SPANISH CORREGIDOR/ MAGISTRATE/ MAYOR

Appointed government office created by King Alfonso XI of Castile in the 14th century and later extended to Spanish colonies in America.

The corregidores became administrators of districts or cities and had both judicial and executive powers.

In 17th-century Spain they helped support the absolutism of the Spanish crown.

They were replaced in the mid-18th century by alcaldes mayores (mayors, instead alcaldes de barrio?) in Spain and by intendentes in the Americas.

El Sombrero de Tres Picos ("The Three-cornered Hat") of Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, a novel published in 1874, ridiculed the then obsolete office and its functionaries.