village and scornfully challenges Esteban and other men of the village to avenge her and the other women who have been the Comendador's playthings. Enraged and shamed, Esteban leads the men on a raid of the Comendador's quarters, and they rescue Frondoso and his friend Mengo from torture. Joining them: the village women, led by Laurencia.
Invoking the names of Ferdinand and Isabella, the villagers kill the Comendador. But Flores, the Comendador's deputy, appeals to King Ferdinand for justice. At the trial, all the villagers, including some children, insist under torture that "Fuente Ovejuna did it!" (III.225). Later, in audience with Ferdinand, Esteban explains that the Comendador's death was mere justice and in the name of the village swears loyalty to the Spanish crown.
The social and political interplay of discrete character groups is fundamental to an understanding of the play's treatment of justice and the position of women. There are three principal groups of note: the peasantry, the royal court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Iberian feudal figures, r
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