Columbus's heirs sued the Spanish Crown for 28 years over his promised tenth and viceroyalty, and settled for a dukedom and 10,000 ducats a year

At Santa Fe in April 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella made Columbus Admiral, Viceroy and Governor of any lands he found. They also gave him a tenth of the gold, silver, pearls, spices and other goods obtained there. The original document is in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon. The Crown removed him as governor in 1500^†. A royal provision of 29 October 1508 sent his son Diego to Hispaniola as governor, and Diego sued to have his father's offices declared hereditary. A Seville ruling in 1511 recognised the viceroyalty and the tenth in perpetuity, but only for lands Columbus had discovered. Both sides appealed. A 1527 Valladolid ruling annulled the earlier verdicts. By 1530 some of the judges had died, and a royal letter dated Ocaña, 11 December 1530, gave the case to new judges. Diego died in 1526 with the case still open. His widow María de Toledo continued it for their son Luis^†. On 28 June 1536 the arbitrators García de Loaysa and Gaspar de Montoya ended it. The family kept the title Admiral of the Indies and lost the viceroyalty and governorship. In return they received Jamaica as a fief, 25 square leagues in Veragua on the Isthmus of Panama, 10,000 ducats a year, and 500,000 maravedís a year for each of Luis's sisters. Luis became Duke of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica. In 1556 he gave the Veragua land back for a rent of 17,000 ducats a year^†. In 2026 the dukedom is held by Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal y Gorosábel, born 1949^†.