{
  "id": "feudatarios-y-domiciliarios-de-las-indias",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Feudatarios and Domiciliarios: why colonial Spanish usage called encomenderos feudal tenants, and what the oath they swore was called",
  "summary": "In the Indies and in some royal cédulas the encomenderos were called Feudatarios and the other Spanish inhabitants Domiciliarios. The standard treatise explains the usage from the oath: the encomendero swore fidelity to the king for his grant, so the grant was the feud used in those provinces. The same paragraphs give the form of the oath, why such vassals were called Fideles and Clientes, and why breaking it was held to bring infamy.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "colonial-law",
    "colonial-institutions",
    "encomienda",
    "law",
    "legal-history",
    "language",
    "americas",
    "spanish-empire",
    "peru",
    "new-spain",
    "seventeenth-century",
    "colonial-administration",
    "books"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "cargas-militares-y-juramento-de-los-encomenderos"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "encomienda"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "solorzano-politica-indiana"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "las-siete-partidas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "narrativa-y-calidades-de-los-titulos-de-encomienda"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "segunda-carga-de-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "carga-de-residir-de-los-encomenderos"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "acosta-de-procuranda-indorum-salute-1588"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "modos-de-acabarse-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "asiento-de-los-lanzas-en-el-banco-de-los-nobles"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "precedentes-antiguos-de-las-guardas-de-los-virreyes"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Why were encomenderos called feudatarios?",
    "What was a domiciliario in the Spanish Indies?",
    "Was the encomienda a feudal institution?",
    "What form did the encomendero's oath of fidelity take?",
    "What did homenaje or homagio mean in Spanish law?",
    "Where does the Spanish word hidalgo come from?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Scope. This entry covers §§10-15 of libro III, capítulo XXV of Juan de Solórzano Pereira's Política Indiana, the six paragraphs that occupy page 366 of the 1736 impression, from \"Y ay textos expressos entre los de los Feudos\" to the inference about the words Feudatarios and Domiciliarios. The chapter itself, and §§1-9 on the military charge and the oath, are treated separately. The paragraph following the range, §16, opens a different argument, that ordinary subjects and vassals are not bound to this oath, and nothing here rests on it.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "The form of the oath was fixed law, not custom, and a Castilian statute carried it. At §10 \"ay textos expressos entre los de los Feudos, en que se pone la forma de este juramento, la qual tambien trasladó una ley de nuestras Partidas, y glossan particularmente infinitos AA, diciendo, que es de natura precisa, y substancial de ellos, y quienes, quando, y como deben hacerle, aunque sean mugeres, ò menores? Y à que quedan obligados los Vassallos por causa de él, y en qué se diferencia del Homagio? Y que no se debe dar la investidura à ningun Vassallo, hasta que le haga.\" The last clause is the operative one: no investiture before the oath. The words of the form are not reproduced on this page and are not asserted here.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "The obligation is stated as running both ways, and the author marks the point as his own. At §11, \"A los quales Yo añado, que por esta causa estos Feudatarios, ò Vassallos se solian llamar Fideles: y tambien, porque en aceptando el Feudo, assi como ellos tenian obligacion de servir al Señor, y guardarle fee, él tambien la tenia de recibirlos en la suya, y debaxo de su amparo, y proteccion, por donde tambien se llamaron Clientes, como consta de algunos textos feudales, y de los AA, que escriben de sus palabras.\" The reciprocity described is between the king and the encomendero. Whether anything corresponding ran between the encomendero and the Indians of his encomienda is not addressed in this paragraph.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "An etymology of hidalgo is offered and immediately qualified. At §12 the name Fideles \"dió ocasion à D. Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, de pensar, que de ella se deriva en nuestra Lengua Castellana la de Fidalgos: porque, los que en tiempos antiguos merecian este nombre, y assistian en Guerra, y Paz à los Reyes, les prestaban, ò hacian este particular juramento de fidelidad.\" The author answers that \"La qual ethimología no me parece mal, aunque no ignoro quan varias son, las que han dado diferentes AA, y que una ley de Partida dice, que se deriva de fijo de al, que es lo mismo, que si dixessemos, hijo de bien.\" Two rival derivations are printed and neither is decided; the entry reports the dispute as the page leaves it.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The oath's other name, and a second etymology the author openly doubts. At §13 \"Este juramento se suele tambien llamar Homagio en el Derecho Canonico, y Feudal: y unos dicen, que trae su derivacion de Homoligius, que es tanto como si dixeramos, hombre atado, ù obligado à otro por razon de él. Otros, que porque despues de haverle hecho, havia de tomar las armas por su Señor contra todos los hombres del Mundo, como tambien lo debe hacer en nuestras Encomiendas: y à esto assiste una ley de Partida, que dice: Omenage tanto quiere decir, como tornarse home de otro\". Of Sebastián de Covarrubias's derivation from a Greek word meaning holy oath the author writes that Covarrubias would have it so \"(y no sé con quanta razon)\". The phrase \"como tambien lo debe hacer en nuestras Encomiendas\" is the point of the paragraph for the Indies: the encomendero's obligation to take arms for his lord against all the men of the world is asserted as the same obligation.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "Whether the oath bound in conscience was contested in Castilian law, and the chapter says why this one is outside the dispute. At §14, \"aunque nuestro Gregorio Lopez, y otros han puesto en duda, si el omenage, en la forma, que oy le usan en España los Cavalleros, obliga en fuerza de juramento, y su transgresion, quede sujeta à las penas del perjuro? Este de que tratamos está fuera de ella: porque no solo se hace en sola fee, y palabra de hombre noble, y de bien; sino interviniendo juntamente la formula de los demàs juramentos solemnes, por Dios, y sus Santos\". Even if it stood only on the word of a nobleman, the author adds, many hold it would bind like any solemn oath, \"y que el faltar à su observancia, y cumplimiento, causará nota de infamia\", because in nobles what is promised is held as done.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "The conclusion is a fact about colonial vocabulary, and it is presented as an inference rather than as a statute. At §15, \"De todo lo qual infiero en primer lugar la razon, que ha podido tener el uso comun de hablar en las Indias, y en algunas Cedulas Reales, llamando à estos nuestros Encomenderos Feudatarios, y à los demás habitadores de las Provincias de ellas, Domiciliarios: Porque sin duda se ocasionó esto, de que hacen al Rey nuestro señor el juramento de fidelidad, que vamos diciendo, por razon de las Encomiendas, que son los Feudos, que se usan en ellas. Y assi lo dexó apuntado Juan Matienzo, y mucho mejor, y con elegantes palabras, y dignas de leerse el P. Joseph de Acosta.\" The distinction is between two classes of Spaniards — those who held encomiendas and those who did not. The Indians of the encomiendas are not a term in it. No cédula using either word is quoted or identified on this page, and none was opened here; the author says only that some use them.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "What this entry establishes and what it does not. It establishes that the standard treatise explains a known colonial usage — Feudatarios for encomenderos, Domiciliarios for the other Spanish inhabitants — by the oath of fidelity sworn to the king for the grant, and that it treats the encomienda in that respect as the feud in use in the Indies; that the form of the oath was taken from feudal texts and from a ley de Partida and that no investiture was to be given before it was sworn; that such vassals were called Fideles and Clientes on the ground of a reciprocal duty of protection owed by the lord; that the oath was also called homagio; and that breach was held to carry infamy. It establishes nothing about how often either word was actually used in the cédulas, since none is cited by date on this page. It establishes nothing at all about the Indians: in these six paragraphs they appear only once, obliquely, in the clause that the encomendero must take arms for his lord as in the feud. The authorities invoked are Roman, feudal and Castilian throughout, and none of them — Partidas, Gregorio López, Covarrubias, Sandoval, Matienzo, Acosta — was opened here in its own printing.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-forma-del-juramento-y-feudatarios"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Whether the encomienda was \"feudal\" is one of the oldest arguments in the historiography of Spanish America, and it is usually conducted with modern categories imported from European medieval history. This object does something no accessible source does: it prints what the contemporaries actually said, from the chapter of the standard treatise where the question is answered in terms — that in the Indies and in some royal cédulas the encomenderos were called Feudatarios and everyone else Domiciliarios, and that the reason was the oath of fidelity sworn to the king by reason of the grant, \"las Encomiendas, que son los Feudos, que se usan en ellas\". That settles what the word meant to the people using it, which is a different and more answerable question than whether the institution satisfies a modern definition of feudalism, and it puts on the record that the author reached it as an inference, naming Matienzo and Acosta before him, not by quoting any cédula. Around it the object prints the apparatus that makes the claim checkable and keeps it honest: the form of the oath as a ley de Partida carried it, the rule that no investiture preceded it, the reciprocal protection that made such vassals Clientes, Gregorio López's doubt whether homage binds as an oath at all, and the fact that in all six paragraphs the Indians of the encomienda are named once and in passing.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-22",
  "media": [],
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    "name": "Feudatarios and Domiciliarios: why colonial Spanish usage called encomenderos feudal tenants, and what the oath they swore was called",
    "description": "In the Indies and in some royal cédulas the encomenderos were called Feudatarios and the other Spanish inhabitants Domiciliarios. The standard treatise explains the usage from the oath: the encomendero swore fidelity to the king for his grant, so the grant was the feud used in those provinces. The same paragraphs give the form of the oath, why such vassals were called Fideles and Clientes, and why breaking it was held to bring infamy.",
    "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/feudatarios-y-domiciliarios-de-las-indias",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-22",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Política Indiana, libro III, capítulo XXV, §§10-15 — the form of the encomendero's oath and the colonial vocabulary it produced: at §10 that 'ay textos expressos entre los de los Feudos, en que se pone la forma de este juramento, la qual tambien trasladó una ley de nuestras Partidas', which infinite authors gloss, 'diciendo, que es de natura precisa, y substancial de ellos, y quienes, quando, y como deben hacerle, aunque sean mugeres, ò menores? Y à que quedan obligados los Vassallos por causa de él, y en qué se diferencia del Homagio? Y que no se debe dar la investidura à ningun Vassallo, hasta que le haga'; at §11 the author's own addition, 'A los quales Yo añado, que por esta causa estos Feudatarios, ò Vassallos se solian llamar Fideles: y tambien, porque en aceptando el Feudo, assi como ellos tenian obligacion de servir al Señor, y guardarle fee, él tambien la tenia de recibirlos en la suya, y debaxo de su amparo, y proteccion, por donde tambien se llamaron Clientes'; at §12 the etymology of fidalgo from Fideles proposed by Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, 'porque, los que en tiempos antiguos merecian este nombre, y assistian en Guerra, y Paz à los Reyes, les prestaban, ò hacian este particular juramento de fidelidad', which the author accepts with the reservation 'aunque no ignoro quan varias son, las que han dado diferentes AA, y que una ley de Partida dice, que se deriva de fijo de al, que es lo mismo, que si dixessemos, hijo de bien'; at §13 the oath's other name, 'Este juramento se suele tambien llamar Homagio en el Derecho Canonico, y Feudal', derived by some from Homoligius, 'hombre atado, ù obligado à otro por razon de él', by others from the duty after swearing 'de tomar las armas por su Señor contra todos los hombres del Mundo, como tambien lo debe hacer en nuestras Encomiendas', with the ley de Partida 'Omenage tanto quiere decir, como tornarse home de otro' and Covarrubias's Greek derivation which the author receives '(y no sé con quanta razon)'; at §14 that although Gregorio López and others doubted 'si el omenage, en la forma, que oy le usan en España los Cavalleros, obliga en fuerza de juramento', this one is outside the doubt 'porque no solo se hace en sola fee, y palabra de hombre noble, y de bien; sino interviniendo juntamente la formula de los demàs juramentos solemnes, por Dios, y sus Santos', breach causing 'nota de infamia'; and at §15 the conclusion, 'De todo lo qual infiero en primer lugar la razon, que ha podido tener el uso comun de hablar en las Indias, y en algunas Cedulas Reales, llamando à estos nuestros Encomenderos Feudatarios, y à los demás habitadores de las Provincias de ellas, Domiciliarios: Porque sin duda se ocasionó esto, de que hacen al Rey nuestro señor el juramento de fidelidad, que vamos diciendo, por razon de las Encomiendas, que son los Feudos, que se usan en ellas', as Juan Matienzo noted and Joseph de Acosta better",
        "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=huEykw_YtzYC&pg=PA366"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Feudatarios and Domiciliarios: why colonial Spanish usage called encomenderos feudal tenants, and what the oath they swore was called"
  }
}