[Pope Gregory XIII]] to divide and sell any town, place and jurisdiction, which allowed him to obtain financing for wars and to pay the great debt he had. There were attempts of buying jurisdictions by some individuals (with the intention to advance in the social scale), but the most usual was the buying by the people.

This favored that in those years Boal disassociated from the Church. In 1579, [[Alonso López de Navia y Bolaño]], an inhabitant of the town of Navia, gave power to Pedro Bermúdez to arrange with [[Alonso de Camino]], who initially registered the parishes of Serandinas, Boal, Doiras, Pesoz, Coaña, [[Trelles]], [[Villacondide]], etc., expecting to buy them, for shortly after transferring the parishes of Boal, [[Serandinas]] and Doiras to [[Rui Garcia de Cangas]] in order to reduce expenses.

The fears of the people of villages to depend on the lords, considering the abuses they committed against their inhabitants, led them to "buy themselves" and to incorporate into the Crown. Thus, the parishes of Boal, Serandinas and Doiras were redeemed in 1580, starting to have the jurisdictional status of ''"realengo"'' (directly depending on the King).

The definitive independence of Boal as a municipality took place in 1584, when representatives of the inhabitants of its parishes met, drawing up the first local regulations and agreeing on the way to choose the offices of town councilors, mayor, constables, attorneys, etc.  Thus, parishes became towns with civil and criminal jurisdiction, and representatives would meet once a year to choose the aforementioned offices. At this time, the capital of the municipality changed and it was held in several of its villages ([[Prelo]], [[Armal]], Castrillón, and the town of Boal), but it definitely returned to Boal in 1791.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, in which the clearly predominant activities in Boal were agriculture and cattle farming, beautiful family seats and palaces were built in the municipality, but at present most of them are almost completely disappeared, although with some exceptions such as the [[Palace of Miranda]], in the village of Prelo. There is no doubt that the 18th century was the most prosperous for the municipality because, in addition to the fundamental farming activities, the craftwork industries became noticeably important too, and by the middle of this century there were 4 [[fulling mill]]s, 8 [[mallet]]s to stretch [[iron]], one [[forge]], and 42 [[gristmill|mills for grain]].