Principalía

Pronounced prin-si-pa-LI-a. The colonial rank Spain created out of the existing datu class: a local nobility recognised by the Crown, given honours and standing, and made responsible for collecting the state’s money in the towns.

Its founding instruction is a royal order of Philip II dated 11 June 1594, directing that native chiefs “should have such treatment that would gain their affection and keep them loyal” and that “the Indians shall pay them something as a recognition.” A century later Charles II extended to these nobles “the preeminence and honors customarily attributed to the hidalgos of Castile.”

Membership was hereditary. A decree of 20 December 1863 admitted new members meeting criteria including fluency in Castilian, and the Maura Law of 1893 opened it to anyone paying fifty pesos in land tax. The office could be inherited, and then it could be bought.

Source: Blair and Robertson (eds.), The Philippine Islands, 1493 to 1898, 1903 to 1909, vols. 17, 27, 29, 36, 40 and 46, public domain and free on Project Gutenberg. The 1594 order was later folded into the Recopilación de las leyes de los reynos de las Indias. All four decrees above are quotable on camera with no rights clearance.

First used in: 1.2 · The office that was paid by the people it governed