Capitulatio

Capitulatio is a Latin legal term describing the act or instrument that records the terms of a surrender or of a formal agreement. From caput or capitulum, meaning “head” or “article,” the word became the source of the modern terms capitulation in English and capitulación or capitulaciones in Romance languages. In medieval and early modern Europe, a capitulation was typically a negotiated set of articles that defined the rights and obligations of the parties, often in connection with the surrender of a fortress or city, the withdrawal of troops, or the grant of offices, privileges, or protection to a petitioner in return for loyalty or service.

Contents typically included guarantees for inhabitants, protections of property and religious rights, terms of garrison surrender, allegiance to the conqueror, and arrangements for administration, taxation, and restitution. Capitulations could function as a form of treaty, but they were usually narrower in scope than general peace treaties and often tied to a specific military outcome.

Examples include the Capitulación de Granada (1492), which ended the conquest of the Emirate of Granada and established terms for surrender and incorporation into Castile; the Capitulaciones de Santa Fe (1492), which defined Christopher Columbus’s voyage and his titles as Admiral, Viceroy, and governor; and the Capitulations of Breda (1625), which set the terms of the surrender of Breda during the Dutch–Spanish War.

In modern usage the term is historical; the concept survives in legal language as Articles of Capitulation or capitulation agreements in certain jurisdictions.