Revolt of the Barretinas
Encyclopedia
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.
Support for the revolt was concentrated in rural areas, particularly the poor. The only members of the elite who supported the revolt were wealthy commoners from the countryside. The city of Barcelona
, merchants, the intelligentsia, and the local government bodies were largely unsympathetic.
(roughly equivalent to Aragon
itself, Valencia
, the Balearic Islands
, and Catalonia
). Aragon and Castile
had been unified under the same king since 1517, during the reign of King Charles I
, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella
. However, they remained separate polities with their own laws and institutions. Discontent had boiled over into revolts several times, most notably in the Catalan Revolt
from 1640–1652. The 1640 revolt had broad support among Catalan society, and the Catalans' ally France annexed Roussillon
(also known as French Cedagne or Northern Catalonia
) as a result of the war. Since the revolt, however, feelings toward France had grown more ambivalent in Catalonia. France came to be seen more as an economic competitor than a useful ally.
Tensions between Catalonia's leadership and the Crown somewhat subsided during the same time period. Spanish punishments for the 1640 revolt were quite lenient. Since many leaders of the region had committed high treason
which, by the standards of the era, could easily have led to their execution en masse, this leniency was appreciated. King Charles II
came to the throne in the 1660s; while generally regarded by historians as an incompetent and ineffectual ruler, his lack of activity was considered a blessing in Catalonia. Rather than continue the centralization of government in Madrid, Charles II did little and let regions manage their own affairs. John of Austria the Younger
(Don Juan José) was a popular viceroy who put important Aragonese and Catalan nobles in positions of power, earning the goodwill of the nobility. Feliu de la Peña, an important Catalan noble, called Charles II "the best king Spain ever had."
In 1684, the fortunes of many Catalan peasants plummeted. Locust swarms ravaged crops, ruining farmers and disrupting the entire economy. The locusts continued to be a problem in the following years, and were especially virulent in 1687.
Relations between Spain and France were quite hostile in the 1680s. Between 1683–1684, France defeated Spain in the War of the Reunions
, fought mostly in the Spanish Netherlands. King Louis XIV of France
was an aggressive empire-builder who had been claiming border territories for France, notably in the states of (modern) Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries
. Still angry at losses in the Spanish Netherlands, Spain joined the League of Augsburg, an alliance between many German states, Sweden, and Spain intended to defend against France. Fearing another French-Spanish war, the government sent Castilian troops to Catalonia to guard the border in 1687. However, government forts and barracks were in a state of ill-repair and unequipped to shelter thirty companies of horsemen, approximately 2,400 soldiers total. As a result, a majority of the soldiers were quartered in civilian homes. A "military contribution" (a tax, but not named as such) was required to fund them, and the soldiers needed to eat. The abysmal harvest of 1687, compounded by already low food supplies, pushed much of the countryside to the point of desperation. Peasants protested to the government, asking for the soldiers to leave. Three members of the Diputació (the highest constitutional body of Catalonia) forwarded these complaints to King Charles II: Anton Sayol, Daniel Sayol, and Josep Sitges. The Viceroy of Catalonia, the Marquis of Leganés, responded by arresting and replacing the three diputats.
The situation took a turn for the worse on October 7, 1687, with an incident in Centelles
. A cavalryman struck a woman during an argument over a chicken. She immediately rallied the town in defiance. Seeking to defuse the situation, the cavalry withdrew from the town, but discontent continued to increase. After a meeting, many towns decided to accept the continued quartering of troops, but refuse to pay the military contribution to fund them.
Another altercation between the military and the citizenry occurred on April 4, 1688 in Villamayor. In response, a ragtag militia marched on Mataró
, an important port town, and entered on April 6. There, they rang church bells and rallied the population with cries of ("Long live the land!") The leading citizens were found and compelled to argue the case of the rioters (they were threatened with the burning of their homes). Continuing to grow, the militia now marched on Barcelona
, the regional capital, with an estimated 18,000 people. Their demands were a general pardon for any actions the militia made against the soldiers, a reduced military contribution, the pardon of the three imprisoned members of the Diputació, and the release of an imprisoned official Pedro Llosas. By Monday April 12, the government completely capitulated. The militia was easily supplied from the countryside and the city of Barcelona was at its mercy for its own supplies. With their demands sated, the peasants went back to their homes. A letter written to the king on April 14 from government officials in Barcelona shows the dire state of affairs:
The upper classes remained alarmed at the spontaneous outburst, and the administration was concerned that Barcelona could fall at a moment's notice. In fear of the militia returning to Barcelona, the three imprisoned members of the Diputació were restored on May 10. The Viceroy, finding the situation too stressful, left office in a huff. He was replaced by the Count of Melgar
. Incidents continued between the soldiers and the peasantry, and the government's control of the countryside became tenuous at best. Despite the concessions, people now wanted to be exempt from any governmental demands and refused to pay taxes. 800 segadors ("reapers;" the term rebel farmers adopted) marched on Puigcerdà
and ordered that no one should work unless they received a minimum wage
of 4 reales
, inspiring similar incidents in other towns as the idea spread. Clergy became involved in disputes with the citizenry over tithe
s, sparking a riot on June 13. On June 14, rioters opened an armory and armed the citizenry. The rioters relaxed the next day, the feast of Corpus Christi; this gave soldiers the opportunity to sneak into the armory and defeat the budding revolt. Four popular leaders were hanged on July 5, and four more on August 9, but nevertheless a constellation of uprisings took place across Catalonia. Riots even struck Barcelona itself. Most uprisings were small in scale and targeted against upper class Catalans exempt from the military contribution, or against unpopular citizens who no longer had the protection of a working government such as bankers, tax collectors, and moneylenders.
In December 1688, the Viceroy of Catalonia changed again as the Count of Melgar retired and was replaced by the Duke of Villahermosa. The European political situation had continued to worsen, and war with France
now seemed inevitable as the French attacked Spain's German allies. It was necessary to prepare Catalonia's defenses, as they were still in a lamentable state. Funding continued to be a problem, though. The Viceroy decided to try a "voluntary donation" to reconstruct defenses and bolster the soldiers in March 1689. The Consell de Cent
(Barcelona's ruling council) and the Catalan Estates approved this measure; the Viceroy assumed that the donation would be better received if it had a local stamp of approval. This proved ineffective, as the donation was reviled as a new tax by the Catalan peasantry. The donation revealed a major class divide; higher classes were exempt from the donation, which kept them largely content. This was a reversal from the 1640 revolt, in which nearly all of Catalan society had protested Spanish taxation.
in the 1640 Catalan Revolt, and some families had members on both sides of the border. These proved useful contacts; one noble, Sieur Gabriel Gervais, was related to rebel Joseph Rocafort and helped pass money and supplies to him across the mountains. Ramón de Trobat
, intendant
of Roussillon, wrote polemics and began to swear rebel leaders to the loyalty of France, notably Rocafort and Enric Torras. With the countryside infuriated with the government, the donation was a failure. The viceroy suspended it. Historian Henry Kamen
believes that if the French had invaded in April 1689, with the donativo still fresh in the Catalans' memory, they could have "effortlessly" captured all of Catalonia. The French used a rather more cautious strategy, however, taking the fortifications of Camprodon
on the border on May 22 and stopping there. Possible reasons include that the commanders in Paris simply didn't realize how well their agents had succeeded, that they were more worried about the German theater of the war, or that they thought the rebels would win without need for an expensive supporting invasion. The leaflets generated continued unrest, but without a full invasion no outright uprising occurred. The French abandoned Camprodon in June, and the Spanish army retook their own fortress and destroyed it.
Official records contain no further incidents until October 1689, when a native of Centellas, Joan Castelló, was arrested in October for having persuaded peasants to not pay the donativo. Under torture, he implicated Enric Torras and others in the movement, and was then executed. In November, some of the cavalry were set upon by peasants and forced to give up their arms and horses. There was no attempt made to kill them, but only to disarm them. This trend spread quickly, with the disarmed soldiers encouraged to return to Barcelona. This would instigate the phase of the protests that became closest to an actual rebellion. Seeking to defuse the situation, the viceroy decided upon punitive reprisals. He sent a force of 800 cavalry, 500 infantry, and 2 artillery pieces to raze Sant Feliu de Llobregat
. In reply, the peasant militia cut off the water supply to Barcelona. They were driven away, but now the segadors were up in arms. A large peasant militia calling itself the "Army of the Land" and numbering approximately 8,000 marched on Barcelona again, as they had a year earlier. The Viceroy engaged the peasants in battle this time; while the peasants won the first battle thanks to weight of numbers, they fared less well in three further battles as the Viceroy continued to harass them .
Elsewhere, others rose in revolt, but the troops stationed in the villages struck back. These reprisals prevented the movement from gaining traction. Some 2,000 segadors attacked Mataró
, but the viceroy's troops defeated them. 40 rebels were killed and 6 were enslaved to row on galleys. Other clashes occurred at Castellfollit de la Roca
and Sarrià
. On November 30, 1689, the peasant militia besieging Barcelona, weary of constant raids, disbanded and melted back into the countryside. Anton Soler, a wealthy country gentleman who had been a leader of the rebels, was murdered by his own adopted son for the monetary reward the government offered. Soler's head was taken to Barcelona and exposed in a cage on the wall of the Generalitat
(the chief governmental building).
Sporadic incidents continued in 1690 and 1691, but the rebellion never again regained its strength after Soler's death and the breaking of the siege of Barcelona. The swift and bloody reprisals combined with the offer of a general pardon from the viceroy for those who laid down their arms proved an effective measure to pacify the population. The good harvests of 1688 and 1689 made payment of taxes less onerous. Radical Catalan nationalist leaflets continued to be circulated by Trobat, but with less effectiveness. The French managed to convince the leading officials of the Duchy of Cardona
to agree to rise up in revolt if the French army came close enough, which never occurred. The plot was discovered in December 1691, and the Cardona plotters hanged. A very small number of segadors joined and aided the French army, perhaps fleeing from feared reprisals, but by 1695 their number was estimated to be less than 90. Under French direction in 1694, there was an attempted insurrection in Sant Feliu de Llobregat
and the fort of Corbera
; later, in August, there was a riot in Tarragona
led by a group called "The Poor." None of these rebellions came to anything. More threatening was the actual French army, but by 1694 they were seen as unwelcome invaders by a substantial proportion of the populace. The French had also earned the enmity of Barcelona due to their indiscriminate naval bombardment the city on July 10, 1691. Barcelona's loyalty was rewarded by the government by allowing Barcelona's councilors to keep their hats on while in the presence of the king, and the Diputació was granted the titles of "Most Illustrious" and "Most Faithful." These symbolic gestures were considered quite significant at the time. Local Catalan guerrillas (Miquelets
) aided the Spanish regulars in driving the French out of Catalonia, and while achieving some early successes the French were eventually forced to retreat.
. The two claimants were the French Philip, Duke of Anjou
and the Austrian Emperor Leopold I
. The Spanish government chose Philip; French King Louis XIV, Philip's grandfather, naturally supported his grandson as well. The Catalan upper classes, still distrustful of France from its efforts to stir the peasantry against them in 1689, had no love for Philip. He was "a king chosen by Castilians." In 1702, the cortes voted to recognize Leopold as king, and full-scale rebellion against Philip began in 1705 with the arrival of supporting Austrian troops. The war would continue for nine more years, until the Siege of Barcelona
in 1714 when the last remaining Catalan supporters of Leopold were defeated by the combined Franco-Castilian army. The Nueva Planta decrees
, issued by Philip from 1707–1714, ended the nominal split between Castile and Aragon and eliminated the traditional autonomy Aragon had kept. Castilian law and institutions were mandated throughout Spain.
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
rebellion fought against the government of King Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
. 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
Early Modern France
Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...
as part of the War of the Grand Alliance
War of the Grand Alliance
The Nine Years' War – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg – was a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch...
. Civil disorder lasted from 1687 to 1689.
Support for the revolt was concentrated in rural areas, particularly the poor. The only members of the elite who supported the revolt were wealthy commoners from the countryside. The city of Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, merchants, the intelligentsia, and the local government bodies were largely unsympathetic.
Background
Discord had existed for some time between the Castilian-dominated Spanish government and inhabitants of the former Kingdoms of AragonCrown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
(roughly equivalent to Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
itself, Valencia
Kingdom of Valencia
The Kingdom of Valencia , located in the eastern shore of the Iberian Peninsula, was one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon. When the Crown of Aragon merged by dynastic union with the Crown of Castile to form the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Valencia became a component realm of the...
, the Balearic Islands
Kingdom of Majorca
The Kingdom of Majorca was founded by James I of Aragon, also known as James The Conqueror. After the death of his first-born son Alfonso, a will was written in 1262 which created the kingdom in order to cede it to his son James...
, and Catalonia
Principality of Catalonia
The Principality of Catalonia , is a historic territory in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, mostly in Spain and with an adjoining portion in southern France....
). Aragon and Castile
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
had been unified under the same king since 1517, during the reign of King Charles I
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...
. However, they remained separate polities with their own laws and institutions. Discontent had boiled over into revolts several times, most notably in the Catalan Revolt
Catalan Revolt
The Catalan Revolt affected a large part of the Catalan Principality of Catalonia between the years of 1640 and 1659. It had an enduring effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees , which ceded the county of Roussillon and the northern half of the county of Cerdanya to France , thereby splitting the...
from 1640–1652. The 1640 revolt had broad support among Catalan society, and the Catalans' ally France annexed Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
(also known as French Cedagne or Northern Catalonia
Northern Catalonia
Northern Catalonia is a term that is sometimes used, particularly in Catalan writings, to refer to the territory ceded to France by Spain through the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659...
) as a result of the war. Since the revolt, however, feelings toward France had grown more ambivalent in Catalonia. France came to be seen more as an economic competitor than a useful ally.
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
which, by the standards of the era, could easily have led to their execution en masse, this leniency was appreciated. King Charles II
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
came to the throne in the 1660s; while generally regarded by historians as an incompetent and ineffectual ruler, his lack of activity was considered a blessing in Catalonia. Rather than continue the centralization of government in Madrid, Charles II did little and let regions manage their own affairs. John of Austria the Younger
John of Austria the Younger
John of Austria was a Spanish general and political figure. He was the only natural son of Philip IV of Spain to be acknowledged by the King and trained for military command and political administration...
(Don Juan José) was a popular viceroy who put important Aragonese and Catalan nobles in positions of power, earning the goodwill of the nobility. Feliu de la Peña, an important Catalan noble, called Charles II "the best king Spain ever had."
In 1684, the fortunes of many Catalan peasants plummeted. Locust swarms ravaged crops, ruining farmers and disrupting the entire economy. The locusts continued to be a problem in the following years, and were especially virulent in 1687.
Quartering of soldiers
War of the Reunions
The War of the Reunions was a short conflict between France and Spain and its allies. It was fueled by the long-running desire of Louis XIV to conquer new lands, many of them comprising part of the Spanish Netherlands, along France's northern and eastern borders...
, fought mostly in the Spanish Netherlands. King Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
was an aggressive empire-builder who had been claiming border territories for France, notably in the states of (modern) Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
. Still angry at losses in the Spanish Netherlands, Spain joined the League of Augsburg, an alliance between many German states, Sweden, and Spain intended to defend against France. Fearing another French-Spanish war, the government sent Castilian troops to Catalonia to guard the border in 1687. However, government forts and barracks were in a state of ill-repair and unequipped to shelter thirty companies of horsemen, approximately 2,400 soldiers total. As a result, a majority of the soldiers were quartered in civilian homes. A "military contribution" (a tax, but not named as such) was required to fund them, and the soldiers needed to eat. The abysmal harvest of 1687, compounded by already low food supplies, pushed much of the countryside to the point of desperation. Peasants protested to the government, asking for the soldiers to leave. Three members of the Diputació (the highest constitutional body of Catalonia) forwarded these complaints to King Charles II: Anton Sayol, Daniel Sayol, and Josep Sitges. The Viceroy of Catalonia, the Marquis of Leganés, responded by arresting and replacing the three diputats.
The situation took a turn for the worse on October 7, 1687, with an incident in Centelles
Centelles
Centelles is a municipality in the comarca of Osona inCatalonia, Spain. It is situated in the upper valley of the Congost River in the south of thecomarca. The municipality is served by the C-17 road...
. A cavalryman struck a woman during an argument over a chicken. She immediately rallied the town in defiance. Seeking to defuse the situation, the cavalry withdrew from the town, but discontent continued to increase. After a meeting, many towns decided to accept the continued quartering of troops, but refuse to pay the military contribution to fund them.
Another altercation between the military and the citizenry occurred on April 4, 1688 in Villamayor. In response, a ragtag militia marched on Mataró
Mataró
Mataró is the capital and largest city of the comarca of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia Autonomous Community, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, to the north-east of Barcelona. , it...
, an important port town, and entered on April 6. There, they rang church bells and rallied the population with cries of ("Long live the land!") The leading citizens were found and compelled to argue the case of the rioters (they were threatened with the burning of their homes). Continuing to grow, the militia now marched on Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, the regional capital, with an estimated 18,000 people. Their demands were a general pardon for any actions the militia made against the soldiers, a reduced military contribution, the pardon of the three imprisoned members of the Diputació, and the release of an imprisoned official Pedro Llosas. By Monday April 12, the government completely capitulated. The militia was easily supplied from the countryside and the city of Barcelona was at its mercy for its own supplies. With their demands sated, the peasants went back to their homes. A letter written to the king on April 14 from government officials in Barcelona shows the dire state of affairs:
Discontent spreads
Juan Tomas Enriquez de Cabrera, 7th Duke of Medina de Rioseco
Juan Tomás Enríquez de Cabrera y Ponce de Leon, VII Duque de Medina de Río-Seco , was a Spanish noble and military....
. Incidents continued between the soldiers and the peasantry, and the government's control of the countryside became tenuous at best. Despite the concessions, people now wanted to be exempt from any governmental demands and refused to pay taxes. 800 segadors ("reapers;" the term rebel farmers adopted) marched on Puigcerdà
Puigcerdà
Puigcerdà is the capital of the Catalan comarca of Cerdanya, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, northern Spain, near the river Segre and the border with France .- History :...
and ordered that no one should work unless they received a minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
of 4 reales
Spanish real
The real was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century, but changed in value relative to other units introduced...
, inspiring similar incidents in other towns as the idea spread. Clergy became involved in disputes with the citizenry over tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s, sparking a riot on June 13. On June 14, rioters opened an armory and armed the citizenry. The rioters relaxed the next day, the feast of Corpus Christi; this gave soldiers the opportunity to sneak into the armory and defeat the budding revolt. Four popular leaders were hanged on July 5, and four more on August 9, but nevertheless a constellation of uprisings took place across Catalonia. Riots even struck Barcelona itself. Most uprisings were small in scale and targeted against upper class Catalans exempt from the military contribution, or against unpopular citizens who no longer had the protection of a working government such as bankers, tax collectors, and moneylenders.
In December 1688, the Viceroy of Catalonia changed again as the Count of Melgar retired and was replaced by the Duke of Villahermosa. The European political situation had continued to worsen, and war with France
War of the Grand Alliance
The Nine Years' War – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg – was a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch...
now seemed inevitable as the French attacked Spain's German allies. It was necessary to prepare Catalonia's defenses, as they were still in a lamentable state. Funding continued to be a problem, though. The Viceroy decided to try a "voluntary donation" to reconstruct defenses and bolster the soldiers in March 1689. The Consell de Cent
Consell de Cent
The Consell de Cent was a governmental institution of Barcelona. It was established in the 13th century and lasted until the 18th century.Its name derives from the number of its members: one hundred ....
(Barcelona's ruling council) and the Catalan Estates approved this measure; the Viceroy assumed that the donation would be better received if it had a local stamp of approval. This proved ineffective, as the donation was reviled as a new tax by the Catalan peasantry. The donation revealed a major class divide; higher classes were exempt from the donation, which kept them largely content. This was a reversal from the 1640 revolt, in which nearly all of Catalan society had protested Spanish taxation.
French involvement, and open rebellion
Leaders of the segadors had been in contact with French agents even before the donativo voluntario was announced. The donativo gave the French a powerful tool to encourage the protest against the quartering of soldiers and taxes to become a genuine rebellion. Money was sent to print leaflets denouncing the donation and the Spanish government. France had acquired the Catalan-speaking RoussillonRoussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
in the 1640 Catalan Revolt, and some families had members on both sides of the border. These proved useful contacts; one noble, Sieur Gabriel Gervais, was related to rebel Joseph Rocafort and helped pass money and supplies to him across the mountains. Ramón de Trobat
Ramón de Trobat
Ramon Trobat i Vinyes was the son of Francesc Trobat i Trias and a native of Barcelona, where he trained in the law. During the Catalan Revolt of 1640, he sided with the rebels and served in the army. He came to the notice of the French, and served as an adviser to Cardinal Mazarin at the...
, intendant
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
of Roussillon, wrote polemics and began to swear rebel leaders to the loyalty of France, notably Rocafort and Enric Torras. With the countryside infuriated with the government, the donation was a failure. The viceroy suspended it. Historian Henry Kamen
Henry Kamen
Henry A. Kamen is a British historian born in Rangoon on Oct 4. 1936. He studied at the University of Oxford, earning his doctorate at St. Antony's College. He subsequently taught at the University of Warwick and various universities in Spain. In 1970, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal...
believes that if the French had invaded in April 1689, with the donativo still fresh in the Catalans' memory, they could have "effortlessly" captured all of Catalonia. The French used a rather more cautious strategy, however, taking the fortifications of Camprodon
Camprodon
Camprodon is a small city in the comarca of Ripollès in Catalonia, Spain, located in the Pyrenees, near the French border.-History:The settlement of Camprodon was in 1118, when Ramon Berenguer III allowed the building of a market near the monastery of Sant Pere de Camprodon, which is located the...
on the border on May 22 and stopping there. Possible reasons include that the commanders in Paris simply didn't realize how well their agents had succeeded, that they were more worried about the German theater of the war, or that they thought the rebels would win without need for an expensive supporting invasion. The leaflets generated continued unrest, but without a full invasion no outright uprising occurred. The French abandoned Camprodon in June, and the Spanish army retook their own fortress and destroyed it.
Official records contain no further incidents until October 1689, when a native of Centellas, Joan Castelló, was arrested in October for having persuaded peasants to not pay the donativo. Under torture, he implicated Enric Torras and others in the movement, and was then executed. In November, some of the cavalry were set upon by peasants and forced to give up their arms and horses. There was no attempt made to kill them, but only to disarm them. This trend spread quickly, with the disarmed soldiers encouraged to return to Barcelona. This would instigate the phase of the protests that became closest to an actual rebellion. Seeking to defuse the situation, the viceroy decided upon punitive reprisals. He sent a force of 800 cavalry, 500 infantry, and 2 artillery pieces to raze Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Sant Feliu de Llobregat is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona. It is the capital of the comarca of Baix Llobregat, and the see of a Bishopric since June 2005, when the Archbishopric of Barcelona was divided in three....
. In reply, the peasant militia cut off the water supply to Barcelona. They were driven away, but now the segadors were up in arms. A large peasant militia calling itself the "Army of the Land" and numbering approximately 8,000 marched on Barcelona again, as they had a year earlier. The Viceroy engaged the peasants in battle this time; while the peasants won the first battle thanks to weight of numbers, they fared less well in three further battles as the Viceroy continued to harass them .
Elsewhere, others rose in revolt, but the troops stationed in the villages struck back. These reprisals prevented the movement from gaining traction. Some 2,000 segadors attacked Mataró
Mataró
Mataró is the capital and largest city of the comarca of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia Autonomous Community, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, to the north-east of Barcelona. , it...
, but the viceroy's troops defeated them. 40 rebels were killed and 6 were enslaved to row on galleys. Other clashes occurred at Castellfollit de la Roca
Castellfollit de la Roca
Castellfollit de la Roca is a municipality in the comarca of Garrotxa, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. The urban area is bordered by the confluence of the Fluvià and Toronell rivers, between which the town's basalt cliff rises...
and Sarrià
Sarrià-Sant Gervasi
Sarrià-Sant Gervasi is one of the biggest districts of Barcelona, situated on the north-west of the city, surrounded by districts of Les Corts, Gràcia, Eixample i Horta-Guinardo, and by the villages of Sant Just, Sant Feliu, Molins de Rei and Sant Cugat...
. On November 30, 1689, the peasant militia besieging Barcelona, weary of constant raids, disbanded and melted back into the countryside. Anton Soler, a wealthy country gentleman who had been a leader of the rebels, was murdered by his own adopted son for the monetary reward the government offered. Soler's head was taken to Barcelona and exposed in a cage on the wall of the Generalitat
Generalitat
Generalitat is the name of the autonomous systems of government of two of the present Spanish autonomous communities: Catalonia and the Valencian Community. The term is also used for the government of the semi-autonomous comarca of Val d'Aran, the Generalitat a l'Aran.Generalitat refers to all...
(the chief governmental building).
Cardona
Cardona is a town ìn Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona; about 90 km northwest of the city of Barcelona, on a hill almost surrounded by the river Cardoner, a branch of the Llobregat.Near the town is an extensive deposit of rock salt...
to agree to rise up in revolt if the French army came close enough, which never occurred. The plot was discovered in December 1691, and the Cardona plotters hanged. A very small number of segadors joined and aided the French army, perhaps fleeing from feared reprisals, but by 1695 their number was estimated to be less than 90. Under French direction in 1694, there was an attempted insurrection in Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Sant Feliu de Llobregat is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona. It is the capital of the comarca of Baix Llobregat, and the see of a Bishopric since June 2005, when the Archbishopric of Barcelona was divided in three....
and the fort of Corbera
Corbera
Corbera is a municipality in the comarca of Ribera Baixa in the Valencian Community, Spain....
; later, in August, there was a riot in Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
led by a group called "The Poor." None of these rebellions came to anything. More threatening was the actual French army, but by 1694 they were seen as unwelcome invaders by a substantial proportion of the populace. The French had also earned the enmity of Barcelona due to their indiscriminate naval bombardment the city on July 10, 1691. Barcelona's loyalty was rewarded by the government by allowing Barcelona's councilors to keep their hats on while in the presence of the king, and the Diputació was granted the titles of "Most Illustrious" and "Most Faithful." These symbolic gestures were considered quite significant at the time. Local Catalan guerrillas (Miquelets
Miquelet (militia)
Miquelets or Micalets were irregular Catalan and Valencian militia. The name is a diminutive of Michael; it is claimed it comes from Miquel or Miquelot de Prats, a Catalan mercenary captain in the service of Cesare Borgia...
) aided the Spanish regulars in driving the French out of Catalonia, and while achieving some early successes the French were eventually forced to retreat.
Aftermath
The main legacy of the Revolt of the Barretinas was an enduring anti-French sentiment in the Catalan leadership and intelligentsia. This would become relevant a decade later in 1700, when King Charles II died without a son. Charles' death triggered the War of the Spanish SuccessionWar of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
. The two claimants were the French Philip, Duke of Anjou
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
and the Austrian Emperor Leopold I
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
| style="float:right;" | Leopold I was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria...
. The Spanish government chose Philip; French King Louis XIV, Philip's grandfather, naturally supported his grandson as well. The Catalan upper classes, still distrustful of France from its efforts to stir the peasantry against them in 1689, had no love for Philip. He was "a king chosen by Castilians." In 1702, the cortes voted to recognize Leopold as king, and full-scale rebellion against Philip began in 1705 with the arrival of supporting Austrian troops. The war would continue for nine more years, until the Siege of Barcelona
Siege of Barcelona
The Siege of Barcelona was a battle at the end of the War of Spanish Succession , which pitted Archduke Charles of Austria The Siege of Barcelona was a battle at the end of the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714), which pitted Archduke Charles of Austria The Siege of Barcelona was a battle at...
in 1714 when the last remaining Catalan supporters of Leopold were defeated by the combined Franco-Castilian army. The Nueva Planta decrees
Nueva Planta decrees
The Nueva Planta decrees were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V—the first Bourbon king of Spain—during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession which he won....
, issued by Philip from 1707–1714, ended the nominal split between Castile and Aragon and eliminated the traditional autonomy Aragon had kept. Castilian law and institutions were mandated throughout Spain.