A History of Spain / founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira

by Charles E. Chapman; Rafael Altamira

As regards the towns the Catholic Kings followed precisely the same practices which had been employed with such success in the previous era. It was rare, indeed, that they suppressed charters, but circumstances like those already recorded[52] enabled the corregidores and other royal officers to exercise virtual control. Meanwhile, the process of unification was going on through the ordinances of the Cortes and royal decrees, fortified by the unrecorded development of similarity in customs in Castilian municipal life. This was furthered by the representatives of the towns themselves, for royal and municipal interests were usually in accord. Noteworthy extensions of royal authority appeared in the subjection of local officials to the residencia (or trial during a number of days after the completion of a term of office, to determine the liability of an official for the wrongful acts of his administration) and in the sending of royal pesquisidores, or enquirers (in cases of crime), and veedores (inspectors), later more often called visitadores (visitors), to investigate matters of government, such as the accounts of financial agents and the conduct of public officers. These institutions were later transferred to the Americas, becoming an important means of sustaining the authority of the mother country. In some instances the Catholic Kings resorted to force to reduce municipalities which were too autonomous in character, notably in the case of the hermandad of the north coast towns, whose decadence dates from this reign.

The royalist ideal was manifested strikingly in the relations of the Catholic Kings with the Castilian Cortes. From 1475 to 1503 the Cortes was summoned but nine times, and during the years 1482 to 1498, at a time when Granada was being conquered, America discovered and occupied, the new Inquisition instituted, and the Jews expelled, it did not meet even once. Its decline was evidenced still further in the increasingly respectful language employed whenever it addressed the monarch and its growing dependence on the Consejo Real, which body subjected the acts of the Cortes to its own revision and whose president acted in a similar capacity for the Cortes.

Decline of the Aragonese Cortes and of the power of Barcelona.

Ferdinand followed the same policy in Aragon. The various Cortes of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia and the general Cortes of all three were infrequently called; the king acted in an arbitrary manner in his methods of raising funds, without observing the spirit of the laws. It was in his dealings with Barcelona that he most clearly manifested the royalist tendency, for that city was the most powerful element in the kingdom. Through his intervention the practice of electing the five concelleres, or councillors, was suspended in favor of royal appointment, and the Consell, or council of a hundred, was altered so that it was no longer democratic but represented the will of the monarch. The fact that these changes were made without provoking resistance and almost without protest shows how utterly dead were the political ideals of the past.

The new bureaucracy.

The concentration in royal hands of so many powers which were formerly exercised by the lords and towns made necessary the development of a numerous and varied officialdom to assist the monarch. As the basis of the new bureaucracy in Castile the Catholic Kings had at hand the Consejo Real, which with some changes was admirably adapted to the purpose. The first step was to rid it of the great nobles. In 1480 the untitled letrados became a majority in this body. The counts, dukes, and marquises were still allowed to attend, but were deprived of the right to vote. Shortly afterward they were excluded altogether, and the Consejo Real now responded without question to the will of the king. It served as the head of the various branches of the bureaucratic organization, with the final decision, subject to the wishes of the king, in all matters of government. Pressure of work led to the formation of three additional councils, those of the Inquisition (Inquisición), the military orders, (Órdenes Militares), and the Americas, or Indies (Indias), while there were still others in the kingdom of Aragon. Particularly important among the other officials was the monarch’s private secretary, who came to have a very nearly decisive influence, owing to the favor he enjoyed with the head of the state. A horde of other officers, old and new, made up the ranks of the bureaucracy. Among the older group it is to be noted that the adelantados were supplanted by alcaldes mayores, until only one of the former was left. Among newer officials the important inquisitors and veedores, or visitadores, should be noted.

Administration of justice.

A similar development to that of the executive branch was experienced in the administration of justice. The fountain-head was the chancillería at the capital, Valladolid, to which were subordinate in a measure the several regional audiencias, which were now established for the first time, besides the hierarchy of the judiciary of lower grades. In addition to unifying and regulating the judicial system the Catholic Kings gave attention to the internal purification of the courts, with a view to eliminating the unfit or undesirable and to checking abuses. The corrupt practices of those outside the courts were also attacked, especially powerful persons who attempted to overawe judges or procure a miscarriage of justice. One of the principal difficulties encountered was that of conflicts of jurisdiction, notably in the case of the church courts. Good Catholic though she was, Isabella was determined in her opposition to ecclesiastical invasions of royal jurisdiction, but despite her energetic measures the issue was far from being decided in her day. In line with the royal policy of settling disputes by law rather than by force the use of firearms was prohibited, gambling was persecuted, and the riepto (or judicial duel, the last survival of medieval procedure) was abolished. Good order in the present-day sense was far from existing, and this led to a revival of the medieval idea of the hermandades for the punishment of crimes committed in uninhabited places or small villages as well as for the pursuit and execution generally of those guilty of felony. The Santa Hermandad, with its capital at Toledo, was created as a kind of judicial body, sustained by the groups of citizens who formed part of it, employing a militia of mounted men, and making use of summary methods and extreme penalties in its procedure. Its life as an effective body was brief, although it continued to exist for many years. On the other hand the medieval hermandad of Toledo enjoyed a revival of life and usefulness.[53]

Reforms in Aragon.

It is hardly necessary to trace the administrative and judicial reforms of Ferdinand in Aragon. Suffice to say that they followed the Castilian pattern much more closely, indeed, than in the matter of social organization.