Second Brotherhood

Last updated June 14, 2024

The Second Brotherhood (Catalan : Segona Germania) was an uprising in the central regions of the Kingdom of Valencia of Habsburg Spain in 1693. The protesters named themselves agermanats after the germanies ("brotherhoods") or guilds of Valencia who had revolted in 1519 in the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, but the two revolts are quite different in their supporters and the social context in which they occurred. Rather than a revolt by middle-class guildsmen, the Second Brotherhood was a peasant revolt against high rents on farmland and crops. Additionally, the Second Brotherhood was resolved far faster and far more peaceably than the violence of the 1519 revolt in both the rebels' actions and the government's subsequent repression.

Background

One of the major causes behind the first revolt was public distrust and hatred of the Moriscos. However, at the beginning of the 17th century King Phillip III expelled them all. This removed the original motive for a revolt, but wrecked the economy of Valencia for two generations. Only by late 17th century was the area beginning to recover economically. Still, this return to prosperity brought several revolts by peasants concerned with their lack of benefit from the growing wealth of their lords. These included revolts in Horta (Huerta) in 1663, Valldigna in 1672, and Camp de Morvedre in 1689.

Rent protests and peasant discontent

At the beginning of 1693 the Duke of Gandía and other noblemen went to Madrid in order to complain of the reluctance of its vassals to pay Sunday rents. They also complained of Fèlix Vilanova, who had already participated as an instigator of the revolt at Camp de Morvedre in 1689. Felix seemed to be provoking the peasants of the Marina Comarque by telling its noblemen that there were some documents and ancient privileges which exempted the peasants from paying them rents.

After a violent clash between protesters and the police in Pedreguer, the viceroy proposed to create a board of lawyers in Valencia where the legal arguments could be set forth. In this board the protesters alleged certain rights granted by James I and his successors, but they were not accepted for lack of documentary evidence. The protesters then asked directly for a complete cessation of the rents. The demand was made by Francesc Garcia, a well-to-do farmer and one of the main leaders of the protest movement, together with Feliu Rubio i Bartomeu Pelegrí.

As May arrived, the peasants refused to pay the rents due. In Carlet, the vassals of the Earl of Carlet refused to pay. For the second time, the troops of the viceroy had to intervene to bring the protesters to heel. Discontent spread.

March of the protesters, and battle

In Vilallonga, in the Duchy of Gandia, four farmers who refused to split their crop with their lord were detained. This was the last provocation and the uprising began. The day after, three thousand men marched on the city of Gandia and the four persons under arrest were freed without any violence. This liberation, probably unexpected, encouraged to the rebels to continue their march and travel towards Valencia, where they would ask for justice to the viceroy. For effect, they improvised an army and formed battalions, organized by the well-to-do farmer of Muro d'Alcoi, Josep Navarro.

The viceroy, however, had been warned. He ordered the Governor of Xàtiva to join him in Gandia with an army of four hundred men on horseback, four hundred more on foot, and two pieces of artillery. They met him at Albaida, where they sought to join battle with the rebels whose force comprised the militias of Xàtiva, Algemesí, and Carcaixent.

The combat between both forces (1,397 armed men with artillery, against 1,500 practically unarmed peasants) took place on July 15 in Setla de Nunyes, near Muro d'Alcoi. The battle lasted two hours, and no more than fifteen people died – all of them agermanat rebels.

Aftermath and repression

In the following weeks to the battle, cavalry squadrons restored order. Josep Navarro was executed as the leader of the army on February 29, 1694, and another twenty-five participants were condemned to galleys. Francesc Garcia, the most important leader of the rebels, was not captured. The most important leaders of the revolution were well-to-do peasants, while the enraged mass of people who followed were of the poorer social classes.

The Second Brotherhood reinforced the power of the state, and reinforced the centralization of government that had slowly happened over time. The noblemen saw again that they needed the help and protection of the royal forces, and that standing up for local rights would be unwise. The same disputes over rent amounts would continue to be argued, though generally in the judiciary. The Kingdom of Valencia would only last less than twenty years as an officially independent entity, as all Spain was formally unified after the War of the Spanish Succession in which Valencia and Aragon chose the losing side.

Related Research Articles

The Diocese of Urgell is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Catalonia (Spain) and Andorra in the historical County of Urgell, with origins in the fifth century AD or possibly earlier. It is based in the region of the historical Catalan County of Urgell, though it has different borders. The seat and Cathedral of the bishop are situated in la Seu d'Urgell town. The state of Andorra is a part of this diocese.

The House of Borgia was a Spanish noble family, which rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance. They were from Xàtiva, Kingdom of Valencia, the surname being a toponymic from the town of Borja, then in the Crown of Aragon, in Spain.

The Maulets was a partisan group of Valencian supporters of Archduke Charles, who claimed the Spanish throne as Charles III during the War of the Spanish Succession. They were antagonists to the Botiflers camp, the supporters of competing claimant and eventual winner of the war, Philip, Duke of Anjou.

The Transylvanian peasant revolt, also known as the peasant revolt of Bábolna or Bobâlna revolt, was a popular revolt in the eastern territories of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1437. The revolt broke out after George Lépes, bishop of Transylvania, had failed to collect the tithe for years because of a temporary debasement of the coinage, but then demanded the arrears in one sum when coins of higher value were again issued. Most commoners were unable to pay the demanded sum, but the bishop did not renounce his claim and applied interdict and other ecclesiastic penalties to enforce the payment.

The Reapers' War, also known as the Catalan Revolt, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between the years of 1640 and 1659. It had an enduring effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), which ceded the County of Roussillon and the northern half of the County of Cerdanya to France, splitting these northern Catalan territories off from the Principality of Catalonia and the Crown of Aragon, and thereby receding the borders of Spain to the Pyrenees.

Canals is a municipality in the comarca of Costera in the Valencian Community, Spain.

Montaverner is a municipality in the Comunitat Valenciana, Spain. It belongs to the province of Valencia, in the region of Vall d’Albaida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revolt of the Brotherhoods</span> 16th century uprising

The Revolt of the Brotherhoods was a revolt by artisan guilds (Germanies) against the government of King Charles V in the Kingdom of Valencia, part of the Crown of Aragon. It took place from 1519–1523, with most of the fighting occurring during 1521. The Valencian revolt inspired a related revolt in the island of Majorca, also part of Aragon, which lasted from 1521–1523.

The Arumer Zwarte Hoop, meaning "Black Army of Arum" was an army of peasant rebels and mercenaries in Friesland fighting against the Habsburg authorities from 1515 to 1523. For four years they were successful under the former farmer Pier Gerlofs Donia. Led by his Lieutenant Wijerd Jelckama from 1519 they slowly lost ground and were captured and executed in 1523.

The Union of Valencia was an anti-royalist movement in the Kingdom of Valencia begun in 1283 and lasting into the fifteenth century. The Union was formed in the aftermath of the formation of the Union of Aragon in October 1283. Its essential purpose was as a tool of the Valencian nobility to be used against the influence of Catalans and foreigners on the actions of the Crown. By 1285 the Unions had severely curtailed the powers of the king and were hindering his efforts in the War of the Sicilian Vespers and against the Aragonese Crusade that invaded Catalonia that year.

Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1469–1536) was a Castilian general and administrator. He served in the Italian Wars, and was later appointed Viceroy of Valencia where he fought the rebel Germanies in the Revolt of the Brotherhoods.

Germanies were guilds of artisans in the Kingdom of Valencia in Spain. Each germania represented a single trade. The germanies are similar to the hermandades of Castile, which were paramilitary law-enforcement militias. Similar to the hermandades, the Germanies at times took up arms to defend Valencia against raids from the Barbary pirates, but this privilege was revoked and the Germanies suppressed after they revolted against the royal government of King Charles I of Spain.

The Hidden was a mysterious and charismatic leader of the remnants of the rebels in the last stages of the Revolt of the Brotherhoods in the Kingdom of Valencia, then under the rule of the Crown of Aragon. Also called "The Hidden King", he claimed to be a prince hidden for his own safety now showing himself by divine command to save Spain from ruin. The Hidden unified the rebels for a short period, inspiring messianic fervor among his followers. He led them on hit-and-run raids against the royal government, uncooperative nobles, and Muslim peasants (mudéjars). The Hidden was killed in Burjassot on May 18, 1522, and the rebellion soon collapsed afterward. His true name and lineage are unknown.

Vicent Peris (1478–1522) was a weaver and leader of the weavers' guild in Valencia. He came to prominence as the most influential leader of the Council of Thirteen after the death of Joan Llorenç in the Revolt of the Brotherhoods. Peris saw the revolution as a wider social revolution against the nobility, and aggressively attacked them. He also legitimized the anti-Muslim stance of many rebels into the Germanies government, and intensified their repression.

Joan Llorenç (1458–1520) was the leader of a germania of Valencia. He became one of the most influential leaders in what would later be known as the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, though during his leadership warfare had not yet broken out.

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 Oriola was an armed conflict fought between the troops of the Agermanats, mainly artisan guilds, and those of Pedro Fajardo y Chacón, Marqués de los Vélez, on 30 August 1521 in Oriola (Orihuela), in the Kingdom of Valencia.

Each year on 31 January, the people of Alcoy, Spain hold a solemn procession, the Procession of the Miraculous Baby Jesus, commemorating the theft of liturgical vessels that took place in 1568.

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.

References

Kamen, Henry (1975). "Nueva luz sobre la segunda Germanía de Valencia en 1693". Homenaje al dr. D. Juan Reglà Campistol (in Spanish). Vol. 1. University of Valencia. ISBN 9788460066194. OCLC 2943273.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.