Polysynodial System

Hispanic Monarchy with the union of the Spanish and Portuguese Empire

The Polysynodial System or Polysynodial Regime (Spanish: Régimen Polisinodial) was a political organization proper of the authoritarian system valid in the Spanish Monarchy (or Hispanic Monarchy) of the Austrias and displaced after the promulgation of the Nueva Planta Decrees at the beginning of the 18th century, which organized the central administration in a group of collegiate bodies that receive the name of Councils already existing or created ex novo.[1]

Organization

Its origin goes back to the Middle Ages in the consultative bodies of the crowns of Castile, Aragon and Navarre. The basic mechanism of operation was the elevation of a consultation to the monarch, who resolved according to their opinion.

The councils were of three types:

  1. On the one hand, those who maintain a sphere of competence throughout the territory of the monarch, with the indifference of the kingdom: the Council of State, the highest advisory body presided over by the President of the Royal Council of Castile, the Inquisitor general and the members of the War Council, which was the second advisory body, and the Council of the Inquisition.
  2. The Councils with powers of government in certain territories: Royal Council of Castile - and within this, by reason of the matter, were the Council of Military Orders, the Council of Crusade and the Council of Finance, Council of Aragon, Royal Council of Navarre, Council of the Indies, Council of Italy, Council of Flanders and Council of Portugal. By order of hierarchy, those of Castile and Aragon were, in that order, the pre-eminent ones.
  3. Next to the Councils were the Boards, of less important character and, in general, created for specific and fixed term matters.

The decline of the system

Since the start of Enlightenment, this institutions would be lay aside because of the creation of the Secretaries of State and Universal Dispatch, that take all the Councils power. The Councils that survived, served as a tool of the King to concentrate his power, increasing his power and with this going into a absolutist system. The Councils, many of them distorted with respect to their initial origin, disappeared altogether during the nineteenth century, replacing it at the outset with the figure of the Central Supreme Board recognized by the liberal constituents, being this organ the anteroom of the Council of Ministers created during the reign of Elizabeth II.[2][3][4][5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ García-Gabilán Sangil, Julio (1999). La Suprema Junta de Correos y Postas (PDF) (2 ed.). pp. 57–76.
  2. ↑ The Play of faith
  3. ↑ Introduction to the Modern Age
  4. ↑ The nobility and the high positions of the administration in the Spain of the Ancien Régime
  5. ↑ The confessor of the king in the Ancien Regime Leandro Martínez Peñas.
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