The Reapers' War (Catalan: Guerra dels Segadors, Eastern Catalan:[ˈɡɛrəðəlssəɣəˈðos]; Spanish: Guerra de los Segadores, French: Guerre des faucheurs), 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 war had its roots in the discomfort generated in Catalan society by the presence of the royal army (made mostly of mercenaries from different nationalities) during the Franco-Spanish War between the Kingdom of France and the Monarchy of Spain as part of the Thirty Years' War, as well the opposition of Catalan institutions to the centralised policies of the Royal Court.
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, the chief minister of Philip IV, had been trying to distribute more evenly the huge economic and military burden of the Spanish Empire. But his Union of Arms (Spanish: Unión de Armas) policy raised hostilities and protests all across the states of the Monarchy of Spain. Resistance in Catalonia was especially strong; the Catalan Courts of 1626 and 1632 were never concluded, due to the opposition of the states against the economic and military measures of Olivares, many of which violated the Catalan constitutions.
In 1638, the canon of La Seu d'UrgellPau Claris, known for his opposition to non-Catalan bishops who collaborated with the Crown, was elected by the ecclesiastic estate as president of the Generalitat, with Francesc de Tamarit elected member of the Generalitat by the military estate and Josep-Miquel Quintana Torroella by the popular estate. Around 1639, both causes approached and the identification and solidarity of the peasants took place with the attitude of political distrust of the authorities. Thus the political doctrine of the uprising and the popular ideology of the revolt were formed.
Pau Claris i Casademunt, President of the Generalitat during the early stages of the War
Catalan peasants, who were forced to quarter the royal army and reported events such as religious sacrileges,[1] destruction of personal properties and rape of women by the soldiers, responded in a series of local rebellions against their presence.
The revolt grew, until the Corpus Christi day of May 1640 in Barcelona, with an uprising known as 'Bloody Corpus' (Catalan: Corpus de Sang), under the slogans "Long live the faith of Christ!", "The King our Lord has declared war on us!"[2] "Long live the land, death to bad government", "Reap our chains". When the bishop of Barcelona, after blessing the furious crowd, asked them: "Who is your captain? What is your flag?" They raised a big Christ on the Cross statue covered with an all black cloth and shouted "Here is our captain, this is our flag!". This 'Bloody Corpus' which began with the death of a reaper (Catalan: segador), [citation needed] and led to the assassination by Catalan rebels[3] of the Spanish Viceroy of Catalonia, the second Count of Santa Coloma,[4] marked the beginning of the conflict. The irregular militia involved were known as "Miquelets". The situation took Olivares by surprise, with most of the Spanish army fighting on other fronts far from Catalonia. The Council of Aragon demanded more military presence in Barcelona as the only way to restore the order.
Conflict
Pau Claris, President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, summoned the 10 September the Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (assembly of Estates or States-General) of Catalonia, an extraordinary body made up of the representatives of the three Estates of the realm in the Catalan Courts (the parliament), presided by the Generalitat. The summit of the Junta de Braços was a success and an important improvement of representation by standards of the time, as it was also attended by representatives of cities which usually weren't invited to the Courts, as well as members of various feudal towns and, in addition, it mostly worked under the basis of individual vote instead of the traditional single vote per Estate. The new assembly began to assume the sovereignty, enacting a series of revolutionary mesures, such as the establishment of a Council of Justice in replacement of the Royal Audience of Catalonia (the royal judges were also assassinated during the Corpus de Sang), the Council of Defense of the Principality in order to raise an army to respond the expected Royal counter-attack, as well as the Council of Treasury which began to issue debt and a special tax to the nobility (the Batalló),[5] while the tension with the monarchy grew.
Allegory of Catalonia asking to France for protection
At the same time, the Generalitat maintained diplomatic contacts with the Kingdom of France, in order to establish an alliance between the Principality of Catalonia and this country. Bernard du Plessis-Besançon[fr] was appointed plenipotentiary of the King of France to Catalonia on 29 August 1640. By the pact of Ceret (September 1640), the French monarchy promised to help the Principality. The massacre perpetrated by the Spanish armies in Cambrils on 16 December, a method similar to those carried out in the fight against the Dutch Republic, convinced Catalan leadership that they could not expect any pardon or negotiated solution with the Spanish king.
As a result of the negotiation, on 16 January, Pau Claris presented a proposal before the Junta de Braços by which the King of France agreed to put the Principality under his protection if Catalonia changed its government to a republic. On 17 January 1641, the Junta de Braços accepted the establishment of the Catalan Republic under French protection.[6] However, a week later, following the defeat of the Catalan army in the Battle of Martorell, close to Barcelona, du Plessis-Besançon managed to convince the Catalan authorities that the help they needed could only be obtained from France if they recognized Louis XIII of France as sovereign. Pau Claris appealed on 23 January to Louis XIII, recognizing him as Count of Barcelona (as Louis I) and thus beginning the process to place the Principality of Catalonia in a personal union with the Kingdom of France.[7][8]
The threat of the French enemy establishing a powerful base south of the Pyrenees caused an immediate reaction from the Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburg government sent a large army of 26,000 men under Pedro Fajardo to crush the Catalan Revolt. On its way to Barcelona, the Spanish army retook several cities, executing hundreds of prisoners, and a rebel army of the Catalan Republic was defeated in Martorell, near Barcelona, on 23 January. In response the Catalans reinforced their efforts and the Franco-Catalan armies obtained an important military victory over the Spanish army in the Battle of Montjuïc (26 January 1641). Pau Claris died a month later, probably poisoned by Spanish agents.[9] His successor, Josep Soler, prepared the formal agreement of personal union between Catalonia and France, which was ratified by the Treaty of Peronne on 19 September 1641.
After the military success, the Junta de Braços was able to establish its own Judiciary throughout Catalan territory with the help of French armies, despite the persistence of some class war in the form of local uprisings of peasants.[10] For the next decade the Catalans fought in French personal union, taking the initiative after Montjuïc. Meanwhile, increasing French control of political and administrative affairs despite the agreements reached in Peronne (maritime ports, taxes, key bureaucratic positions, etc.) and a firm military focus on the neighbouring Spanish kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon, in line with Richelieu's war against Spain, gradually undermined Catalan enthusiasm for the French.
Siege of Barcelona, 1652
A Franco-Catalan army under Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt moved south and gained several victories against the Spanish, but the sieges of Tarragona (1644), Lleida and Tortosa finally failed and the allies had to withdraw.
In the north of Catalonia in Roussillon, they were more successful. Perpignan was taken from the Spanish after a siege of 10 months, and the whole of Roussillon was under French control. Shortly after, Spanish relief armies were defeated at the Battle of Montmeló and Battle of Barcelona.
Due to the ravages caused by the famine and the plague, the commitment made by Philip IV to respect the Catalan constitutions and institutions in 1644, and the outbreak of the Fronde conflict in France, the Spanish offensive was able to capture Barcelona in 1652 after a year of siege, bringing the Catalan capital under Spanish control again. Then, the French armies and officers, as well as Catalans loyal to them, retreated to the northern side of the Pyrenees, retaining control of the Roussillon while maintaining the claim over the entirety of Catalonia. Resistance continued for several years afterwards and some fighting took place north of the Pyrenees but the mountains would remain from then on the effective border between Spanish and French territories.
Resolution
Partition of the Principality of Catalonia, 1659
The conflict extended beyond the Peace of Westphalia, which concluded the Thirty Years' War in 1648 but remained part of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) with the confrontation between two sovereigns and two Generalitats, one based in Barcelona, under the control of Spain and the other in Perpinyà (Perpignan), under the occupation of France. In 1652 the French authorities renounced Catalonia, but held control of Roussillon, thereby leading to the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.[11]
Spanish troops being busy in Catalonia considerably helped Portugal, on the other side of the Iberian Peninsula, in successfully shaking off Spanish rule and winning its Restoration War at the same time.[citation needed] The Catalan war was also concurrent with the Arauco War in Chile where the Spanish fought a coalition of native Mapuches. With the Arauco War being a lengthy and costly conflict, the Spanish crown ordered its authorities in Chile to sign a peace agreement with the Mapuche in order to concentrate the empire's resources in fighting the Catalans. This way the Mapuche obtained a peace treaty and a recognition on behalf of the crown in a case unique for any indigenous group in the Americas.[12]
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory is situated on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight vegueries (regions), which are in turn divided into 42 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populous municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.
The recorded history of the lands of what today is known as Catalonia begins with the development of the Iberian peoples while several Greek colonies were established on the coast before the Roman conquest. It was the first area of Hispania conquered by the Romans. It then came under Visigothic rule after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. In 718, the area was occupied by the Umayyad Caliphate and became a part of Muslim ruled al-Andalus. The Frankish Empire conquered northern half of the area from the Muslims, ending with the conquest of Barcelona in 801, as part of the creation of a larger buffer zone of Christian counties against Islamic rule historiographically known as the Marca Hispanica. In the 10th century the County of Barcelona became progressively independent from Frankish rule.
Roussillon was a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the region of Northern Catalonia or French Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales in the former region of Languedoc-Roussillon.
"Els Segadors" is the official national anthem of Catalonia, nationality and autonomous community of Spain.
The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659 and ended the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635.
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.
Catalans are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autonomous community in Spain and the inhabitants of the Roussillon historical region in southern France, today the Pyrénées Orientales department, also called Northern Catalonia and Pays Catalan in French.
The National Day of Catalonia, also known as the Diada, is a day-long festival in Catalonia and one of its official national symbols, celebrated annually on 11 September. It is one of the public holidays in Catalonia.
The Principality of Catalonia was a medieval and early modern state in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. During most of its history it was in dynastic union with the Kingdom of Aragon, constituting together the Crown of Aragon. Between the 13th and the 18th centuries, it was bordered by the Kingdom of Aragon to the west, the Kingdom of Valencia to the south, the Kingdom of France and the feudal lordship of Andorra to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The term Principality of Catalonia was official until the 1830s, when the Spanish government implemented the centralized provincial division, but remained in popular and informal contexts. Today, the term Principat (Principality) is used primarily to refer to the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries, and usually including the historical region of Roussillon in Southern France.
The siege of Barcelona was a thirteen month battle at the end of the War of Spanish Succession, which pitted Archduke Charles of Austria against Philip V of Spain, backed by France in a contest for the Spanish crown. The capitulation of Barcelona represented the fall of the last pro-Habsburg stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the end of the separate status of the Principality of Catalonia.
The siege of Barcelona took place between July 1651 and October 1652 during the Reapers' War when a large Spanish army descended on Barcelona and besieged the garrison made up of Catalans and French troops under Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt.
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 Catalan Courts or General Court of Catalonia were the policymaking and parliamentary body of the Principality of Catalonia from the 13th to the 18th century.
The Angelets, or “the Angelets of the Land”, were peasants who rose up in peasant revolts from 1667 to 1675 against the French authorities in Roussillon; the group of conflicts of the period is called the Revolt of the Angelets. The cause was the institution of the gabelle, a tax on salt, in 1661—a measure contrary to traditional constitutions of the earldom. The revolt first concerned the county of Vallespir, then it spread to those of Conflent and Roussillon.
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 Battle of Martorell is one of the episodes of the Reapers' War in Catalonia that took place from 20 to 23 January 1641 and ended in a victory for the Spanish troops.
Events from 1640 in Catalonia.
Magí Sivillà Magoles, also written Magí Sevilla was a Catalan historian, doctor in theology, and chronicler.
The War of the Catalans or Particular War of Catalonia was one of the last military campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession, which affected the Principality of Catalonia. This last phase of the conflict began when, despite the armistice signed between Philip V and Charles VI of Austria that put an end to the war from July 1, 1713, the Three Commons of Catalonia—the most prominent Catalan political institutions: the Generalitat, the Military Arm of Catalonia and the Consell de Cent of Barcelona—unilateraly proclaimed on 9 July 1713 the continuation of the war against Philip V and France, thus prolonging the war until 12 September 1714.
Events from 1641 in Catalonia.
References
↑ Arredondo, María Soledad (2008). Transmitir y proclamar la religión: una cuestión de propaganda en las crisis de 1635 y 1640. 'La transmisión de una convicción o un saber religioso'. Criticón. pp.94–98.
J. Sanabre. La acción de Francia en Cataluña en la pugna por la hegemonía de Europa (1640–1659). Barcelona, 1956. Still indispensable for its detailed coverage of the events from 1640/41 and later.
Serra, Eva (1991). 1640: una revolució política. La implicació de les institucions. Barcelona: Crítica.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Simon, Antoni (2019). 1640. Barcelona: Rafael Dalmau, Editor. ISBN978-84-232-0851-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
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