La Cámara de Castilla y la magistratura borbónica castellana (1700-1834)

Abstract

Drawing on exhaustive documentary research in many archives, though largely focused on the extensive holdings of documents conserved in the Archivo Histórico Nacional generated by the secretariats of Gracia y Estado and of Justicia of the Cámara de Castilla and, since 1717, by the unified secretariat of Gracia, Justicia y Estado de Castilla, this study analyses the participation of the Cámara in the appointment of high-ranking members of the judiciary in the polysynodial system and in the regional tribunals of the Crown of Castile in Spain and the Canary Islands, at a time when, according to historiographic tradition, the competencies of the different councils of the Spanish Monarchy were being seized by the recently expanded secretariats del despacho.While it is an undeniable fact that the final decisions on the appointment of magistrates were taken by the king and that he did not have to justify the motives for his decisions, the increase in competencies and in importance of the secretaries del despacho during the eighteenth century, also undeniable, has led to the conclusion, accepted as valid, of a slow loss of importance of the respective councils, except in the case of the Consejo de Castilla, before the thriving secretaries del despacho. With regard to the Cámara de Castilla, the lack of studies dedicated to this institution has left it, to all intents and purposes, in a limbo of the unknown. Studies dedicated to the Bourbon judiciary have limited themselves to describing the administrative procedures in which the Cámara was involved and, without considering any possible alternatives, have tended to give the secretariat of Gracia y Justicia the most important role in terms of influence over the monarch at the time of making appointments...