{ "id": "sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar-de-los-encomenderos", "type": "entity", "name": "Serving by another: who owed the encomendero's military service in person, and the judge who never saw one compelled to swear", "summary": "The military charge of an encomienda could be discharged by a substitute. Women served by their husbands, minors and men over seventy and the disabled by an escudero, and a father might send a son, because law counted son and father one person. Feudal texts let a vassal pay half a year's revenue instead of serving, and the oath itself could be sworn by proxy. In Peru, a judge of its Audiencia testifies, encomenderos were never made to come and swear in person at all.", "locale": "en", "tags": [ "colonial-law", "colonial-institutions", "encomienda", "feudal-law", "military", "military-history", "law", "legal-history", "jurisprudence", "americas", "spanish-empire", "peru", "seventeenth-century", "colonial-administration", "women" ], "relations": [ { "rel": "related", "target": "cargas-militares-y-juramento-de-los-encomenderos" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "feudatarios-y-domiciliarios-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "anadido-de-1736-a-las-cargas-de-las-encomiendas" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "remuneracion-de-los-servicios-militares-de-los-encomenderos" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "nobleza-de-los-encomenderos-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "escudero-y-sustitucion-en-las-encomiendas" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "carga-de-residir-de-los-encomenderos" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "residencia-de-los-encomenderos-en-la-recopilacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "ausencia-por-estudios-de-los-encomenderos" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "citacion-y-privacion-de-encomiendas-por-ausencia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "mugeres-y-encomiendas-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "encomienda" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "solorzano-politica-indiana" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "las-siete-partidas" } ], "questions": [ "Could an encomendero send someone else to do his military service?", "Who was exempt from serving in person in the Spanish Indies?", "What was an escudero in the law of the encomienda?", "Could the oath of fidelity for an encomienda be sworn by proxy?", "Did women hold encomiendas, and how did they discharge the military charge?", "Could a vassal pay money instead of going to war?" ], "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "Scope and place. This entry covers page 371 of the 1736 Madrid impression of Juan de Solórzano Pereira's Política Indiana, that is the closing sentences of §47 as they stand at the head of the page and §§48-54 complete, within libro III capítulo XXV, the chapter on the charges of the encomienda and in particular the military ones and the oath. §§1-9 and §§10-15 of the same chapter are treated in separate entries, and so are §§55-58, §§59-62 and the editor's numbered additions §§63-79. The opening of §47 stands on page 370, which was not opened here; the sentence quoted from it below is reported only as the tail that page 371 prints.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c2", "text": "The premise the page inherits: the king could take the service or its price. The tail of §47 at the head of page 371 cites recopiled laws \"que expressamente dicen: Sean tenudos de Nos servir con sus cuerpos, y por sus personas\", and then at once qualifies them from Vizconte, \"en la voluntad, y eleccion del Rey queda, si quiere, que el Vassallo le haga este servicio personalmente, ò que le pague, lo que pudiera valer apreciado en dinero.\" The obligation is therefore stated as convertible into money at the king's election before any of the exemptions that follow is reached.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c3", "text": "Who never had to serve in person. At §48 the rule \"se debe limitar, y limita, quando los Feudos, ò Encomiendas se conceden à mugeres, niños, viejos de mas de setenta años, Religiosos, ù otros, que por edad, enfermedad, ò por otras causas se hallan justamente impedidos: porque estos bien podrán servir por substitutos, y las mugeres por las personas de sus maridos\", the authorities given as Rosenthal, Gregorio López and Acevedo. The list is evidence on two points at once: that encomiendas were in fact held by women, children, the aged and religious, and that the military charge was never expected of them personally.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c4", "text": "The substitution was written into the grants, and the instrument is dated 1536. At §49 Petro Petra is cited on the clause ex certa scientia for the proposition that whenever a prince confers feuds on infants or others under the impediments listed, knowing of them, \"es visto hacerles juntamente esta gracia, y dispensacion, de que cumplan sus cargas por substituto\", with Antonio Borrinio making a chapter of the point; and the same had been provided by \"la Provision del año de 1536, que tantas veces llévo citada en los Capitulos antes de este, diciendo: Con cargo, que hasta tanto que sea de edad para tomar armas, que tenga un Escudero, que Nos sirva en la Guerra, con la costa, que su padre sirvió, y era obligado.\" The 1736 editor adds, between his asterisks, the corresponding law of the code: \"L. 6. tit. 9. lib. 6. Recop.\" Neither the Provisión of 1536 nor that law was opened in its own printing here.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c5", "text": "A son counts as the father, and a Castilian statute is the precedent. At §50 the author gives his own opinion that the charge \"se debe limitar, ò templar facilmente\" when a father who is feudatory or encomendero asks leave to send a son to the war in his place, \"sin apurar mucho la causa, que diere para escusarse, y hacer semejante permuta\", because common and Castilian law give as the reason \"que el hijo se tiene por una misma persona con su padre, y es como carne suya aumentada\"; and, speaking of the Castilian horsemen \"que llaman Quantiosos, les permite este trueco una ley nuestra recopilada.\" The word Quantiosos is the page's own.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c6", "text": "Any equally fit person would do, and the governors were to accept the excuse. At §51, even where no son is sent \"sino otra persona igualmente idonea, se deben contentar los Principes, los Virreyes, y Governadores, que los representan, admitiendo las escusas, que por los Encomenderos se les dieren, si echan de vér, que de hacer lo contrario, se les podrian recrecer en sus personas, ò haciendas daños considerables.\" The argument is drawn from the strict feuds themselves, whose texts teach that the vassal \"no esta obligado à servir por sí, ni por substituto en la Guerra, si quisiere pagar al Señor para ayuda de los gastos de ella la mitad, de lo que el Feudo le rentare en un año\" — a stated commutation rate of half one year's revenue of the grant.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c7", "text": "The equity argument, and whom it protects. At §52 the author concedes that in strict right the lord may compel personal service, but \"tambien lo es, que de equidad, y benignidad le incumbe cuidar, y mirar por su alivio, consuelo, y comodidad: como doctamente lo advierte Menochio\", so that where he takes no grave harm from the exchange \"no les debe apretar à comparecer personalmente, y que se destruyan: como lo enseñó Hostiense, referido, y alabado por Gregorio Lopez\", the supporting texts being those which require \"que los que tienen en su mano el universal regimiento de una Republica, miren mucho por escusar los daños, ò detrimentos de sus Vassallos\". The vassals whose ruin the passage is concerned to prevent are the encomenderos, not the Indians of the encomienda, who are not mentioned in it.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c8", "text": "The oath could be sworn by procurator. At §53 the writers on feudal matters resolve that although many hold the feudatory bound to appear in person to make the oath of fidelity, \"este rigor se debe templar con qualquier honesta causa, que huviere, ò escusa, que alegare, para que se le permita poderle hacer por Procurador\", which is said to be proved by a text of canon law and, in feudal terms, by many arrests and decisions of grave senates alleged by Romano, Bonacosa and other authors. This qualifies the requirement recorded in the same chapter at §5 that the oath be sworn before possession is taken.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c9", "text": "What actually happened in Peru, from a judge of the court that would have enforced it. At §54, \"Y Yo puedo testificar, que en el Perú nunca vi, que obligassen à los Encomenderos à venir à jurar personalmente, donde la gran distancia de las Provincias, gastos, y descomodidades de los caminos, aun pudieron introducir con mas justa causa esta dissimulacion, ò dispensacion de jurar por Procurador como en casos semejantes advierten bien Francisco de Claperis, y otros de los AA, que déxo citados.\" The statement is the author's own recollection, written years afterwards, of the practice of a court in which he sat; no register, cédula or case is cited for it at that place, and the claim is reported here on that footing and no other.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c10", "text": "What this entry establishes and what it does not. It establishes that the standard treatise on the law of the Indies treated the encomendero's military charge as dischargeable by substitute in a wide range of cases; that women, minors, men over seventy, religious and the justly impeded were expected to serve by others and women by their husbands; that a Provisión of 1536 had already written the escudero into grants made to minors and the 1736 editor matched it to ley 6, título 9, libro 6 of the Recopilación; that a commutation of half a year's revenue of the feud was known to the feudal texts the author reasons from; and that the author, a judge of the Audiencia of Lima, testifies that encomenderos there were never compelled to come and swear in person. It establishes nothing about how often substitution was in fact allowed or refused, since not one case, name, date or number appears in these eight paragraphs; nothing about what an escudero cost or who paid him, which the chapter does not say here; and nothing about the Indians of the encomienda, who are not mentioned anywhere in the range — every relief discussed is relief of the encomendero. None of the authorities named was opened in its own printing. The author is a minister of the Council of the Indies writing about a regime his own court administered.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar" ], "confidence": 0.9 } ], "takeaways": [], "faqs": [], "evidence_tier": "primary", "evidence": { "level": "industry_observation", "source_types": [ "paper" ] }, "moat_flag": false, "winning_edge": "Accounts of the encomienda in English say that the grant carried an obligation of military service and stop there, which leaves the reader to assume a body of armed settlers personally liable to be called out. The chapter of the standard treatise devoted to that obligation says something much more specific and much less flattering, and no accessible source prints it: the duty was commutable and delegable almost across the board, the persons entitled to serve by substitute include women, children, the old, the sick and religious — which is itself evidence about who actually held encomiendas — a father could send a son on a thin excuse because law treated the son as the father's own augmented flesh, the feudal texts the argument rests on priced the commutation at half a year's revenue, and even the oath could be sworn by proxy. The object closes on the author's first-person testimony that in Peru he never saw an encomendero made to swear in person at all. The counterpoints are in the claims and not in a caveat: the equity the passage invokes is equity towards the encomendero, the Indians of the encomienda are not mentioned once in eight paragraphs, no case or figure is given, and the witness is a judge of the court whose practice he is describing from memory.", "confidence": 0.85, "last_verified": "2026-09-23", "media": [], "x": {}, "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar-de-los-encomenderos", "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar-de-los-encomenderos.json", "jsonld": { "@context": "https://schema.org", "name": "Serving by another: who owed the encomendero's military service in person, and the judge who never saw one compelled to swear", "description": "The military charge of an encomienda could be discharged by a substitute. Women served by their husbands, minors and men over seventy and the disabled by an escudero, and a father might send a son, because law counted son and father one person. Feudal texts let a vassal pay half a year's revenue instead of serving, and the oath itself could be sworn by proxy. In Peru, a judge of its Audiencia testifies, encomenderos were never made to come and swear in person at all.", "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/sustitucion-en-el-servicio-militar-de-los-encomenderos", "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html", "dateModified": "2026-09-23", "citation": [ { "@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "Política Indiana, libro III, capítulo XXV, §§47(fin)-54 — who owed the encomendero's military service in person and who could serve by another: the tail of §47 at the head of page 371, the recopiled laws 'que expressamente dicen: Sean tenudos de Nos servir con sus cuerpos, y por sus personas', with Vizconte for the proposition that 'en la voluntad, y eleccion del Rey queda, si quiere, que el Vassallo le haga este servicio personalmente, ò que le pague, lo que pudiera valer apreciado en dinero'; the exemptions at §48, that the rule is limited 'quando los Feudos, ò Encomiendas se conceden à mugeres, niños, viejos de mas de setenta años, Religiosos, ù otros, que por edad, enfermedad, ò por otras causas se hallan justamente impedidos: porque estos bien podrán servir por substitutos, y las mugeres por las personas de sus maridos', with Rosenthal, Gregorio López and Acevedo; at §49 Petro Petra on the clause ex certa scientia and Antonio Borrinio, and the Provisión of 1536 'que tantas veces llévo citada en los Capitulos antes de este, diciendo: Con cargo, que hasta tanto que sea de edad para tomar armas, que tenga un Escudero, que Nos sirva en la Guerra, con la costa, que su padre sirvió, y era obligado', with the 1736 editor's asterisked addition 'L. 6. tit. 9. lib. 6. Recop.'; at §50 the author's own opinion that the charge should be tempered when a father asks to send a son 'sin apurar mucho la causa, que diere para escusarse', because in law 'el hijo se tiene por una misma persona con su padre, y es como carne suya aumentada', and that a recopiled law permits the same exchange to the Castilian horsemen 'que llaman Quantiosos'; at §51 that princes, viceroys and governors should be content even with another equally fit person, admitting the excuses offered 'si echan de vér, que de hacer lo contrario, se les podrian recrecer en sus personas, ò haciendas daños considerables', since even in strict feuds the vassal 'no esta obligado à servir por sí, ni por substituto en la Guerra, si quisiere pagar al Señor para ayuda de los gastos de ella la mitad, de lo que el Feudo le rentare en un año'; at §52 Menochio on the lord's duty of equity and Hostiense as reported by Gregorio López, that the ruler 'no les debe apretar à comparecer personalmente, y que se destruyan'; at §53 that the feudists' rigour about appearing in person to swear fidelity 'se debe templar con qualquier honesta causa, que huviere, ò escusa, que alegare, para que se le permita poderle hacer por Procurador', with Romano and Bonacosa; and at §54 the author's own testimony, 'Y Yo puedo testificar, que en el Perú nunca vi, que obligassen à los Encomenderos à venir à jurar personalmente, donde la gran distancia de las Provincias, gastos, y descomodidades de los caminos, aun pudieron introducir con mas justa causa esta dissimulacion, ò dispensacion de jurar por Procurador', citing Francisco de Claperis", "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=huEykw_YtzYC&pg=PA371" } ], "@type": "Article", "headline": "Serving by another: who owed the encomendero's military service in person, and the judge who never saw one compelled to swear" } }