{
  "id": "prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Thirty years against the king, ten against a neighbour: prescription as a way of acquiring an encomienda",
  "summary": "Prescription is a kind of alienation, so the treatise asks whether an encomienda could be acquired by long possession, and answers with periods: thirty years and on some opinions a hundred against the king, who is direct lord of every encomienda; ten years between present parties and twenty between absent, with title and good faith, where one private man claims the useful dominion against another. Successors were shielded; the towns were not mentioned.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "colonial-law",
    "colonial-institutions",
    "encomienda",
    "law",
    "law-of-the-indies",
    "legal-history",
    "jurisprudence",
    "feudal-law",
    "property",
    "litigation",
    "indigenous-peoples",
    "americas",
    "spanish-empire",
    "peru",
    "new-spain",
    "seventeenth-century",
    "colonial-administration"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "transaccion-y-particion-de-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "indivision-y-legitima-de-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "permuta-de-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "prohibicion-de-enagenar-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "empeno-y-embargo-de-los-frutos-de-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "encomienda"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "solorzano-politica-indiana"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "confirmacion-de-las-encomiendas-en-el-consejo-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "frutos-y-buena-fee-en-los-pleytos-de-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "remedios-possessorios-en-los-pleytos-de-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "muerte-de-los-litigantes-y-los-frutos-de-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "exhibicion-de-titulos-y-citacion-en-los-despojos-de-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "vuelta-de-las-encomiendas-a-la-corona"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Could an encomienda be acquired by prescription or long possession?",
    "How many years of possession ran against the king in an encomienda?",
    "How long did a private person need to prescribe the useful dominion of an encomienda?",
    "Did prescription against an encomendero bind the man who succeeded him?",
    "Was prescription treated as a form of alienation in the law of the Indies?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Scope and place. This entry covers §§42-49 of libro III, capítulo XV of Juan de Solórzano Pereira's Política Indiana in the 1736 Madrid impression, all on page 309: §42 opens in the lower left column, §45 at the head of the right column, and §49 closes in the right column immediately before the added §50. The chapter's printed SUMARIO, in the left column of page 304, carries a head for each of the eight paragraphs, from 42, \"Prescripcion trigenaria, y centenaria se dá contra el Principe en Encomiendas\", to 49, \"Si el pleyto comenzado passa al successor de la Encomienda?\". §§34-41 and §§50-59 are treated in separate entries.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Why the question arises at all, and the first answer. §42: \"Finalmente, siendo como es la prescripcion, un cierto modo de enagenacion, se puede tambien dudar si há lugar en las Encomiendas? Y dentro de qué tiempo se cause, y perficione? Y por desembarazarme de esta question, resuelvo con brevedad, que si la prescripcion se endereza, y pretende contra el Rey, que es el Señor directo de todas las Encomiendas, no procederá, ni tendrá lugar, sin que hayan passado treinta años, y aun ciento, segun la opinion de algunos.\" The classification is the hinge of the whole range: if prescription is a species of alienation, then everything the chapter has said about alienation bears on it.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "The period between private persons. §43: \"Pero si solo se tratare de prescribir el util dominio de la Encomienda, ò de sus comodidades entre un Particular contra otro, bastará, que intervenga tiempo largo: conviene à saber, diez años entre presentes, y veinte entre ausentes, precediendo titulo, y buena fee, como hablando de las prescripciones ordinarias, lo enseña el Derecho Civil, y Canonico\", the same distinction being expressly gathered from some of the capítulos of the feuds. §46 repeats it as settled: \"todos resuelven, que bastará el tiempo ordinario de los dichos diez, ò veinte años con titulo.\" What could be acquired in ten years is named as the useful dominion of the encomienda or its comodidades — in this chapter's own vocabulary, the tribute and revenue of the towns.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "Two supports the author adds himself. §44: \"A los quales Yo añado el simil, ò exemplo de las pagas, ò prestaciones de qualquier cosa, que se hacen por espacio de diez años continuos uniformemente precediendo causa, y titulo para ello, donde vemos, y sabemos, que esso basta para inducir obligacion de hacerlas de alli adelante.\" §45 adds the closer example of jurisdiction, \"en la qual es regular, que no se puede adquirir contra el Principe, sino es por prescripcion centenaria, ò inmemorial\". The first analogy is to a customary annual payment hardening into an obligation, which is how tribute assessments in fact became fixed; the treatise draws the analogy for its legal form and does not draw that consequence.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The protection, and who it is for. §47: \"Pero esto se entiende, quando la prescripcion assi adquirida, se opone contra aquel con quien, ò en cuyo tiempo se adquirió: porque si tratassemos de, que uno se quiere valer de ella, contra los que están llamados à la succession del Feudo, ò de la Encomienda por la disposicion de la ley tendria el punto mayor dificultad, porque supuesto que su Autor, ò antecessor no pudo enagenar, ò renunciar semejantes derechos en daño suyo, como está dicho, parece que tampoco les pudo perjudicar, dexando que se los prescribiessen, pues la prescripcion se tiene en Derecho por una especie de enagenacion.\" The argument is the chapter's own prohibition turned into a shield: a man who could not give the grant away cannot lose it for his successor by sleeping on it.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "How the protection is settled. §48: the point is to be determined \"por el exemplar de los Feudos, y de los Mayorazgos, en los quales está resuelto, y recibido en practica, que las prescripciones causadas contra los possedores de ellos, no causen, ni paren perjuicio à los successores, que entran por el derecho propio suyo, y no por el de los tales antecessores; sino es que se pruebe, que la prescripcion, que se alega es inmemorial.\" The successor is protected because he takes by his own right and not through the man who slept, and the only thing that defeats him is an immemorial possession. The rule is stated for feuds, entails \"y Encomiendas antiguas\" together.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "What the author declines to answer, and why that matters. §49: \"En quanto à la instancia de los pleytos comenzados sobre Encomiendas, y quando passa à los successores en ellas? Y que en las sentencias, para las quales no fueron citados? Pudieramos tambien decir algo, pero escusolo assimismo, porque todo esto se ha de regular por los exemplares, de lo que passa, y se practica en los Feudos, y Mayorazgos, y en ellos está bien, y copiosamente tratado, y resuelto por Rosenthal, Molina, y otros muchos AA.\" Two live procedural questions — whether a pending suit binds the successor, and the effect of a judgment given without citing him — are referred out of the law of the Indies entirely and into the literature of European feudal and entail law.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "What this entry establishes and what it does not. It establishes that the standard treatise on the law of the Indies classified prescription as a species of alienation and therefore asked whether an encomienda could be acquired by it; that it answered with thirty years, and on some opinions a hundred, against the king as direct lord of every encomienda, and with the ordinary ten years between present parties or twenty between absent, on title and good faith, where one private person claimed the useful dominion against another; that jurisdiction against the prince required a centenary or immemorial possession; and that a prescription running against a holder did not bind the successor called by law, who entered by his own right, unless it was proved immemorial. It establishes nothing about practice: not one case, town, encomienda, court or date appears in the eight paragraphs, and no cédula and no law of the Recopilación is cited in any of them. The interests the doctrine measures and protects throughout are the king's direct dominion and the next grantee's expectation; the towns whose tribute is the useful dominion that a stranger might acquire by ten years' possession are not named in the range, and no prescription is said to run in their favour or to be capable of being pleaded by them.",
      "sources": [
        "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "English-language writing on the encomienda treats it as a de facto possession and never asks the question a lawyer would ask first: could you get one simply by holding it long enough? The chapter that answers has not been quoted. It starts from a classification that decides everything — \"siendo como es la prescripcion, un cierto modo de enagenacion\" — and then gives numbers: thirty years and on some opinions a hundred against the king as direct lord of every encomienda, a centenary or immemorial possession for jurisdiction, and the ordinary ten years between present parties or twenty between absent, on title and good faith, for the useful dominion between private men. The entry also prints the shield the chapter builds out of its own prohibition: a holder who could not alienate cannot prejudice his successor by letting the right be prescribed away. And it puts the cost beside the doctrine. Ten years of possession by a stranger could carry the tribute of an Indian town; the interests the periods are calibrated to protect are the king's dominion and the next grantee's expectation; the range names no case, no town and no date, cites no cédula and no law of the Recopilación in eight paragraphs, and refers two live procedural questions out of the law of the Indies altogether, into the literature of European feuds and entails.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-26",
  "media": [],
  "x": {},
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    "name": "Thirty years against the king, ten against a neighbour: prescription as a way of acquiring an encomienda",
    "description": "Prescription is a kind of alienation, so the treatise asks whether an encomienda could be acquired by long possession, and answers with periods: thirty years and on some opinions a hundred against the king, who is direct lord of every encomienda; ten years between present parties and twenty between absent, with title and good faith, where one private man claims the useful dominion against another. Successors were shielded; the towns were not mentioned.",
    "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/prescripcion-en-las-encomiendas",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-26",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Política Indiana, libro III, capítulo XV, §§42-49 — prescription as a mode of alienation, and the periods that ran against the king and against private persons in encomiendas: at §42 the question, 'siendo como es la prescripcion, un cierto modo de enagenacion, se puede tambien dudar si há lugar en las Encomiendas? Y dentro de qué tiempo se cause, y perficione?', resolved briefly that where prescription is directed against the king, 'que es el Señor directo de todas las Encomiendas, no procederá, ni tendrá lugar, sin que hayan passado treinta años, y aun ciento, segun la opinion de algunos'; at §43 that if only the útil dominio of the encomienda or its comodidades is to be prescribed 'entre un Particular contra otro, bastará, que intervenga tiempo largo: conviene à saber, diez años entre presentes, y veinte entre ausentes, precediendo titulo, y buena fee', as the Civil and Canon Law teach of ordinary prescriptions and as is expressly gathered from some capítulos of the feuds; at §44 the author's own added simile of 'las pagas, ò prestaciones de qualquier cosa, que se hacen por espacio de diez años continuos uniformemente precediendo causa, y titulo para ello, donde vemos, y sabemos, que esso basta para inducir obligacion de hacerlas de alli adelante'; at §45 the closer example of jurisdiction, 'en la qual es regular, que no se puede adquirir contra el Principe, sino es por prescripcion centenaria, ò inmemorial'; at §46 that where the difference is between private persons all resolve that the ordinary ten or twenty years with title suffice; at §47 the limitation that this holds only against the person in whose time the prescription was acquired, 'porque si tratassemos de, que uno se quiere valer de ella, contra los que están llamados à la succession del Feudo, ò de la Encomienda por la disposicion de la ley tendria el punto mayor dificultad, porque supuesto que su Autor, ò antecessor no pudo enagenar, ò renunciar semejantes derechos en daño suyo, como está dicho, parece que tampoco les pudo perjudicar, dexando que se los prescribiessen, pues la prescripcion se tiene en Derecho por una especie de enagenacion'; at §48 that the point is to be determined by the example of feuds and mayorazgos, in which it is settled and received in practice 'que las prescripciones causadas contra los possedores de ellos, no causen, ni paren perjuicio à los successores, que entran por el derecho propio suyo, y no por el de los tales antecessores; sino es que se pruebe, que la prescripcion, que se alega es inmemorial'; and at §49 the author's refusal of two adjacent questions, 'En quanto à la instancia de los pleytos comenzados sobre Encomiendas, y quando passa à los successores en ellas? Y que en las sentencias, para las quales no fueron citados? Pudieramos tambien decir algo, pero escusolo assimismo, porque todo esto se ha de regular por los exemplares, de lo que passa, y se practica en los Feudos, y Mayorazgos'",
        "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=huEykw_YtzYC&pg=PA309"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Thirty years against the king, ten against a neighbour: prescription as a way of acquiring an encomienda"
  }
}