The Erosion of the Aristotelian Criteria of Tyranny in the Hispanic World, 15th -16th Centuries

The evolution of theories on royal authority, tyranny and resistance in the early modern Hispanic world reflects a progressive erosion of the criteria of tyranny listed in Aristotle’s Politics. As I will show in this presentation, this process of erosion initiated just after the defeat of the comunero revolt in 1521, followed by a systematic destruction of the important patrimony of books and manuscripts kept at the library of the University of Salamanca (1480-1521). Francisco de Vitoria’s introduction of a new Thomist political paradigm should also be understood as an important piece of the imperial strategy. Together with the first relectio dictated by Vitoria at the University of Salamanca (De potestate civili, 1528), I will approach little studied sources such as Alonso de Castrillo’s Tractado de republica (1521), Francisco de Monzón’s Libro del espejo del principe christiano (1544) and two scholastic treatises written in colonial America, Alonso de la Vera Cruz’s Relectio de dominio infidelium et iusto bello (1556) and Melchor Calderón’s Tratado de la importancia y utilidad que ay en dar por esclavos a los indios rebelados de Chile (1607).