With the establishment of the Trastámara dynasty in the middle of the 14th century, the first mentions of secretaries appear as the scribes who acted in the most private and personal sphere of the monarchs.
[4] In addition, in the formula of the documents signed by Fernán Díaz de Toledo (in the service of John II between 1421 and 1457), his status as secretary already appears as such.
This Royal Council would be in charge of advising on appointments and the granting of merits, of judicial tasks as the Court of Supreme Appeal of Castile and of supervising the government and administration of the kingdom.
[6][7] With the complexity of the matters to be managed and the progressive increase of the dominions of the Monarchy, the distinction between the government of the Royal House and the territorial administration had to be clarified.
Vázquez de Molina accepted this situation and obtained the definitive license to retire in 1562, leaving Eraso in charge of the secretariat until his death in 1570.
[27][28] The defeat and death of the Portuguese king in the battle of Alcazarquivir in 1578, supposed the Spanish king to opt for the Portuguese throne, to press and to affirm his aspirations with a military campaign required to leave in Madrid trustworthy personnel to guarantee a stable government, and given that the attitude of the monarch towards Antonio Perez was of distrust, his fall was imminent.
[30][31] The progressive deterioration of Philip II after 1585, led him to create a board to assist the monarch in the government of the Monarchy, examining consultations and correspondence issued by the various organs of the Monarchy and advising the king in their resolution, and in which Cristóbal de Moura will prefigure the figure of the valide by enjoying the confidence of the king to answer the consultations of the board or respond to royal orders.
[33] The reign of Philip III brought an institutional transformation with the appearance of the valide, since the lack of dedication of the monarchs to the public affairs demanded the presence of a person that coordinated the governmental politics, that had the confidence of the monarch and the authority on the Councils, in the same way, the fall of the valide was produced by the loss of confidence of the king.
As such, the valide exercised through a delegation of powers the intervention in political affairs, such as the resolution of consultations or supervision of the institutions, without being a mere transmitter of the orders of the monarch.
By means of the office by word of mouth, the secretary elaborated opinions and summaries of the consultations issued by the council, transmitted to the monarch those matters that required a response, and then would put down on paper the communication to the persons and institutions affected by those decisions, but when the valides took over the office by word of mouth they did it in the verbal communication, but, not being bureaucrats, did not take charge of the written documents, which was assumed through trusted personnel, given that the direct office of the valide with the king meant the disappearance of the monarch's private secretary.
[39][40] The reign of Charles II would put an end to the era of the Valides, and from then on the government would be directed by a prime minister, a person imposed on the king, and who therefore did not enjoy the confidence of the monarch, but had the support of some nobiliary faction.
Along with the work of the secretaries to present the affairs of the day to the monarch by reading and summarizing them and transmitting the answers to their addressees, he could receive confidential information reserved from different authorities without the knowledge of the Councils to expedite procedures and make payments with secret funds of the king; but ultimately their main task would be to process and expedite the bureaucratic documentation, in the basements of the palace, known as the covachuela.
At the end of January 1705 Pedro Fernández del Campo was appointed as the new Secretary of the Office, and since it was impossible for this newcomer to efficiently carry out all the bureaucratic work, the king established in the Royal Decree of July 11, 1705 the division of the secretariat into two distinct offices according to the demands of government to win the War of Succession: the affairs of War and Finance fell to José de Grimaldo, while "everything else of any matter" (primarily justice and ecclesiastical affairs) remained with Pedro Fernández del Campo.
[47][48] The year 1714 saw the death of Queen Maria Luisa Gabriela of Savoy in February and the return of Jean Orry to Spain at the end of April, which brought about some administrative changes: the Secretary of the Office Pedro Fernandez del Campo was replaced by Manuel Vadillo and the Royal Decree of November 30, 1714 implemented the French ministerial system, establishing four secretaries of the Office: Jean Orry, the architect of the reform, was left in charge of a General Overseer's Office for Treasury affairs that supervised the whole administration, controlling the expenses, and in addition, the Overseer's Office had a general intendant who assisted him in order to facilitate the opinions to the rest of the secretaries, and who was Lorenzo Armengual de la Mota.
[60] The Secretaries of State and of the Office were the origin of the ministers, in charge of a specific department and with a professional bureaucracy at their disposal, with their work they went from bureaucrats to political figures.
The Secretaries of State and of the Office had privileged access to the monarch, having direct communication with him, which meant, to resolve and decide with the king, as well as to put in writing those verbal resolutions to give them course.
[55][66] When Cardinal Giulio Alberoni was the new influential man in the Court the Royal Decree of April 2, 1717 arose, which produced another new reorganization of the Universal Office, which was divided between: After the fall of Alberoni in December 1719, another new reorganization took place on December 1, 1720, with the secretariats of: With the fall of Fernández Durán, a new reorganization took place when his Secretariat was divided into two: on the one hand, War, and on the other, the Navy and the Indies, leaving the organization in the five specialized and differentiated Secretaries of the Office until the 19th century, although it happened that the same person simultaneously occupied two or more Secretariats, as in the case of José Patiño Rosales, José del Campillo y Cossío, Zenón de Somodevilla, or Leopoldo de Gregorio.
During the reign of Charles III, the novelty of the collective office was introduced with the creation by royal decree of July 8, 1787 of the Junta Suprema de Estado (Supreme Board of the State), an institutionalized meeting of all the secretaries to deliberate on matters that went beyond the scope of each secretariat.