The written document and the royal seal in the Indies: the use of the document as a power strategy

Abstract

The written document and, especially, the Royal seal has been instruments used by kings to communicate and disseminate to their sub-jects the most diverse businesses and wills. Used from ancient to ensure and demonstrate obligations or privileges, the Royal documents and their validation main sign, the seal, were also used to expand the Royal jurisdiction and strengthen the sovereignty of the monarch. The use of the document as a power strategy was intensified in the same proportion as the Monarchy and the territory on which it wanted to exercise its au-thority. This fact explains why in The Indies, which was governed for centuries in permanent absence of the monarch, the written document and the seal gets a greater role in representing the Royal jurisdiction and the symbolic presence of the monarch. This study aims to reflect on the uses and functions given to the document and the Royal seal as an extension of royal jurisdiction and power at these far territories.