Council of Castile
Encyclopedia
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
, second only to the monarch himself. It was established under Queen Isabella I
Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to both kingdoms that became the basis for the unification of Spain. Later the two laid the foundations for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor...
in 1480 as the chief body dealing with administrative and judicial matters of the realm. With the 1516 ascension of King Charles I
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
(later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) to the throne of both Castile and Aragon
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
, the Royal Council came to be known as the Council of Castile because Charles was king of many dominions other than Castile, while the Council retained responsibility only over Castile.
During periods in which there was no monarch, an absent monarch, or an incompetent monarch, the Royal Council would rule as a regency council
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
in his place.
Origins
The earliest form of the Royal Council was created at the end of the fourteenth century in 1385 by King JohnJohn I of Castile
John I was the king of Crown of Castile, was the son of Henry II and of his wife Juana Manuel of Castile, daughter of Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, head of a younger branch of the royal house of Castile...
after the disaster at the Battle of Aljubarrota
Battle of Aljubarrota
The Battle of Aljubarrota was a battle fought between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile on 14 August 1385. Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the support of English allies, opposed the army of King John I of Castile with its...
. It consisted of 12 members, four from each of the clergy, the cities, and the nobility. In 1442 the nobility increased its influence on the Council, adding many nobles as titular members of the Council. Sixty became the new number of members.
Under the Catholic Monarchs: Centralization
This Council was rather ineffective and the Catholic MonarchsCatholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...
, King Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
and Isabella I, sought to change it in their drive to centralize the country and bring it more firmly in line with national interests rather than the nobles. In 1480, they passed the Act of Resumption at the Cortes of Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
. This act would allow Ferdinand and Isabella to directly appoint bureaucrats, rather than letting the independent and erratic nobles rule. The Royal Council would control both a royal army and manage tax disputes, which would place nobles more securely under the control of the Crown.
The new composition of the reformed Council was a president, a treasurer, a church prelate, three caballeros (often minor nobility), and between eight and ten letrados (lawyers or jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
s). These were Council's chief duties:
- To advise the Crown on matters of appointments, both military and civil
- Until the creation of the Council of the Indies, to supervise works, projects, expeditions, and colonizations commissioned by the CastilianCrown of CastileThe Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
government, in the Old WorldOld WorldThe Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
and New WorldNew WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
(RequerimientoRequerimientoThe Requerimiento "requirement" as in "demand") was a written declaration of sovereignty and war, read by Spanish military forces to assert their sovereignty over the Americas...
) - To offer consideration of and judgment to the Crown regarding the conferring of pensions, emoluments, and sundry favors
- To serve as the supreme courtSupreme courtA supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
of justice of the Kingdom of Castile - To have all members of the Council sign all legal documents that in any way effected the working of the Crown, including detailed, day-to-day governmental decisions
In order to prevent it from falling under control of the great noble houses, as had happened with the original royal council, non-appointed nobles were allowed to attend Council meetings but were given no vote. The result of this meant that the Council, and its bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
, was composed chiefly of "new men": the minor nobility, townsmen, and civilian magistrates.
After Queen Isabella's death in 1504, the Royal Council began to grow corrupt and influenced by the nobility once more. King Philip I
Philip I of Castile
Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...
was an ineffective ruler who only reigned two years; after him, the government theoretically fell to Ferdinand and Isabella's daughter, Queen Joanna I of Castile
Joanna of Castile
Joanna , nicknamed Joanna the Mad , was the first queen regnant to reign over both the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon , a union which evolved into modern Spain...
, and her six-year-old son Charles of Ghent, the future Emperor Charles V. Joanna was considered incompetent, and Charles too young. Archbishop Cisneros ruled a brief time as regent, but was undercut by noble schemes and spent much of his time simply trying to hold together the national government.
Cisneros was then replaced by Joanna's father King Ferdinand II, whose claim to rule Castile with his wife's death was rather weak, but no other plausible choice than his being regent existed. Ferdinand was often an absent ruler of Castile, living in Aragon, and the Royal Council managed his affairs. During this period, it became even more corrupt and ineffectual. Nobles illegally expanded their domains by force, sending soldiers to "claim" land that was owned by the royal government or free peasants. The Council, corrupt and bribed, usually ignored these incidents, allowing nobles to freely enrich themselves at the cost of justice and the national government.
Charles I of Habsburg: Revolt and Reform
After Ferdinand's death in 1516, Cisneros served as regent again for a brief time more, and then Charles I was crowned king now that he was of age. However, the young king was at the time almost completely controlled by Flemish advisors such as William de Croÿ, sieur de ChièvresWilliam de Croÿ
William II de Croÿ, Lord of Chièvres , later Duke of Sora and Arce, Baron of Roccaguglielma William II de Croÿ, Lord of Chièvres (1458 – 28 May 1521) (also known as: Guillaume II de Croÿ, sieur de Chièvres in French; Guillermo II de Croÿ, señor de Chièvres, Xevres or Xebres in Spanish;...
, and he did not undertake any efforts to change the Council at first. Additionally, Charles' new government levied high taxes and demands on Castile, with its ambitions over all Europe. Charles was the King, becoming Charles V Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, of one of the largest empires, the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
, in European and world history - "The empire on which the sun never sets
The empire on which the sun never sets
The phrase, "the Empire on which the sun never sets", has been used with variations to describe certain global empires that were so extensive that there was always at least one part of their territory in daylight....
." The Bishop of Badajoz, Ruiz de la Mota, was an influential member of the Royal Council and declared to the Cortes of Corunna
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...
that Castile was to be the empire's "treasury and sword."
When Charles left Spain in 1520, the Revolt of the Comuneros broke out against royal government. Much of their complaints were against the Council—representatives of Valladolid's radical parishes were unanimous in a statement blaming the Council's "bad government" for the kingdom's troubles. The Royal Council would lead the royalist forces against the rebels in Charles' absence. Charles left as regent the Dutch Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht, by most accounts a decent ruler saddled with a difficult situation. Much of the Royal Council agitated for vigorous punishment against the rebels, such as its hated president, Antonio de Rojas. These early reprisals would backfire, and intensified the revolt's spread.
Eventually, the rebels were defeated, but Charles (who had also matured and distanced himself from his earlier advisers) realized that the Council direly needed reform. Charles embarked upon a vigorous program to change the nature of the Council, dismissing the unpopular Antonio de Rojas and replacing him with Juan de Tavera, the Archbishop of Santiago
Archbishop of Santiago
Archbishop of Santiago may refer to:*Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.*Archbishop of Santiago...
. He also added three new councilors, Juan Manuel, Pedro de Medina, and Martín Vázquez, and generally sought to replace nobles with gentry and educated lawyers. More importantly, Charles changed the Council's functions. The Royal Council would no longer deal with the vast majority of civil law disputes and cases, allowing them to focus on administration instead. Judicial complaints and appeals would now be dealt with by a new and expanded judiciary, the audiencias. With the reputation of the Council restored, the quality of its appointees rose.
At some point in this time period, the Royal Council became known as the Council of Castile, to reflect that the Council's power extended only over Castile and not the whole empire. With the growth of Spain's overseas conquests, and the prodding of Charles' grand-counselor and close friend Mercurino Guttinara, the Council of Castile expanded and split. Between the years 1522-1524 the Council of Castile reorganized the government of the Kingdom of Navarre
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
, dismissing its viceroy, the Duke of Nájera
House of Lara
The House of Lara or Casa de Lara are a noble family, known from the medieval Kingdom of Castile.Two of its branches, those from the Duke of Nájera and from the Marquis of Aguilar de Campoo were considered Grandees of Spain...
. A Council of Finance (Hacienda) was created, and on August 1 the Council of the Indies was split from the Council of Castile. Thirty years later, in 1555, the Council of Italy was formed, yet another offspring of the Council of Castile. Guttinara also saw the establishment of the Consejo de la Cámara de Castilla, an inner circle of the Council of Constile. The Consejo was composed of three or four trusted members of the Council who had power to deal with unpopular or secret issues.
Post Charles I: Prominence and Decline
The Royal Council came to prominence again during the reign of King Charles IICharles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
from 1665–1700, as Charles II was mentally incompetent. After the War of Spanish Succession and Nueva Planta decrees
Nueva Planta decrees
The Nueva Planta decrees were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V—the first Bourbon king of Spain—during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession which he won....
, Spain centralized itself further. Castile's government became dominant not just over Castile, but the former Crown of Aragon
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
as well. The enlightened despotisms of Charles III
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
and Charles IV
Charles IV of Spain
Charles IV was King of Spain from 14 December 1788 until his abdication on 19 March 1808.-Early life:...
also saw a prominent role for the Council of Castile. Spain's kings of the 19th century were considerably less effective, and the 19th century also saw various revolutions such as the Trienio Liberal and the First Spanish Republic
First Spanish Republic
The First Spanish Republic was the political regime that existed in Spain between the parliamentary proclamation on 11 February 1873 and 29 December 1874 when General Arsenio Martínez-Campos's pronunciamento marked the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration in Spain...
which broke the power of the Council.