1641, LA JUNTA DE BRAÇOS & THE CATALAN REPUBLIC

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Junta de Braços, the parliamentary assembly of the Principality of Catalonia, that proclaimed the Catalan Republic under French protection on a day like today in 1641.

The Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (States-General) was, during the early modern age, an institution of the Principality of Catalonia, convened by the Generalitat of Catalonia in cases of emergency or urgency. It was composed by the representatives of the Catalan Courts who at that time were in Barcelona.

The decision to convene the Junta de Braços was to be taken by the three deputies and the three oïdors that formed the Generalitat. It was constituted following the same system of the Catalan Courts, that is, by bringing together the members of the three estates of the realm: the ecclesiastic formed by the clergy, the military formed by the nobility, and the popular formed by royal towns and cities of the country.

Only those who lived in Barcelona (or who were at that time) were summoned, due to the urgent nature of the issues that had to be raised and the precarious communications of the time made it impossible for a general call for all of Catalonia. This favoured the presence of a majority of Barcelona residents, and of a greater number of nobles who lived in the city; and the presence of the ciutadans honrats (honorable citizens) of Barcelona was accepted, even though on an individual basis.

The Principality of Catalonia (in Catalan Principat de Catalunya; in Occitan Principat de Catalonha; in Latin Principatus Cathaloniæ) 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 Catalonia, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries, and usually including the historical region of Roussillon in Southern France.

The first reference to Catalonia and the Catalans appears in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus, a Pisan chronicle (written between 1117 and 1125) of the conquest of Majorca by a joint force of Northern Italians, Catalans, and Occitans. At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term seems to acknowledge Catalonia as a cultural or geographical entity.

The counties that eventually made up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the count of Barcelona.

In 1137, the County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were unified under a single dynasty, creating what modern historians call the Crown of Aragon; however, Aragon and Catalonia retained their own political structure and legal traditions, developing separate political communities along the next centuries. 

Under Alfons I the Troubador (reigned 1164-1196), Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the 14th century, when it was applied to the territories ruled by the Courts of Catalonia.

Its institutional system evolved over the centuries, establishing political bodies analogous to the ones of the other kingdoms of the Crown (such as the Courts, the Generalitat or the Consell de Cent) and legislation (constitutions, derived from the Usages of Barcelona) which largely limited the royal power and secured the political model of pactism. Catalonia contributed to further develop the Crown trade and military, most significantly their navy.

The Catalan language flourished and expanded as more territories were added to the Crown, including Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples and Athens, constituting a thalassocracy across the Mediterranean. The crisis of the 14th century, the end of the rule of House of Barcelona (1410) and a civil war (1462-1472) weakened the role of the Principality in Crown and international affairs.

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 laid the foundations of the monarchy of Spain. In 1492 the Spanish colonization of the Americas began, and political power began to shift away towards Castile.

Tensions between Catalan institutions and the monarchy, alongside the peasants' revolts, provoked the Reapers' War (1640-1659). By the Treaty of the Pyrenees the Roussillon was ceded to France.

During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), the Crown of Aragon supported the Archduke Charles of Habsburg. After the surrender of Barcelona in 1714, King Philip V of Bourbon, inspired by the French model, imposed absolutism and a unifying administration across Spain, and enacted the Nueva Planta decrees for every realm of the Crown of Aragon, which suppressed the main Catalan, Aragonese, Valencian and Majorcan political institutions and rights and merged them into the Crown of Castile as provinces, ending their status as separate political entities. 

However, the territories, including the Principality of Catalonia, remained as administrative units until the establishment of the Spanish provincial division of 1833, which divided Catalonia into four provinces.

More information: Renaissance Kingdoms

True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people.
There are natural and imprescriptible rights
which an entire nation has no right to violate.

Marquis de Lafayette

1714: ENGLAND BETRAYS CATALONIA

The Catalans, thus abandoned and given up to their enemies, contrary to faith and honour, were not however, wanting to their own defence; but appealing to Heaven, and hanging up at the High Altar the Queen’s solemn declaration to protect them, underwent the utmost miseries of a siege; during which multitudes perished by famine and the sword, many were afterward executed, and many persons of figure were dispersed about the Spanish Dominions and dungeons.

Nicolas Tindal, History of England (1745)

The Coronela defending Barcelona, 1714

Rafael Casanova i Comes (Moià, 1660 – Sant Boi de Llobregat, 1743) 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, September 11, 1714. He recovered from his wounds, and after the war he continued his fight against absolutism 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 (Remembrance of the Alliance to George I of Great Britain) in which Catalonia reminds England of the Treaty of Genoa and their obligation to Catalonia.

In November 1700, Charles II died, the last Habsburg Spanish monarch. The Duke of Anjou, a member of the Bourbon dynasty, was appointed as his successor, and who was enthroned by the name of Philip V of Spain. In 1702, the War of Spanish Succession started when the House of Austria, at odds with the will, invaded the Spanish territories in Italy. In 1703, maritime powers, England and Holland joined the House of Austria and declared war against the Two Crowns, Bourbon France and Spain. In Vienna the young archduke Charles of Austria was called for as an alternative candidate to rule Spain. In 1704, Charles moved to Portugal where he sought to recover from the Spanish throne for the Hapsburg dynasty.

More information: Rafael Casanova and his time (Museu de Sant Boi)

Can Barraquer, Casanova's Home in Sant Boi

On the other side of the peninsula allies launched an attempted landing in Barcelona with the complicity of a small number of Austrian locals. The plot was discovered and the allied landings failed. The exiled Austrian viceroy of Catalonia, Francisco Velasco was shocked and wanting to avoid any further Austrian conspiracies. Francisco began an indiscriminate repression in Barcelona, and repeatedly violated the constitution of Catalonia. This was a policy that unleashed hatred against, his sovereign, Philip V of Spain.

After years of the Viceroy's outrages, the Barcelona Board resolved to send Pau Ignasi Dalmases to the court of Madrid in order to protest to Philip V himself, about the violations of the Catalan laws that were committed by his viceroy; however, reaching the court the emissary he was arrested and jailed, which again violated the Catalan constitution. Catalonia signed the Pact of Genoa, a treaty established a military alliance between England and Catalonia. Catalonia pledged to fight for the cause of the claimant to the Spanish throne, Charles of Austria, with military aid from England, who in exchange pledged to defend the Constitution of Catalonia whatever the outcome of the war. Allied troops landed, turning back to Barcelona and then surrounding the city in October 1705. Viceroy Velasco, and the Bourbon garrison that was in Barcelona capitulated. The councillors of the Government of Catalonia and Barcelona received Charles of Austria hailing him as a liberator. Within days, Archduke Charles swore allegiance to the Constitution of Catalonia.

More information: 1714. War of Succession. MHCAT.

Church of Sant Boi. Rafael Casanova's tomb.

In April 1714, the House of Lords devoted several of their plenary sessions to what came to be known as the Case of the Catalans. The topic was that Treaty of Genoa signed in 1705 between the Catalan delegates and the plenipotentiary agent of Queen Anne of England. In that treaty, Catalonia agreed to engage into the war helping England, with a special emphasis on England ensuring the defence of the Catalan Constitutional system, whatever the outcome of the war. But in the Peace of Utrecht the Catalans were betrayed by the English ministers in the peace negotiations. Against all expectations, and faced with a vastly superior army, the Catalan institutions decided to stand against King Philip, and defend their constitutional system and freedoms at the highest price.

On February 26, 1714, Rafael Casanova became the highest military and political authority in Catalonia, when the Generalitat of Catalonia gave him all the military powers and also was named President of the ninth Board of war. It ruled the city until he was wounded in combat when commanding a counterattack of the Barcelona milícia at the San Peter front on the last day of siege, September 11, 1714. Having capitulated the city, the institutions of self-government of Catalonia were abolished.

More information: Patrimoni Gencat

[...] and the Honour of the British Nation, always renowned for the Love of Liberty, and for giving Protection to the Assertors of it, was most basely prostituted and a free and generous People, the faithful and useful Allies of this Kingdom, were betrayed, in the most unparalleled Manner, into irrevocable Slavery.

Journal of the House of Lords, vol. 19, 20 (1715)