The Chamber of Castile, the king and the creation of nobility titles in the first half of the 18th century

Abstract

Along the first half of the 18th century —continuing with the trend that was observed from the previous century—, there was imposed the executive or decisive decree of the king in the relative thing to the grant of the pertaining to nobility titles, diminishing therefore the number of briefs of request that were sent to the Chamber of Castile to be examined and, later, raised up to the monarch in order that he was resolving. The predominance of the executive decree —that implied, sometimes, the absence of social control on the graduates— and the marginalization of the Chamber as entrusted institution, theoretically, to guard over the circumstances of the claimants to these honors, would take with it the ennoblement of diverse individuals who, lacking in the merits and qualities needed, would manage to place in the highest of the social hierarchy.