“dizen algunos oydores a las partes que en acuerdo les mato y me ponen mal con los litigantes”: El fiscal Jerónimo de Rabanal y su participación en la Audiencia de Charcas (1561-1576)

Abstract

In this paper, we will try to develop the action of the public prosecutor of the Audiencia de Charcas, Jeronimo de Rabanal, between the years 1561 and 1576. Firstly, we will try to understand how the fiscal office was created in Castilla and then analyze its transfer to the Indies. Located in the headquarters of Charcas' court, the prosecutor Rabanal faced the challenges of having a recently established office in the American Chancery, which often led to conflict with the hearers and the legal president of the court. To reveal how the fiscal office was implemented in the first Charcas Hearing hopefully will shed light on the understanding of a legal culture located in the early days of the territorialization of Charcas' area of the Austrian Catholic monarchy.