Cacicazgos — the indigenous lordships recognised in the law of the Indies

Spanish law kept the pre-conquest indigenous lordships in being as heritable offices. A whole title of the Recopilación orders the Audiencias to hear Indians suing over cacicazgos, to restore those unjustly dispossessed, and to leave the succession to "el antiguo derecho, y costumbre". The same title bars mestizos from holding one, forbids caciques to call themselves lords, and records that caciques were overworking and overtaxing their own people.