Corregidor (position)
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A corregidor (Spanish: [korexiˈðoɾ]) was a local administrative and judicial official in Spanish Empire. They were the representatives of the royal jurisdiction over a town and its district.
He was the highest authority of a corregimiento. In the Spanish Americas and the Spanish Philippines, a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor.[1] They began to be appointed in Pre-Spanish Imperial fourteenth century Castile.
Development in Spain
The idea of appointing
The first monarch to make extensive use of corregidores was
As representatives of the royal power, corregidores administered
After the
Introduction into the Americas and the Philippines
The institution was established also in
By law neither corregidores nor governors (nor viceroys, for that matter) could be persons who resided in the district in which they ruled, so that they should not develop ties to the locality, such that they remain disinterested administrators and judges. For this reason, they were also forbidden to marry in their district, although they could apply for exemptions from this restriction. However, in reality, they largely became enmeshed with local society, especially through financial ties, since their pay was based on a proportion of local royal revenues, and this was often an insufficient amount to cover living costs, much less the costs incurred in traveling to America. Corregidores often invested in the local economy, received loans from locals, and could abuse the reparto de comercio monopoly they oversaw, which often led to corruption.
Nominally under the viceroys, the long distances from the viceregal and even provincial capitals meant that most corregidores acted independently. Therefore, since their office held both police power (as the main local administrative institution) and judicial power (as the court of first instance) in rural areas, corregidores were very powerful persons. Because most of the corregidores in the Americas were not legally trained, they were assisted by lawyers who served as their asesores, or "advisers." If their district were large enough to require it, they were further assisted by subordinate delegates, called tenientes (lieutenant corregidores). In municipal areas with a cabildo, corregidores were to work with the council—for example, they recorded the annual election of alcaldes ordinarios and other council officers—but they could not hear cases in the first instance, which was the duty of the alcaldes ordinarios. In these cases, corregidores functioned as the first court of appeals, instead.
With the Bourbon Reforms of the late 18th century, most corregidores were replaced by the more powerful intendants.
See also
- Corregimiento
- Alcalde
- Alcalde ordinario
- Sargento mayor
- Cabildo
- Regidor
- Síndico
- Ayuntamiento
- Teniente a guerra
- Santa Hermandad
Further reading
- Baskes, Jeremy. Indians, Merchants, and Markets: A Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and Spanish-Indian economic relations in Colonial Oaxaca. Stanford: Stanford University Press 2000.
- Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1964.
- González Alonso, Benjamín: El corregidor castellano (1348-1808), Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Administrativos, 1970
- Haring, C. H.The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1947, 128-134
- Lohman Villena, Guillermo. El corregidor de indios en Perú bajo los Austrias. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica 1957.
- Lunenfeld, Marvin: Keepers of the City: The Corregidores of Isabella I of Castile (1474-1504), Cambridge University Press, 1987
- Moreno Cebrián, Adolfo. El corregidor de indios y la economía peruana del siglo XVIII (los repartos forzosos de mercancías). Madrid: Instituto Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo 1977.
- de Andagoya, Pascual and translated by Markham, Clements R. Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila, London, 1865.
References
- ^ "Corregidor". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ^ Livermore, Harold (1958). A History of Spain. New York: Grove Press. p. 168.
- ISBN 0-19-822530-X.
- ^ Harold, A History of Spain, 189.
- ^ ISBN 978-1118772485.