Adelantado

A Adelantado was an official of the Castilian crown with judicial and government competence for a defined area in the Middle Ages. Title and office were later used in the colonial administration in America.

Adelantado literally means " advanced " ( from the Spanish adelantarse " come forward ", " excel "). The Office is partly comparable to the Steward or Seneschal. At the same time there is an example in the Moorish Administrative organization: the Almuqaddám, Spanish Almocadén ( " manager ", " boss, " " magistrate ").

Adelantados on the Iberian Peninsula

The term Adelantado as a term for a royal or municipal officials is first mentioned in Navarre and Castile documents of the 11th century, but without specifying the powers of that office. The definition of the tasks and competences took place only in the context of basic political and administrative reforms under Alfonso the Wise. Moreover, the Office of the Adelantado was politically upgraded, provided with official power and locates in the judiciary. Alfons strengthens with these measures the administrative machinery against councilors, nobility and church.

The first Adelantado was appointed in 1253 just reconquered La Frontera ( Andalucien ). The period was marked by the division of the conquered lands among the new Christian residents, establishment of urban and city councils, and entitled to special rights, the foral. The monarchy needed to effectively govern the new territories can, one equipped with sovereign powers of local representatives. The then applicable laws Codex Las Siete Partidas then the new post of Adelantado Mayor was added, a judge for a defined territory, which was the intermediary between local judges and royal courts. At the same time the Adelantado represented the king and carried out royal orders.

After the satisfactory experience in southern Spain, the Office 1258 was also introduced to Castile, León, Galicia and Murcia. It replaced other performers offices, particularly that of the Merino, but which currently lacks judicial competence. Because there had been a similar office in the north, you continued to use the old name, and advanced him for mayor ( " top ").

Over the next century through the Adelantados acquired specifically in Andalucien and Murcia increasingly military skills that they later considered this even as a core competence of the Office. This competence change passed to the Adelantados in Central and South America.

From 1258 Adelantados were recruited almost exclusively from the wealthy members of the aristocracy ( ricoshombres ) and the royal family. In Murcia finally secured Don Juan Manuel, nephew of Alfonso X, for the first half of the 14th century the monopoly on the title, and thus wrote a continuing process, which saw in the possession of a few families, the Office after the Regnum Henry of Trastamaras: the Manrique in Castile, the Quiñones in Leon, the Fajardo in Murcia and the Ribera - Enríquez in Andalusia. At the same time, more and more functions have been transferred to other institutions. Although there were attempts to traditional skills, and thus the power of wealth, of the Office to restore (eg by Pedro Enríquez in Andalusia), it was only an honorary position at the end of the Middle Ages.

Adelantados in the Spanish colonies of America

For the conquest of America the title Adelantado was reactivated. The crown gave him some individuals for life or hereditary for the areas that explore this in America, conquer or colonize would. The candidates then endowed like most other conquistadors from their expedition with private funds in the hope that they would economically compensated by the conquests and recognized politically and socially by the title. The Argentine legal historian Ricardo Zorraquín BECU worked in a study on this issue because even out that the title of the Americas was given purely for the sake of honor and did not include any function or competence.