Corregidor (position)

A corregidor (Spanish) was a local administrative and judicial official in Spain and in its overseas 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, a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor. They began to be appointed in fourteenth century Castile and the institution was definitively abolished in 1833.

The idea of appointing crown officials to oversee local affairs was inspired by the late-medieval revival of Roman law. The goal was to create an administrative bureaucracy, which was uniformly trained in the Roman model. In spite of the opposition of council towns and the Cortes (Parliament), Castilian kings began to appoint direct representatives in towns during fourteenth century. They were also called jueces del salario or alcaldes veedores but the term corregidor prevailed. The word regidor often means town councillor in the Spanish language. Thus, co-regidor was the position intended to co-rule the town together with elected councillors.

The first monarch to make extensive use of corregidores was Alfonso X, who ascended to the throne at the age of eleven. In order to consolidate royal authority and reward the newer nobility and certain great magnates who supported him he greatly expanded the use of the office. Some bishops and local lords were given the right to appoint corregidores in their territories. Henry used them mostly in Andalusia, the Basque provinces and Galicia, areas where royal power was weakest. The definitive consolidation of the institution occurred during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (1474–1516). Corregidores were crucial for the state building process that both monarchs ushered in. Their job was to collect taxes, to report to the crown on the state of affairs in the area, and to ensure that royal jurisdiction was not interfered with by members of the church or the nobility. From 1480 onward, they—and all subsequent Spanish monarchs—never again appointed a noble corregidor and instead relied exclusively on commoners with legal training to fill this office.

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