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Principalía

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Principalía

The Principalía or noble class was the ruling and usually educated upper class in the towns of the Spanish Philippines, comprising the gobernadorcillo (who had functions similar to a town mayor), and the cabezas de barangay (heads of the barangays) who governed the districts. The distinction or status of being part of the principalía was a hereditary right. However, it could also be acquired, as attested by the royal decree of 20 December 1863 (signed in the name of Queen Isabella II by the Minister of the Colonies, José de la Concha).

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This distinguished upper class was exempted from tribute (tax) to the Spanish crown during the colonial period. It was the true aristocracy and the true nobility of colonial Philippines, which could be roughly comparable to the patrician class of ancient Rome. The principales (members of the principalía) traced their origin from the pre‑colonial royal and noble class of Datu of the established kingdoms, rajahnates, confederacies, and principalities, as well as the lordships of the smaller ancient social units called barangays in Visayas, Luzon, and Mindanao. The members of this class enjoyed exclusive privileges: only the members of the principalía were allowed to vote, be elected to public office, and be addressed by the title: Don or Doña.

For the most part, the social privileges of the nobles were freely acknowledged as befitting their greater social responsibilities. The gobernadorcillo during that period received a nominal salary and was not provided government funds for public services. In fact more often the gobernadorcillo had to maintain government of his municipality by looking after the post office and the jailhouse, and by managing public infrastructure.

Principales also provided assistance to parishes by helping in the construction of church buildings, and in the pastoral and religious activities of the priests who, being usually among the few Spaniards in most colonial towns, had success in winning the goodwill of the natives. More often, the clergy were the sole representatives of Spain in many parts of the archipelago. Under the Patronato Real of the Spanish crown, these Spanish churchmen were also the king's effective ambassadors, and promoters of the realm.

With the end of Spanish sovereignty over the Philippines after the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the introduction of a democratic, republican system during the American Occupation, the Principalía and their descendants lost their legal authority and social privileges. Many were, however, able to integrate into the new socio-political structure, retaining some degree of influence and power.

Pre-colonial principalities

From the beginning of the colonial period in the Philippine, the Spanish government built on the traditional pre‑conquest socio‑political organization of the barangay and co‑opted the traditional indigenous princes and their nobles, thereby ruling indirectly. The barangays in some coastal places in Panay, Manila, Cebu, Jolo, and Butuan, with cosmopolitan cultures and trade relations with other countries in Asia, were already established principalities (Kinadatuan) before the coming of the Spaniards. In other regions, even though the majority of these barangays were not large settlements, yet they had organized societies dominated by the same type of recognized aristocracy and lordships (with birthright claim to allegiance from followers), as those found in more established, richer and more developed principalities. The aristocratic group in these pre‑colonial societies was called the datu class. Its members were presumably the descendants of the first settlers on the land or, in the case of later arrivals, of those who were datus at the time of migration or conquest.

The duty of the datus was to rule and govern their subjects and followers, and to assist them in their interests and necessities. What the chiefs received from their followers was: to be held by them in great veneration and respect; and they were served in their wars and voyages, and in their tilling, sowing, fishing, and the building of their houses. The natives attended to these duties very promptly, whenever summoned by their chief. They also paid their chief tribute (which they called buwis) in varying quantities, in the crops that they gathered. The descendants of such chiefs, and their relatives, even though they did not inherit the Lordship, were held in the same respect and consideration, and were all regarded as nobles and as persons exempt from the services rendered by the others, or the plebeians (timawas). The same right of nobility and chieftainship was preserved for the women, just as for the men.

Some of these principalities and lordships have remained, even until the present, in unHispanicized and mostly Lumad and Muslim parts of the Philippines, in some regions of Mindanao.

Pre-colonial principalities in the Visayas

In more developed barangays in Visayas, e.g., Panay, Bohol and Cebu (which were never conquered by Spain but were incorporated into the Spanish sphere of influence as vassals by means of pacts, peace treaties, and reciprocal alliances), the datu class was at the top of a divinely sanctioned and stable social order in a territorial jurisdiction called in the local languages as Sakop or Kinadatuan (Kadatuan in ancient Malay; Kedaton in Javanese; and Kedatuan in many parts of modern Southeast Asia), which is elsewhere commonly referred to also as barangay. This social order was divided into three classes. The Kadatuan, which is also called Tumao (members of the Visayan datu class), were compared by the Boxer Codex to the titled lords (Señores de titulo) in Spain. As Agalon or Amo (lords), the datus enjoyed an ascribed right to respect, obedience, and support from their oripun (commoner) or followers belonging to the third order. These datus had acquired rights to the same advantages from their legal "timawa" or vassals (second order), who bind themselves to the datu as his seafaring warriors. "Timawas" paid no tribute, and rendered no agricultural labor. They had a portion of the datu's blood in their veins. The Boxer Codex calls these "timawas" knights and hidalgos. The Spanish conquistador, Miguel de Loarca, described them as "free men, neither chiefs nor slaves". In the late 1600s, the Spanish Jesuit priest Fr. Francisco Ignatio Alcina, classified them as the third rank of nobility (nobleza).

To maintain purity of bloodline, datus marry only among their kind, often seeking high ranking brides in other barangays, abducting them, or contracting brideprices in gold, slaves and jewelry. Meanwhile, the datus kept their marriageable daughters secluded for protection and prestige. These well‑guarded and protected highborn women were called "binokot", the datus of pure descent (four generations) were called "potli nga datu" or "lubus nga datu", while a woman of noble lineage (especially the elderly) was addressed by the Visayans (of Panay) as "uray" (meaning: pure as gold), e.g., uray Hilway.

Pre-colonial principalities in the Tagalog region

The different type of culture prevalent in Luzon gave a less stable and more complex social structure to the pre‑colonial Tagalog barangays of Manila, Pampanga and Laguna. Enjoying a more extensive commence than those in Visayas, having the influence of Bornean political contacts, and engaging in farming wet rice for a living, the Tagalogs were described by the Spanish Augustinian Friar Martin de Rada as more traders than warriors.

The more complex social structure of the Tagalogs was less stable during the arrival of the Spaniards because it was still in a process of differentiating. The Jesuit priest Francisco Colin made an attempt to give an approximate comparison of it with the Visayan social structure in the middle of the seventeenth century. The term datu or lakan, or apo refers to the chief, but the noble class to which the datu belonged or could come from was the maginoo class. One may be born a maginoo, but he could become a datu by personal achievement. In the Visayas, if the datu had the personality and economic means, he could retain and restrain competing peers, relatives, and offspring.

The term timawa came into use in the social structure of the Tagalogs within just twenty years after the coming of the Spaniards. The term, however, was being applied to former alipin (third class) who have escaped bondage by payment, favor, or flight. The Tagalog timawas did not have the military prominence of the Visayan timawa. The warrior class in the Tagalog society was present only in Laguna, and they were called the maharlika class. At the early part of the Spanish regime, the number of their members who were coming to rent land from their datus was increasing.

Unlike the Visayan datus, the lakans and apos of Luzon could call all non‑maginoo subjects to work in the datu's fields or do all sorts of other personal labor. In the Visayas, only the oripuns were obliged to do that, and to pay tribute besides. The Tagalog who works in the datu's field did not pay him tribute, and could transfer their allegiance to another datu.

The Visayan timawa neither paid tribute nor performed agricultural labor. In a sense, they were truly aristocrats. The Tagalog maharlika did not only work in his datu’s field, but could also be required to pay his own rent. Thus, all non‑maginoo formed a common economic class in some sense, though this class had no designation.

The civilization of the pre‑colonial societies in the Visayas, northern Mindanao, and Luzon were largely influenced by Hindu and Buddhist cultures. As such, the datus who ruled these principalities (such as Butuan, Cebu, Panay, Mindoro and Manila) also shared the many customs of royalties and nobles in southeast Asian territories (with Hindu and Buddhist cultures), especially in the way they used to dress and adorn themselves with gold and silk. The Boxer Codex bears testimony to this fact. The measure of the prince's possession of gold and slaves was proportionate to his greatness and nobility. The first westerners who came to the archipelago observed that there was hardly any "Indian" who did not possess chains and other articles of gold.

The noble class during the Spanish Dominion

When the Spaniards expanded their dominion to the Americas and, later on, to the East Indies, they encountered different cultures that existed in these territories, which possessed different social structures (more or less complex), where and as a common trait among them, there was a ruling class that held power and determined the destinies of peoples and territories under its control. These elites were those that the Spaniards discovered and conquered in the New World. It was these Spanish conquerors, using European terminology, who correlated the identity of classes of the pre-Hispanic elites, alongside with the royalty or with the nobility of Europe at the time, according to appropriate categories, e.g., emperor, king, etc. The thoughts of the more notable among them give useful insights on how the first European settlers regarded the rulers of Indians in the New World. Fray Bartolome de las Casas, for example, would argue that indigenous nobles were "(...) as Princes and Infantes like those of Castile." Juan de Matienzo, during his rule of Peru, said that the "Caciques, curacas and principales are the native princes of the Indians." In the Lexicon of Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás and Diego González Holguín, as well as in the work of Ludovico Bertonio, several entries included were devoted to identify the pre-Hispanic society, comparing their old titles to those of their counterpart in the Iberian peninsula.

The same approach to the local society in the East Indies was used by the Spaniards.

The principalía was the first estate of the four echelons of Filipino society at the time of contact with Europeans, as described by Fr. Juan de Plasencia, a pioneer Franciscan missionary in the Philippines. Loarca and the Canon Lawyer Antonio de Morga, who classified society into three estates (ruler, ruled, slave), also affirmed the pre‑eminence of the principales. All members of this first estate (the datu class) were principales, whether they were actually occupying positions to rule, or not. The Real Academia Española defines Principal as a "person or thing that holds first place in value or importance, and is given precedence and preference before others". This Spanish term best describes the first estate of the society in the archipelago, which the Europeans came in contact with. San Buenaventura's 1613 Dictionary of the Tagalog language defines three terms that clarify the concept of this principalía:

  1. Poon or Punò (chief, leader) – principal or head of a lineage.
  2. Ginoo – a noble by lineage and parentage, family and descent.
  3. Maguinoo – principal in lineage or parentage.

The Spanish term Señor (lord) is equated with all these three terms, which are distinguished from the nouveau riche imitators scornfully called maygintao (man with gold or hidalgo by wealth, and not by lineage). The first estate was the class that constituted a birthright aristocracy with claims to respect, obedience, and support from those of subordinate status.

The Local Nobility and the Laws of the Indies

In Title VII, Book VI (dedicated to the caciques) of the Recopilación de las leyes de los reynos de Las Indias, a.k.a. the Laws of the Indies, there are three very interesting laws insofar as they determined the role that the caciques were to play in the Indian new social order under the colonial rule. With these laws, the Spanish Crown officially recognized the rights (of pre-Hispanic origin) of these principales. Specifically, Laws 1, 2 (dedicated to American territories) and; Law 16, instituted by Philip II, on June 11, 1594 (which is similar to the previous two), with the main purpose of assuring that the principales of the Philippines would be treated well and be entrusted with some government charge. Likewise, this provision extended to the Filipino caciques all policies concerning the Indian caciques under the Spanish rule.

Thus, in order to implement a system of indirect rule in the Philippines, King Philip II ordered, through this law of 11 June 1594, that the honors and privileges of governing, which were previously enjoyed by the local royalty and nobility in formerly sovereign principalities (who later accepted the catholic faith and became subject to him), should be retained and protected. He also ordered the Spanish governors in the Philippines to treat these native nobles well. The king further ordered that the natives should pay to these nobles the same respect that the inhabitants accorded to their local Lords before the conquest, without prejudice to the things that pertain to the king himself or to the encomenderos.

The royal decree says: "It is not right that the Indian chiefs of Filipinas be in a worse condition after conversion; rather they should have such treatment that would gain their affection and keep them loyal, so that with the spiritual blessings that God has communicated to them by calling them to His true knowledge, the temporal blessings may be added, and they may live contentedly and comfortably. Therefore, we order the governors of those islands to show them good treatment and entrust them, in our name, with the government of the Indians, of whom they were formerly lords. In all else the governors shall see that the chiefs are benefited justly, and the Indians shall pay them something as a recognition, as they did during the period of their paganism, provided it be without prejudice to the tributes that are to be paid us, or prejudicial to that which pertains to their encomenderos."

Through this law, the local Filipino nobles (under the supervision of the Spanish colonial officials) became encomenderos (trustees) also of the King of Spain, who ruled the country indirectly through these nobles. Corollary to this provision, all existing doctrines and laws regarding the Indian caciques were extended to Filipino principales. Their domains became self‑ruled tributary barangays of the Spanish Empire.

The system of indirect government helped in the pacification of the rural areas, and institutionalized the rule and role of an upper class, referred to as the "principalía" or the "principales", until the fall of the Spanish regime in the Philippines in 1898.

The Spanish dominion brought serious modifications to the life and economy of the indigenous society. The shift of emphasis to agriculture marginalized, weakened, and deprived the hildalgo‑like warriors of their significance in the barangays, especially in the trade‑raiding societies in the Visayas (which needed the Viking‑like services of the "timawas"). By the 1580s, many of these noblemen found themselves reduced to leasing land from their datus. Their military functions were eclipsed by farming. Whatever remained would quickly be disoriented, deflected, and destroyed by the superior military power of Spain.

By the end of the 16th century, any claim to Filipino royalty, nobility or hidalguía had disappeared into a homogenized, Hispanicized and Christianized nobility – the principalía. This remnant of the pre‑colonial royal and noble families continued to rule their traditional domain until the end of the Spanish regime. However, there were cases when succession in leadership was also done through election of new leaders (cabezas de barangay), especially in provinces near the Manila where the ancient ruling families lost their prestige and role. It appears that proximity to the seat of colonial Government diminished their power and significance. In distant territories, where the central authority had less control and where order could be maintained without using coercive measures, hereditary succession was still enforced, until Spain lost the archipelago to the Americans. These distant territories remained patriarchal societies, where people retained great respect for the principalía.

The Emergence of the Mestizo Class

The principalía was larger and more influential than the pre‑conquest indigenous nobility. It helped create and perpetuate an oligarchic system in the Spanish colony for more than three hundred years, serving as a link between the Spanish authorities and the local inhabitants. The Spanish colonial government's prohibition for foreigners to own land in the Philippines contributed to the evolution of this form of oligarchy. In some provinces of the Philippines, many Spaniards and foreign merchants intermarried with the rich and landed Malayo‑Polynesian local nobilities. From these unions, a new cultural group was formed, the mestizo class. Their descendants emerged later to become an influential part of the government, and the principalía.

The increase of population in the Archipelago, as well as the growing presence of Chinese and Mestizos also brought about social changes that necessitated the creation of new members of the principalía for these sectors of Filipino colonial society. In this regard, pertinent laws were promulgated, such as the above-mentioned royal decree issued on 20 December 1863 (signed in the name of Queen Isabella II by the Minister of the Colonies, José de la Concha), which indicate certain conditions for promotion to the principalía class, among others, the capacity to speak the Castilian language.

The Royal Cedula of Charles II and the Indigenous Nobles

The emergence of the mestizo class was a social phenomenon not localized in the Philippines, but was also very much present in the American continent. On 22 March 1697, Charles II of Spain issued a Royal Cedula, related to this phenomenon. The Cedula gave distinctions to classes of persons in the social structure of the Crown Colonies, and defined the rights and privileges of colonial functionaries. In doing so, the Spanish Monarch touched another aspect of the colonial society, i.e., the status of indigenous nobles, extending to these indigenous nobles, as well as to their descendants, the preeminence and honors customarily attributed to the Hidalgos of Castile. The Royal Cedula stipulates:

“Bearing in mind the laws and orders issued by my Progenies, Their Majesties the Kings, and by myself, I order the good treatment, assistance, protection and defense of the native Indians of America, that they may be taken cared of, maintained, privileged and honored like all other vassals of my Crown and that, in the course of time, the trial and use of them stops. I feel that its timely implementation is very suitable for public good, for the benefit of the Indians and for the service of God and mine. That, consequently, with respect to the Indian mestizos, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Indias are charged by Article 7, Title VII, Book I of the Laws of the Indies, for ordaining priests, being attentive to the qualities and circumstances present, and if some mestizas ask to be religious, they (Bishops) shall give support to those whom they admit in monasteries and for vows. But in particular, with regard to the requirements for Indians in order to accede to ecclesiastical or secular, governmental, political and military positions, which all require purity of blood and, by its Statute, the condition of nobility, there is distinction between the Indians and mestizos, inasmuch as there is between the [1] descendants of the notable Indians called caciques, and [2] those who are issues of less notable Indian tributaries, who in their pagan state acknowledged vassalage. It is deemed that all preeminence and honors, customarily conferred on the Hijosdalgos of Castile, are to be attributed to the first and to their descendants, both ecclesiastical and secular; and that they can participate in any communities which, by their statutes require nobility; for it is established that these, in their heathenism, were nobles to whom their subordinates acknowledged vassalage and to whom tributes were paid. Such kind of nobility is still retained and acknowledged, keeping these as well as their privileges wherever possible, as recognized and declared by the whole section on the caciques, which is Title VII, Book VI of the Laws of the Indies, wherein for the sake of distinction, the subordinate Indians were placed under (these noble’s) dominion called «cacicazgo», transmissible from elder to elder, to their posteriority…”

The Royal Cedula was enforced in the Philippines and benefited many indigenous nobles. It can be seen very clearly and irrefutably that, during the colonial period, indigenous chiefs were equated with the Spanish Hidalgos, and the most resounding proof of the application of this comparison is the General Military Archive in Segovia, where the qualifications of “Nobility” (found in the Service Records) are attributed to those Filipinos who were admitted to the Spanish Military Academies and whose ancestors were caciques, encomenderos, notable Tagalogs, chieftains, governors or those who held positions in the municipal administration or government in all different regions of the large islands of the Archipelago, or of the many small islands of which it is composed. In the context of the ancient tradition and norms of Castilian nobililty, all descendants of a noble are considered noble, regardless of fortune.


At the Real Academia de la Historia, there is also a substantial amount of records giving reference to the Philippine Islands, and while most part corresponds to the history of these islands, the Academia did not exclude among its documents the presence of many genealogical records. The archives of the Academia and its royal stamp recognized the appointments of hundreds of natives of the Philippines who, by virtue of their social position, occupied posts in the administration of the territories. The presence of these notables demonstrates the cultural concern of Spain in those Islands to prepare the natives and the collaboration of these in the government of the Archipelago. This aspect of Spanish rule in the Philippines appears much more strongly implemented than in the Americas. Hence in the Philippines, the local Nobility, by reason of charge accorded to their social class, acquired greater importance than in the Indies.

Marriage customs

Although the principalía had many privileges, there were limitations to how much power they were entitled to under Spanish rule. A member of the principalía could never become the Governor‑General (Gobernador y Capitán General), nor could he become the provincial governor (alcalde mayor). Hypothetically, a member of the principalía could obtain the position of provincial governor if, for example, a noblewoman of the principalía married a Spanish man born in the Philippines (an Insulares) of an elevated social rank. In which case her children would be classified as white (or blanco). However, this did not necessarily give a guarantee that her sons would obtain the position of provincial governor. Being mestizos was not an assurance that they would be loyal enough to the Spanish crown. Such unquestionable allegiance was necessary for the colonizers in retaining control of the archipelago.

The children born of the union between the principales and the insulares, or better still, the peninsulares (a Spanish person born in Spain) are neither assured access to the highest position of power in the colony. Flexibility is known to have occurred in some cases, including that of Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero who even became interim Prime Minister of Spain on August 8, 1897 until October 4 of that same year. Azcárraga also went on to become Prime Minister of Spain again in two more separate terms of office. In 1904, he was granted Knighthood in the very exclusive Spanish chilvalric Order of the Golden Fleece — the only mestizo recipient of this prestigious award.

In the archipelago, however, most often ethnic segregation did put a stop to social mobility, even for members of the principalía – a thing that is normally expected in a colonial rule. It was not also common for principales to be too ambitious so as to pursue very strong desire for obtaining the office of Governor-General. For most part, it appears that the local nobles were inclined to be preoccupied with matters concerning their barangays and towns.

The town mayors received an annual salary of 24 pesos, which was nothing in comparison to the provincial governor's 1,600 pesos and the Governor‑General's 40,000 pesos. Even though the gobernadorcillo's salary was not subject to tax, it was not enough to carry out all the required duties expected of such a position. This explains why among the principales, those who had more wealth were likely to be elected to the office of gobernadorcillo (municipal governor).

Principales tend to marry those who belong to their class, to maintain wealth and power. However, unlike most European royalties who marry their close relatives, e.g. first cousins, for this purpose, Filipino nobles abhorred incestuous unions. In some cases, members of the principalia married wealthy and non‑noble Chinese (Sangley) merchants, who made their fortune in the colony. Principales born of these unions had possibilities to be elected gobernadorcillo by their peers.

Wealth was not the only basis for inter‑marriage between the principales and foreigners, which were commonly prearranged by parents of the bride and groom. Neither did having a Spaniard as one of the parents of a child ennobles him. In a traditionally conservative Catholic environment with Christian mores and norms strictly imposed under the tutelage and prying eyes of Spanish friars, marriage to a divorcée or secondhand spouse (locally referred to as "tirá ng ibá", literally "others' leftovers") was scornfully disdained by Filipino aristocrats. Virgin brides were a must for the principalía, as well as for the Filipinos in general.

Children who were born outside of marriage, even of Spaniards, were not accepted in the circle of principales. These were severely ostracized in the conservative colonial society and were pejoratively called an "anák sa labás", i.e., "child from outside" (viz., outside marriage).

During the last years of the regime, there were efforts to push for a representation of the archipelago in the Spanish Cortes among a good number of principales. This move was prevalent especially among those who have studied in Spain and other parts of Europe (Ilustrados). That initiative, however, was met with snobbery by the colonizers, who denied the natives of equal treatment, in any way possible.

Towards the end of the 19th century, civil unrest, which was fuelled by the arrogance, racial discrimination, hypocrisy, and abuses of western colonizers, occurred more frequently. This situation was exposed by the writer and leader of the Propaganda Movement, José Rizal, in his two novels: Noli Me Tángere, and El Filibusterismo (dedicated to the three Filipino Catholic priests, who were executed on 17 February 1872 by Spanish colonial authorities, on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny). Because of this growing unrest that turned into an irreversible revolution, the position of provincial governor became awarded more and more often to the peninsulares. In the ecclesiastical sector, a decree was made, stating there were to be no further appointments of Filipinos as parish priests. Nonetheless, nothing that Spain could do was able to retain control over the once submissive subjects, who felt betrayed, among whom were many principales.

Certain class symbols

At the later part of the Spanish period, this class of elite Christian landowners started to adopt a characteristic style of dress and carry regalia. They wore a distinctive type of salakot, a Philippine headdress commonly used in the archipelago since the pre‑colonial period. Instead of the usual headgear made of rattan or reeds or various shells such as capiz shells, which common Filipinos would wear, the principales would use more precious materials like tortoise shell and precious metals like silver or, at times, gold. The ornate salakots of this upper class were usually embossed with these precious metals and sometimes decorated with coins of value or pendants that hung around the rim of the headgear.

References

Principalía Wikipedia