History
In the spring of 1640, Francesc de Tamarit was imprisoned accused of not providing cams and accommodation to the army. Insurrectioned peasants entered Barcelona on 22 May and released it. On 7 June the same year, in the Corpus of Blood, groups of reapers entered the city again and the Viceroy of Catalonia Dalmau de Queralt was murdered.
In September, the army of Philip IV led by Pedro Fajardo, Marquess of Los Vélez occupied Tortosa in December and, after the battle of Cambrils, the city of Tarragona, moving towards Barcelona. Francesc de Vilaplana with two companies of Catalan cavalry and one of French not included in the surrender of Tarragona, watches the progress of the army of Los Vélez across the Penedès.
The Franco-Catalans decided to face the Spanish in Martorell, which became the headquarters of Catalan army after Roger de Bossost, Baron of Espenan, surrendered Tarragona and fled with his troops to France. Four days before the battle, the Junta de Braços (States-General) of the Principality of Catalonia, presided over by the President of the Generalitat, Pau Claris, established the Catalan Republic under the protection of France.
Battle
Pedro Fajardo de Zúñiga and Requesens, Marquis de los Vélez sent a large contingent of troops on 20 January by Gelida and Castellví de Rosanes, in order to cut the possible retreat of the Catalan troops by the right bank of the Llobregat. But these troops were repulsed by the miquelets commanded by Dídac de Vergós.
The 21, the bulk of the Spanish royal army with infantry led by the Marquis de San Jorge, arrived to the Llobregat, provoking the retreat of the Catalan army from Martorell, who crossed the Pont del Diable (Devil's Bridge) while being covered by French artillery, so as not to be isolated. The Spanish entered the city provoking a new massacre. The mayor of Martorell was murdered when wearing the insignia of his charge, he tried to avoid the rampage. According to what appears, the Marquis de Los Vélez considered the Martorellencs doubly treacherous, to the King and to himself, because Martorell was a city under his lordship. When the Castilian cavalry led by the Marquis de Torrecuso crossed the Llobregat, the Catalans had to withdraw to Barcelona.
The rout of Martorell, with the presence of the Spanish army at the gates of Barcelona, pushed the Catalans to proclaim Louis XIII Count of Barcelona on 23 January, which sent an army in Catalonia to support his new subjects. However three days later, at the battle of Montjuïc, near Barcelona, on 26 December the Catalan and French armies defeated the Spanish troops.
Pau Claris i Casademunt was a Catalan lawyer, clergyman and 94th President of the Deputation of the General of Catalonia at the beginning of the Catalan Revolt. On 16 January 1641 he proclaimed the Catalan Republic under the protection of France.
The Reapers' War, also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635–1659. Being the result of a revolutionary process carried out by Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, it saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic and the clash of Habsburg and Bourbon armies on Catalan soil over more than a decade.
The Battle of Villaviciosa was a battle between a Franco-Spanish army led by Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme and Philip V of Spain and a Habsburg-allied army commanded by Austrian Guido Starhemberg. The battle took place during the War of the Spanish Succession, one day after a Franco-Spanish victory at Brihuega against a British army under James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope. Both Philip V of Spain and the Archduke Charles of Austria claimed victory, but the number of dead and wounded, the number of artillery and other weapons abandoned by the Allied army and the battle's strategic consequences for the war confirmed victory for Philip.
Rafael Casanova i Comes was a Catalan jurist and supporter of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor as a claimant to the Crown of Spain during the War of the Spanish succession. He became mayor of Barcelona and commander in chief of Catalonia during the Siege of Barcelona until he was wounded in combat while commanding La Coronela during the counterattack on the Saint Peter front on the last day of the siege, 11 September 1714. After the war he received a royal pardon for having supported the Habsburg claim to the Spanish throne. He recovered from his wounds, and continued his fight against absolute monarchy as a lawyer. It has been claimed that he is the author of the book Record de l'Aliança fet el Sereníssim Jordi Augusto Rey de la Gran Bretanya in which Catalonia reminds England of the Treaty of Genoa and their obligation to Catalonia.
Luis Yáñez Fajardo y La Cueva, 2nd Marquis of los Vélez, Grandee of Spain,, was a Spanish military and nobleman.
The Battle of Montjuïc took place on 26 January 1641 during the Reapers' War. A Spanish force under Pedro Fajardo launched an attack on the Catalan army led by Francesc de Tamarit, with French cavalry support. The Spanish force had recently massacred hundreds of rebels who had tried to surrender at Cambrils.
Pedro III Fajardo de Zúñiga y Requesens was a Spanish soldier and aristocrat notable for his command of Spanish forces during the Catalan Revolt after 1640. He was Viceroy of Valencia, 1631–1635, Viceroy of Navarre, 1638–1640, Viceroy of Catalonia, 1640–1642, Spanish Ambassador to Rome, and Viceroy of Sicily, 1644–1647.
The Battle of Cambrils or the Massacre of Cambrils took place in December 1640 during the Reapers' War.
The Revolt of the Barretines also known as the Revolt of the Gorretes, was a Catalan rebellion fought against the government of King Charles II of Spain. The most salient complaint was against the government's quartering of soldiers. Other issues of contention were tax protests and Catalan nationalistic tensions. The revolt was funded and intensified by agents of France as part of the War of the Grand Alliance. Civil disorder lasted from 1687 to 1689.
The battle of Tarragona fought between 4 and 6 July 1641, was a naval engagement of the Reapers' War in which a Spanish galley fleet led by the Duke of Fernandina attempted to break the French naval blockade of Tarragona, at that time besieged by land by the French and Catalan armies under the French Viceroy of Catalonia. The French blockading fleet was under command of Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, and consisted both of sailing and rowing vessels. On 4 July it was engaged by the Spanish galleys, of which some managed to enter the port of the town during a fierce action. In the end, a large number of Spanish galleys were abandoned when their crews panicked and fled to the beaches. On the night of 6 July Abraham Duquesne escorted 5 fireships to the mole of the harbor, where the Spanish galleys were abandoned, and set fire to them.
The Battle of Ordal on 12 and 13 September 1813 saw a First French Empire corps led by Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet make a night assault on a position held by Lieutenant General Lord William Bentinck's smaller Anglo-Allied and Spanish advance guard. The Allies, under the tactical direction of Colonel Frederick Adam, were defeated and driven from a strong position at the Ordal defile largely because they failed to post adequate pickets. In an action the next morning at Vilafranca del Penedès, the Allied cavalry clashed with the pursuing French horsemen. The actions occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Ordal and El Lledoner are located on Highway N-340 between Molins de Rei and Vilafranca.
The Battle of Molins de Rei or Battle of Molins de Rey or Battle of Molins del Rey saw an Imperial French corps led by Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr attack a Spanish army temporarily led by Theodor von Reding and the Conde de Caldagues because its commander Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu was absent. Saint-Cyr outmaneuvered his opponents, distracting them with a false attack in front while sending the bulk of his force across Llobregat River in a turning movement around the Spanish right flank. The Spanish defensive lines crumbled and the French captured 1,200 soldiers, all the Spanish artillery and Caldagues himself. The Peninsular War engagement was fought near Molins de Rei, located 15 kilometres (9 mi) west of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
The siege of Figueras, which lasted from 10 April to 19 August 1811, saw the Spanish garrison of Sant Ferran Castle led by Brigadier General Juan Antonio Martínez defend against an Imperial French force commanded by Marshal Jacques MacDonald and his deputy Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers. Martínez and his men held out much longer than expected but were eventually starved into surrendering the fortress, which was near Figueres. The action occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.
The siege of Perpignan was a siege during the Catalan Revolt.
Montjuïc Castle is an old military fortress, with roots dating back from 1640, built on top of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It currently serves as a Barcelona municipal facility.
The Catalan Republic was a short-lived independent state under French protection established in 1641 by the Junta de Braços of the Principality of Catalonia led by the President of the Generalitat, Pau Claris, during the Reapers' War (1640–1652).
The Army of the Principality of Catalonia was the army raised by the Junta de Braços of Catalonia on 9 July 1713 after the Peace of Utrecht and the withdrawal of the army of the Holy Roman Empire by the L'Hospitalet Agreement. The army was made up of 10,000 infantry, 1,600 cavalry and 1,000 naval troops. It is not known how many men formed the artillery unit but it did not exceed 700. In total, the army contained 13,000 regular troops.
Raimundo Caldagues y Remond, Count of Caldagues was a French military commander of the Spanish army who distinguished himself leading the relief force at the second siege of Girona. He was promoted to field marshal the following day.
Habsburg Spain 
