Real Audiencia

A Real Audiencia was an appellate court of Spain and its empire, staffed by judicial officers called oidores. The first was established at Valladolid in 1371, and the Spanish Crown went on to create audiencias across its American, Caribbean and Philippine territories, eventually numbering twelve major institutions by the early nineteenth century. While the audiencias in Spain itself served mainly as appellate courts, the overseas audiencias also carried legislative and executive functions on the monarch's behalf, and their territorial jurisdictions went on to shape the borders of several modern Latin American nations. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/