<P> These organizations were intended to be temporary, but became a long - standing fixture of Spain . The first recorded case of the formation of an hermandad occurred when the towns and the peasantry of the north united to police the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and protect the pilgrims against robber knights . </P> <P> Throughout the Middle Ages such alliances were frequently formed by combinations of towns to protect the roads connecting them, and were occasionally extended to political purposes . Among the most powerful was the league of North Castilian and Basque ports, the Hermandad de las marismas: Toledo, Talavera, and Villarreal . </P> <P> As one of their first acts after end of the War of the Castilian Succession in 1479, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile established the centrally - organized and efficient Holy Brotherhood as a national police force . They adapted an existing brotherhood to the purpose of a general police acting under officials appointed by themselves, and endowed with great powers of summary jurisdiction even in capital cases . The original brotherhoods continued to serve as modest local police - units until their final suppression in 1835 . </P> <P> The Vehmic courts of Germany provided some policing in the absence of strong state institutions . </P>

Who organized the first police department in history