page_title: Principalía
section_title: The Filipino Nobility during the Colonial Period
hierarchical_section_title: Principalía / Historical background / The Filipino Nobility during the Colonial Period
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Bartolomé de Las Casas (c.1484 - 1566)
context_page_description: The principalía or noble class was the ruling and usually educated upper class in the pueblos of the Spanish Philippines, comprising the Gobernadorcillo, who was later referred to as Capitan Municipal, Lieutenants of Justice, and the Cabezas de Barangay who governed the districts, former Gobernadorcillos or Municipal Captains, and Municipal lieutenants in good standing during their term of office.
  The distinction or status of being part of the principalía was originally a hereditary right. However, the royal decree of 20 December 1863, made possible the creation of new principales under certain defined criteria, among which was the proficiency in Castilian language. Later, wider conditions that define the principalía were stipulated in the norms provided by the Maura Law of 1893, which were never changed until Spain lost the Archipelago to the Americans. The Law also redefined the reference to the head of municipal government in the Spanish Philippines from Gobernadorcillo to Capitan Municipal, and extended the distinction as principales to citizens paying 50 pesos in land tax.
context_section_description: 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 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 principalía:
  Poon or Punò (chief, leader) – principal or head of a lineage.
  Ginoo – a noble by lineage and parentage, family and descent.
  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.
caption: Fray Bartolome de las Casas
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