The ''Pleitos colombinos'' ("Colombian lawsuits") were a long series of

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

s that the heirs of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

brought against the Crown of Castile and León in defense of the privileges obtained by Columbus for his discoveries in the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. Most of the lawsuits took place between 1508 and 1536.

Background

The

Capitulations of Santa Fe The Capitulations of Santa Fe between Christopher Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, were signed in Santa Fe, Granada on April 17, 1492. They granted Columbus the titles of admiral of t ...

, between

and the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

Queen Isabella I Isabella I (; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''Isabel la Católica''), was Queen of Castile and List of Leonese monarchs, León from 1474 until her death in 1504. She was also Queen of Aragon ...

of Castile and King Ferdinand II of

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, signed in

Santa Fe, Granada Santa Fe is a Spanish municipality in the province of Granada, situated in the Vega de Granada, irrigated by the river Genil. The town was originally built by the Catholic armies besieging Granada (''c.'' 1490-1492) after a fire destroyed much of ...

on April 17, 1492, granted Columbus, among other things, the tenth part of all riches to be obtained from his intended voyage.John Michael Francis, Will Kaufman. ''Iberia and the Americas'', ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 176 Although not a formal agreement, the capitulations resulted from negotiation. During Columbus's third voyage, he encountered hostility from other

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

, who felt deceived by Columbus's promises of riches. On several occasions, Columbus attempted to ally with the rebellious Taínos and Caribs against other Spaniards. Others, returning separately from America, accused him before the royal court of poor governance. The king and queen sent royal administrator

Francisco de Bobadilla Francisco de Bobadilla (c. 1448 – 11 July 1502) was an official under the Crown of Castile and a knight of the Order of Calatrava. He was also the nephew of Beatriz de Bobadilla, marchioness and of Peñalosa, a patron of Christopher Columbus ...

to Hispaniola in 1500, and upon his arrival (23 August), Columbus and his brothers were arrested and sent back to Spain in chains. Upon arriving in Spain, he regained his liberty but lost a great deal of his prestige and power. Upon Columbus's death in 1506, he was succeeded as

Admiral of the Indies Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of th ...

by his oldest son,

Diego Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. ...

. In 1508, King Ferdinand in his capacity as

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

of Castile, gave Diego Colón the additional office of Governor of the Indies "for the time my grace and will would have it" (''el tiempo que mi merced e voluntad fuere''). Link is to

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. Diego Colón held that it was "in perpetuity" and initiated a lawsuit against the Crown.

Lawsuit

In 1511 the first verdict was given, in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. The judges recognized for the line of Columbus the position of

viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the Anglo-Norman ''roy'' (Old Frenc ...

s in perpetuity and the right to a tenth of the benefits obtained from the Indies. The Crown received, among other things, the right to name

appellate judge An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellate ...

s. Neither party was satisfied, and both sides appealed. In 1512, the suit was combined with the ''pleito del Darién'', a suit over whether the jurisdiction of Columbus's heirs extended to the mainland of America (the ''tierra firme''). The name ''Darién'', still used for the

Darién Gap The Darién Gap (, , ) is a geographic region that connects the Americas, American continents, stretching across southern Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department. Consisting of a large drainage basin, ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

near

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, then referred to a far larger and somewhat indefinite region extending further into

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

. In 1520 was a new verdict, known as the "Declaration of La Coruña" (after the Galician city, now

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

). In 1524, Diego Colón was deposed from his position as governor and instituted a new suit against the Crown. He died two years later, but his widow continued the suit in the name of their son,

Luis Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

, a minor at the time. The primary representative of the family at this time, if not the one with the standing for the suit, was Diego's brother,

Fernando Colón Ferdinand Columbus ( or ; ; ; 15 August 1488 – 12 July 1539) was a Spanish bibliographer and cosmographer, the second son of Christopher Columbus. His mother was Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, who his father never married. Biography Ferdinand Colum ...

. A verdict in

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

on 25 June 1527 declared the previous verdicts annulled and ordered a new trial. The new royal prosecutor attempted to demonstrate that the discovery of the West Indies had principally been achieved thanks to

Martín Alonso Pinzón Martín Alonso Pinzón, (; Palos de la Frontera, Huelva; c. 1441 – c. 1493) was a Spanish mariner, shipbuilder, navigator and explorer, oldest of the Pinzón brothers. He sailed with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World i ...

, not Columbus. He called as witnesses surviving members of the crew of the first voyage to America. Two verdicts were given: in Dueñas (1534) and in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

(1535), but both were appealed.

Arbitration

Both parties finally submitted to

arbitration Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...

. On 28 June 1536 the president of the

Council of the Indies A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

, Bishop

García de Loaysa García or Garcia may refer to: People * García (surname) * Kings of Pamplona/Navarre ** García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2–882 ** García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931–970 ** García Sánchez II of Pamp ...

, and the president of the

Council of Castile The Council of Castile (), known earlier as the Royal Council (), was a ruling body and key part of the domestic government of the Crown of Castile, second only to the monarch himself. It was established under Isabella I in 1480 as the chi ...

, Gaspar de Montoya, delivered the following arbitration award: * They confirmed the title of

in perpetuity to the line of Columbus, with privileges analogous to those of the

Admiral of Castile Admiral of Castile was the representative of the King of Castile at the head of the Navy. It was a dignity created in 1247 that lasted until 1705. Admiral of Castile The title of Admiral of Castile was created by King Ferdinand III the Saint in ...

. * They removed the titles of Viceroy and Governor General of the Indies. * They established a

seigneury A seigneur () or lord is an originally feudal system, feudal title in Ancien Régime, France before the French Revolution, Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owne ...

for Columbus's heirs consisting mainly of the island of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

(with the title of

Marquess A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...

of Jamaica), a territory of 25 leagues square in

Veragua The name Veragua or Veraguas was used for five Spanish colonial territorial entities in Central America, beginning in the 16th century during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term comes from the name given to the region by Central Am ...

(with the title of

Duke of Veragua The Duchy of Veragua () is a hereditary title in the Peerage of Spain. It was also a Spanish hereditary domain created in 1537 in the reign of King Charles I in a small section of the territory of Veragua (''Gobernación de Veragua'', which h ...

). * They confirmed the heirs' possession of their lands in the

and the perpetuity of the titles of ''alguacil mayor'' (" high sheriff") of

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

and of the ''Audiencia'' (tribunal) of the island. * They ordered a payment of 10,000

ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...

s annually to the heirs of Columbus as well as 500,000 '' maravedíes'' per year to each of the sisters of Luis Colón.

Minor lawsuits

After the arbitration of 1536, minor lawsuits between the Columbus family and the Crown continued, but they were not of comparable importance. Lawsuits occurred between 1537 and 1541, between 1555 and 1563, and sporadically until the end of the 18th century.

Historical interest

Both the Columbus family and the Crown took testimony from witnesses to the various Castilian voyages of discovery to America. It has been a fundamental source of information for historians who study the era, but the accuracy of some of the testimonies is open to doubt.

References

External links

* Complete first edition of the documents and testimony of the ''Pleitos Colombinos'': This work has recently been published in English translation: ''Testimonies from the Columbian Lawsuits (Repertorium Columbianum)'', Brepols Publishers (2000), . {{Authority control Lawsuits Christopher Columbus Columbus family 1520s in law 1530s in law 16th century in case law 1510s in law 1500s in law Legal history of Spain Colonial Central America 16th century in the Colony of Santo Domingo Spanish West Indies