Real audiencia (royal audiency) was a judicial district that functioned as an appeals court in Spain. Each audiencia had oidores (Spanish: hearer, a judge). The first audiencia was founded at Valladolid in the kingdom of Castile in 1371. The Valladolid Audiencia functioned as the highest court in Castile for the next two centuries. After the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon to form the crown of Spain and the Spanish conquest of Granada in 1492, the audiencia was divided in two, with the… (More on Audiencia)