Renowned cases of official entry and search of private domiciles in the spain of the xviii century

Abstract

During the 18th Century, the king 'protects' people and domiciles, as representative of all the social forces. Judges and agents simply need to invoke the King to enter into private domiciles in order to arrest or detain any felon that might be inside. At that time, not even the right of property stands as sufficient protection against the King´s will who, at any given time, can expropriate possessions from noblemen and bourgeoisies and, of course, arrest them in their homes without great difficulty. Spain, culturally isolated from the liberal ideological movement that impregnates Europe and, by extension, to the American colonies that are to become independent from the metropolis, will not ascribe to the fundamental constitutional rights until the beginning of the 19th Century, leaving behind in the path of History spectacular domicile official entries and searches, accounted for by the marginal phenomena of banditry, the expulsion of the Jesuits, and the personal and political vicissitudes of the Jovellanos.