Real Audiencia of Santiago

Last updated
MHNChile.JPG

The Royal Audiencia of Santiago (Spanish : Real Audiencia de Santiago) was an Audiencia Real or royal law court that functioned in Santiago de Chile during the Spanish colonial period. This body heard both civil and criminal cases. It was founded during the 17th century and abolished in 1817.

Contents

Structure

Law XII (Audiencia y Chancillería Real de Santiago de Chile) of Title XV (De las Audiencias y Chancillerias Reales de las Indias) of Book II of the Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias of 1680—which reproduces Philip IV's decree of February 17, 1609—describes the limits and functions of the Audiencia. [1]

In the city of Santiago de Chile shall reside another Royal Audiencia and Chancellery of ours, with a president-governor-captain general; four judges of civil cases [oidores], who shall also be judges of criminal cases [alcaldes del crimen]; a crown attorney [fiscal]; a bailiff [alguacil mayor]; a lieutenant of the Gran Chancellor; and the other necessary ministers and officials, which will have for district all of said Kingdom of Chile, with the cities, towns, places and lands, which are included in the government of those provinces, including what is now pacified and populated, as well as what shall be subdued, populated and pacified inside and outside the Straits of Magellan and inland to the Cuyo Province, inclusive. And we order that said president-governor-captain general govern and administer its government (gobernación) in all matters and by all means, and that said Audiencia, nor any other minister interfere in this, except our Viceroy of Peru, in the cases, which comply with the laws in this book and as permitted by our orders, and that said president do not intervene in matters of justice, and leave the oidores to decree in them freely, and that all sign that which they decree, sentence or dispatch.

The Province of Cuyo was transferred to the Audiencia of Buenos Aires, when the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was created in the late eighteenth century.

Independence

The Audiencia it was dissolved in 1810 after the election of the First Government Junta of the Kingdom of Chile with the resignation of some of its hearers and the exile of others, being replaced by a Court of Appeals, which was the first judicial court of the Government of Chile.

With the restoration of the old regime, after the battle of Rancagua, the governor Mariano Osorio surely reopened the court (1814), which he presented until 1817 when it was finally shut down by the independent government of Bernardo O'Higgins, again replaced by a new appeals court, this time called the Cámara de Apelaciones. This was in turn the ancestor of today's Chilean Appeals Court in Santiago.

Related Research Articles

A Real Audiencia, or simply an Audiencia, was an appellate court in Spain and its empire. The name of the institution literally translates as Royal Audience. The additional designation chancillería was applied to the appellate courts in early modern Spain. Each audiencia had oidores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecuadorian–Peruvian territorial dispute</span>

The Ecuadorian–Peruvian territorial dispute was a territorial dispute between Ecuador and Peru, which, until 1928, also included Colombia. The dispute had its origins on each country's interpretation of what Real Cedulas Spain used to precisely define its colonial territories in the Americas. After independence, all of Spain's colonial territories signed and agreed to proclaim their limits in the basis of the principle of uti possidetis juris, which regarded the Spanish borders of 1810 as the borders of the new republics. However, conflicting claims and disagreements between the newly formed countries eventually escalated to the point of armed conflicts on several occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish East Indies</span> Spanish territory in Asia-Pacific from 1565 until 1898

The Spanish East Indies were the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire in Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1898, governed for the Spanish Crown from Mexico City and Madrid through the captaincy general which ruled Manila.

Alonso de Maldonado Diez de Ledesma, was a Spanish lawyer and a member of the second Real Audiencia of Mexico, which governed New Spain from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535. He was also president of the first Real Audiencia of Guatemala, and in that capacity interim governor of Guatemala from 1536 to September 15, 1539. He was governor of Guatemala a second time, from 1542 to 1548.

The Real Audiencia of Charcas was a Spanish audiencia with its seat in what is today Bolivia. It was established in 1559 in Ciudad de la Plata de Nuevo Toledo and had jurisdiction over Charcas, Paraguay and the Governorate of the Río de la Plata, today Uruguay and northern Argentina. This court oversaw the incredible silver output of the mines at Potosí. It was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776, when it was transferred to the newly created Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and began to be referred to as Upper Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Kingdom of Granada</span> Colombia in the Spanish Empire

The New Kingdom of Granada, or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santafé, an area corresponding mainly to modern-day Colombia. The conquistadors originally organized it as a province with a Royal Audience within the Viceroyalty of Peru despite certain independence from it. The audiencia was established by the crown in 1549. Ultimately the kingdom became the Viceroyalty of New Granada first in 1717 and permanently in 1739. After several attempts to set up independent states in the 1810s, the kingdom and the viceroyalty ceased to exist altogether in 1819 with the establishment of the United Provinces of New Granada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real Audiencia of Quito</span> Administrative region of the Spanish Empire in northwestern South America (1563-1822)

The Real Audiencia of Quito was an administrative unit in the Spanish Empire which had political, military, and religious jurisdiction over territories that today include Ecuador, parts of northern Peru, parts of southern Colombia and parts of northern Brazil. It was created by Royal Decree on 29 August 1563 by Philip II of Spain in the city of Guadalajara. It ended in 1822 with the incorporation of the area into the Republic of Gran Colombia.

The Real Audiencia of Mexico or Royal Audiencia of Mexico was the highest tribunal of the Spanish crown in the Kingdom of New Spain. The Audiencia was created by royal decree on December 13, 1527, and was seated in the viceregal capital of Mexico City. The First Audiencia was dissolved by the crown for its bungling and corruption and the crown established the Second Audiencia in 1530. This was supplanted by the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1535. A new Audiencia was created in Guadalajara in western Mexico in 1548.

The Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo was the first court of the Spanish crown in America. It was created by Ferdinand V of Castile in his decree of 1511, but due to disagreements between the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Colon and the Crown, it was not implemented until it was reestablished by Charles V in his decree of September 14, 1526. This audiencia would become part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain upon the creation of the latter two decades later. Nevertheless, the audiencia president was at the same time governor and captain general of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, which granted him broad administrative powers and autonomy over the Spanish possessions of the Caribbean and most of its mainland coasts. This combined with the judicial oversight that the audiencia judges had over the region meant that the Santo Domingo Audiencia was the principal political entity of this region during the colonial period.

The Real Audiencia of Guadalajara, was the highest tribunal of the Spanish crown in what is today northern Mexico and the southwestern United States in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was created by royal decree on February 13, 1548, and was originally located in Compostela and permanently seated in Guadalajara in 1560. Its president was the chief political and executive officer of the district, subordinated only to the Viceroy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires</span>

The Real Audiencia de Buenos Aires, were two audiencias, or highest courts, of the Spanish crown, which lived in Buenos Aires. The authority of the first extended to the territory of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata and operated from 1661 to 1671. The second began to function in 1783 and had as its territory the areas of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata not covered by the Audiencia de Charcas, that is to say the intendancies of Buenos Aires, Córdoba del Tucumán, Salta del Tucumán and Paraguay. In 1810, after the May Revolution, it was suspended, and in 1813 the Assembly of the Year XIII permanently disbanded it. The Audiencias lived in the city's cabildo building.

The Real Audiencia of Manila was the Real Audiencia of the Spanish East Indies, which included modern-day Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Micronesia and the Philippines. Similar to Real Audiencias throughout the Spanish Empire, it was the highest tribunal within the territories of the Captaincy General of the Philippines, a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The Real Audiencia and Chancery of Lima was a superior court in the New World empire of Spain, located in the city of Lima, capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was created on November 20, 1542 as was the viceroyalty itself, by the Emperor Charles V. The Audiencia began functioning in 1543 and initially had jurisdiction over the entire viceroyalty—virtually all of Spanish-controlled South America and Panama. Later other audiencias were established in the Viceroyalty. The Audiencia functioned until 1821 when the forces of José de San Martín entered Lima.

Before 1565, the highest court of Chile was the justicia mayor, whose sentences were appealed before the Royal Audiencia of Lima. In 1560 local authorities formally requested the president of the Audiencia of Lima for the creation of an audiencia for Chile. It was argued that it would serve to control the actions of the governors of Chile, improve royal treasury's collection of revenue and hasten the end of the Arauco War.

The Royal Audience and Chancery of Panama in Tierra Firme was a governing body and superior court in the New World empire of Spain. The Audiencia of Panama was the third American audiencia after the ones of Santo Domingo and Mexico. It existed three times under various guises since it first creation in 1538 until its ultimate abolition in 1751.

The Real Audiencia of Santiago de Guatemala, simply known as the Audiencia of Guatemala or the Audiencia of Los Confines, was a Real Audiencia in the Imperial Spanish territory in Central America known as the Captaincy General of Guatemala (1609-1821). The Audiencia's presiding officer, the president, was the head of the government of the area. The Audiencia was initially created by decrees of November 20, 1542 and September 13, 1543, and had its seat in Antigua Guatemala.

Miguel Lino de Ezpeleta was a Spanish criollo born in Manila who served as the Bishop of Cebu from 1757 until his death in 1771. Consequently, he assumed the position as the governor-general from 1759 to 1761 during Spanish intervention to the Seven Years' War and prelude to the occupations of Manila and Cavite.

José de Rezabal y Ugarte (1747–1800) was a Spanish lawyer and judge and jurist. He was born in Vitoria on July 19, 1800 and died in Santiago, Chile. He served as Spanish governor of Chile, on an interim basis, from 24 May to 18 September 1796. As judge and mayor over crime in Lima in 1781, he led the case against Túpac Amaru II, writing the judgment which condemned to death by hanging him and several of his followers, as well as penalties in prisons in Africa, Callao and Valdivia for many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal University of San Felipe</span>

The Royal University of San Felipe was a university created by King Philip V in 1738, in territory which was then part of the Kingdom of Spain. It was officially founded in Santiago in 1747 and began teaching activities in 1758. It is the immediate predecessor of the University of Chile (1843).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expulsion of Chileans from Bolivia and Peru in 1879</span>

The Expulsion of Chileans from Bolivia and Peru in 1879 was an ethnic cleansing ordered by of the governments of Bolivia and Peru. The expulsion took place at the beginning of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) between Chile and Peruvian-Bolivian alliance. Chilean citizens in both nations were ordered to leave within eight days or face internment and confiscation of their property. They were expelled on poorly-built rafts and pontoons at Peruvian ports, or forced to wander through the desert to reach the northernmost positions occupied by the Chilean Army in Antofagasta. The edict was widely popular in Peru and met with little resistance, allowing it to occur quickly.

References

  1. Spain (1680). Recopilación de las Leyes de Indias. Titulo Quince. De las Audiencias y Chancillerias Reales de las Indias. Madrid. Spanish-language facsimile of the original.

Sources