Polysynodial System

The Polysynodial System, Polysynodial Regime (Spanish: régimen polisinodial) or System of Councils was the way of organization of the composite monarchy ruled by the Catholic Monarchs and the Spanish Habsburgs, which entrusted the central administration in a group of collegiate bodies (councils) already existing or created ex novo.

[2] After its creation in 1521 (and 1526 revamp), the Council of State, chaired by the monarch and formed by the high nobility and clergy, became the supreme body of the monarchy.

Its origin goes back to the Middle Ages in the consultative bodies of the crowns of Castile, Aragon and Navarre.

The councils were of three types: (Spanish: Consejo de Estado) Established under Charles V, the Council of State did not have specific areas of focus or competences, nor territorial scopes determined by what was supraterritorial, which was the reason why the most important subjects and of foreign policy, as well as the subjects relative to the monarch and to the royal family.

Its mission was to advise the monarch on foreign policy and had control of the embassies of Rome, Vienna, Venice, Genoa, and the major powers of Europe: France, England and Portugal.

(Spanish: Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición) Established during the Catholic Monarchs, it had jurisdiction of the Council of the Inquisition extended beyond the limits of Castile and the Indies, encompassing the kingdoms of Aragon with the exception of Naples, and Navarre, but not Portugal, nor Milan, nor the Burgundian territories.

It was responsible for justice, finances, the appointment of officials and the viceroys in the former Italian possessions of the Crown of Aragon (Naples and Sicily).

Once King Ferdinand the Catholic obtained from the pope the administration of the entailed estates (mayorazgos) of the Order of Calatrava in 1489, a Council was established for its management.

Since the start of Enlightenment, these institutions would be laid aside because of the creation of the Secretaries of State and Universal Dispatch, which took all the Councils' power.

The Councils, many of them distorted with respect to their initial origin, disappeared altogether during the nineteenth century, replacing it at the outset with the figure of the Central Supreme Board recognized by the liberal constituents, being this organ the anteroom of the Council of Ministers created during the reign of Isabella II.