The Lordly Right in the Constitution of 1812: A Problem of Legal Interpretation

Abstract

This article studies the crisis developed in the Mayoralty of Tegucigalpa caused by the interpretation that several indigenous peoples gave to certain articles of the Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, during its second period of validity from 1820. This Magna Carta introduced a series of liberal innovations, among them the abolition of caste distinctions (Indians, blacks, mulattos) and states (ecclesiastical, noble, common). Based on this, several indigenous peoples claimed that the Constitution exempted them from paying the stately tribute that had been imposed on them in 1523, thus contradicting the local authorities of the Spanish Empire, who were entitled to charge the right in the name of the King. This conflict of constitutional interpretation in tax matters was the first of its kind in the constitutional life of Honduras, so that its study allows an approximation to the conformation of democratic institutions in the country. The research has been carried out using documentation of the time contained in the Colonial Fund of the National Archive of Honduras, using a comparative methodology to analyze the texts.