1640, JUNTA DE BRAÇOS LEAD TO THE CATALAN REPUBLIC

Today, The Grandma has been reading about La Junta de Braços, the Assembly of Estates of the Principality of Catalonia that assumed the sovereignty and enacted a series of revolutionary mesures which had to lead to the Catalan Republic in 1640.

The Reapers' War, in Catalan Guerra dels Segadors, 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.

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.

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 favored 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, 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 Mallorca 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), who saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic. By the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) the Roussillon was ceded to France.

During the War of 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.

More information: Barcelona Metropolitan

Catalunya triomfant,
tornarà a ser rica i plena.
Endarrere aquesta gent
tan ufana i tan superba.

Catalonia triumphant
Shall again be rich and abundant.
Drive away these folks
Who are so proud and arrogant.

Els Segadors, National Catalan Anthem

THE BATTLE OF MONTJUÏC DURING THE REAPERS' WAR

The Grandma & Claire visit Montjuïc, Barcelona

Today, the weather is good and The Grandma has decided to walk out with her closer friend Claire Fontaine. They have visited Montjuïc, the historic mountain that rises between the city of Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea.

This mountain is a great witness of the history of the city and today, the city of Barcelona commemorates the anniversary of the Battle of Montjuïc, when in January 26, 1641, the Catalan troops defended the city from the attack of the Castilian troops during the Reapers' War.

Catalan troops won this battle and protected the city from the tyranny of the Castilian troops who killed all people -civilians and militaries- who found on their way.

This battle was an episode of the Reapers' War, a conflict that had an effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), which ceded the County of Rosselló 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.

Nowadays, Catalonia is an historic nation, one of the oldest European ones, whose territories are divided in two states -French and Spanish. There are other cases like this: Basque Country (France and Spain), Alsace (France and Germany), and Britain (France and United Kingdom)...

History demonstrates that borders do not determinate a community but culture does, and one of the most significate symbols of culture is language. A spoken language determinates a community and it is a vivid element of its history, past and present.

More information: Ajuntament de Barcelona

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 Catalan rebels had taken up position on the heights of Montjuïc which dominated the city of Barcelona.

The Spanish launched several concerted attempts to capture Montjuïc Castle, but were continually repulsed. Finally a large force of Catalan rebels counter-attacked from the direction of Barcelona. Large numbers of Spanish troops were killed and the remainder had to withdraw to Tarragona along the coast. The Spanish force had recently massacred hundreds of rebels who had tried to surrender at Cambrils.

The Battle of Cambrils or the Massacre of Cambrils took place in December 1640 during the Reapers' War.

Barcelona, 17th century

The revolt had started in May-June 1640 and as a reaction the Spanish Army had occupied Tortosa in Catalonia in September. On December 8 a large army under Pedro Fajardo de Zúñiga y Requesens headed for Barcelona, passing through Cambrils. Here, a small force of Catalan rebels attempted to ambush this much larger force, before withdrawing into the town and attempting to defend it. After several days of bombardment and heavy fighting the Spanish captured the town.

When the defenders tried to surrender, some 700 of them were massacred. The three leaders were quickly trialed and executed on the garrote. The next day, more people were hanged and the city was sacked.

The Spanish army then continued in the direction of Barcelona, taking Tarragona on December 24. Later this army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Montjuïc.

More information: Museu d'Història de Catalunya (MHCAT)

The Reapers' War, in Catalan la Guerra dels Segadors, also known as Catalan Revolt was a conflict that affected a large part of the Principality of Catalonia between the years of 1640 and 1659.

The war had its roots in the discomfort generated in Catalan society by the large presence of Castilian troops during the Franco-Spanish War between the Kingdom of France and the Monarchy of Spain as part of the Thirty Years' War.

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, until then supported mainly by the Crown of Castile. But his Union of Arms policy raised hostilities and protests all across the states of the Monarchy of Spain.

Battle of Montjuïc, 1640

Resistance in Catalonia was especially strong; the Catalan Courts of 1626 and 1632 were never concluded, due to the opposition of the estates against the economical and military measures of Olivares, many of which violated the Catalan constitutions.

In 1638, the canon of La Seu d'Urgell Pau Claris, known for his opposition against non-Catalan bishops who always collaborated with the Crown, was elected by ecclesiastic estate as president of the Generalitat, while Francesc de Tamarit was elected member of the Generalitat by the military estate and Josep Miquel Quintana for 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.

Catalan peasants, who were forced to quarter Castilian troops and reported events such as religious sacrileges, destruction of personal properties and rape of women by the soldiers, responded in a series of local rebellions against their presence.

More information: Ajuntament de Barcelona

The revolt grew, until the Corpus Christi day of May 1640 in Barcelona, with an uprising known as Bloody Corpus in Catalan Corpus de Sang, under the slogans Long live the faith of Christ!, The King our Lord has declared war on us!, Long live the land, death to bad government, Reape 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 in 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, in Catalan segador and led to the somewhat mysterious death of The 2nd Count of Santa Coloma, the Spanish Viceroy of Catalonia, 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.

Pau Claris, MHP of the Generalitat

Pau Claris, President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, called the politician members of the all Principality in order to form a Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (States-General), a consultive body.

The calling was a success, and the presence of royal cities and feudal villages was exceptionally large. This assembly, which worked with individual voting, began to create and apply various revolutionary measures, such as the establishment of a Council of Defense of the Principality and a special tax for the nobility (the Batalló), while the tension with the monarchy grew.

At the same time, the Generalitat maintained contacts with France, in order to establish an alliance between the Principality of Catalonia and this country. By the pact of Ceret, French promised to help the Principality. In this way, the States-General presided by Pau Claris proclaimed the Catalan Republic under the protection of the French monarchy, on January 17, 1641, which lasted a week until January 21, 1641, when they declared the French king Louis XIII Count of Barcelona as Louis I.

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 January, 23.

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 (January 26, 1641).

More information: The Culture Trip

Despite this success, the peasant uprising was becoming uncontrollable in some places, progressively focusing on the Catalan nobility and Generalitat itself. In effect, the conflict was also a class war, with the peasants revolting both against the Habsburg monarchy and against their own ruling classes, which turned to France for support.

For the next decade the Catalans fought under French vassalage, taking the initiative after Montjuïc. Meanwhile, increasing French control of political and administrative affairs -maritime ports, taxes, key bureaucratic positions- 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.

Battle of Montjuïc, 1641

A Franco-Catalan army under Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt moved south and gained several victories against the Spanish, but the sieges of Tarragona, Lleida and Tortosa finally failed and the allies had to withdraw. In the north of Catalonia in Rosselló, they were more successful. Perpinyà was taken from the Spanish after a siege of 10 months, and the whole of Rosselló was under French control. Shortly after, Spanish relief armies were defeated at the Battle of Montmeló and Battle of Barcelona.

In 1652 a Spanish offensive captured Barcelona bringing the Catalan capital under Spanish control again. Irregular 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.

The war was 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.

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, under the occupation of France.

In 1652 the French authorities renounced Catalonia, but held control of Rosselló, thereby leading to the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.

More information: The Gates Hotel Barcelona

Here is our captain, this is our flag!
Catalans, let's go to fight!
The King our Lord has declared war on us!

Popular Romance

1359, GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA FIRST INCEPTION

Palau de la Generalitat, Barcelona

Today, The Grandma has been visiting some of the most emblematic sites of Barcelona. It is a very beautiful city with hundreds of years of history totally visible on its buildings, its streets and, of course, in the idiosyncrasy of its people.

The Grandma has wanted to visit El Palau de la Generalitat, site of the Catalan Government, an ancient institution whose first inception was dated on a day like today in 1359.

The Government of Catalonia or the Generalitat de Catalunya is an institution politically organised. It consists of the Parliament of Catalonia, the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Executive Council of Catalonia.

The Parliament of Catalonia unilaterally declared independence from Spain on 27 October 2017 as the 'Catalan Republic'. In response then Spanish Prime Minister decided to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia and to call a snap regional election for 21 December 2017, after which a new Parliament and a new Catalan government was elected. The independence declaration was turned down by the Constitutional Court, and members of the Catalan government, including the president Carles Puigdemont, fled to Belgium claiming to be the legitimate government of the Generalitat of Catalonia.

More information: Catalan Government

Catalonia's political past as a territorially differentiated community having its own representative and separated institutions, with respect to the sovereign power of the combined Catalan counties (988-1164), the Crown of Aragon (1164-1516), the Monarchy of Spain (1516-1808) and of the Spanish constitutional state (since 1812), can be divided into four stages, separated by three great ruptures in the legal/public order.

Pau i Treva de Déu / Peace and Truce of God was a social movement promoted in the eleventh century as the response of the Church and the peasants to the violences perpetrated by feudal nobles. The hometowns, then, delimited a protected space of feudal violence. However, to ensure a coexistence climate, it was necessary to go further, establishing an authority that prohibited the practice of any type of violent act anywhere in the territory. This was the objective of the assemblies of Peace and Truce of God, the first of which, in the Catalan counties, took place in Toluges (Roussillon), in 1027, under the presidency of Abbot Oliba, on behalf of Bishop Berenguer d'Elna, absent from the diocese because he was on a pilgrimage. The origin of the Catalan Courts can be considered from the Peace of Truce of God.

MHP Pau Claris, killed

The Generalitat of Catalonia stems from the medieval institution which ruled, in the name of the King of the Crown of Aragon, some aspects of the administration of the Principality of Catalonia. 

The Catalan Courts were the main institution of the Principality during its existence as a political entity, and approved the Catalan constitutions. The first constitutions were that of the Courts of 1283.

The medieval precedent of the Generalitat, the Diputació del General de Catalunya / Deputation of the General of Catalonia, where General means the political community of the Catalans and not the military rank was a permanent council of deputies established by the Courts in order to recapt the new tax of the General in 1359, and gained an important political power during the next centuries, assuming tasks of prosecutor. It was chosen by the legislators in 1931 because they felt it was appropriate for invoking as a legitimising base for contemporary self-government.

Catalan institutions which depended on the Generalitat were abolished in what is currently known in Catalonia as Northern Catalonia, one year after the signature of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in the 17th century, which transferred the territory to French sovereignty.

Then, by the early 18th century, as the Nueva Planta decrees were passed in Spain after the Catalan defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, the institution was abolished in the Spanish territory as well.

More information: Generalitat de Catalunya

The Generalitat was restored in the Catalonia under Spanish administration in 1931 during the events of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic when Francesc Macià, leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia, declared the Catalan Republic on 14 April but later reached an agreement with the Spanish ministers, in which the Catalan Republic was renamed Generalitat de Catalunya and given its modern political and representative function as the autonomous government of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic.

The restored Generalitat was ruled by a statute of autonomy approved by the Spanish Cortes and included a parliament, a presidency, a government and a court of appeal. It was presided by Francesc Macià (1931-1933) and Lluís Companys (1933-1940).

Macià (exiled), Sunyol (killed) & Companys (executed)

After the right wing coalition won the Spanish elections in 1934, the leftist leaders of the Generalitat of Catalonia rebelled in October of that year against the Spanish authorities, and it was temporarily suspended from 1934 to 1936.

In 1939, as the Spanish Civil War finished with the defeat of the Republican side, the Generalitat of Catalonia as an institution was abolished and remained so during all the Francoist dictatorship until 1975.

The president of the Generalitat at the time, Lluís Companys, was tortured and executed in October 1940 for the crime of military rebellion. Nonetheless, the Generalitat remained its official existence in exile, led by presidents Josep Irla (1940-1954) and Josep Tarradellas (1954-1980).

The succession of presidents of the Generalitat was maintained in exile from 1939 to 1977, when Josep Tarradellas returned to Catalonia and was recognized as the legitimate president by the Spanish government. Tarradellas, when he returned to Catalonia, made his often quoted remark Ciutadans de Catalunya: ja sóc aquí / Citizens of Catalonia: I am back!, reassuming the autonomous powers of Catalonia.

After this, the powers given to the autonomous Catalan government according to the Spanish Constitution of 1978 were transferred and the Estatut d'Autonomia was passed after being approved both by referendum in Catalonia and by the Spanish parliament.

The most recent President of the Generalitat of Catalonia was Carles Puigdemont, member of the Catalan European Democratic Party. He was suspended from office on 27 October 2017, by the Spanish government.

After a number of attempts to invest a new president, Quim Torra became president on the 17th of May 2018.

More information: Departament de la Presidència

The autonomous government consists of the Executive Council, the President and the Parliament. Some people wrongly apply this name only to the executive council, the cabinet of the autonomous government; however, Generalitat de Catalunya is the system of Catalan autonomous government as a whole.

The Generalitat holds exclusive and wide jurisdiction in various matters of culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments. In many aspects relating to education, health and justice. The Generalitat has got its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra..

Josep Irla & Josep Tarradellas, MHPs in exile

The legal system is uniform throughout the Spanish state, with the exception of some parts of civil law  -especially family, inheritance, and real estate law- that have traditionally been ruled by so-called foral law. The fields of civil law that are subject to autonomous legislation have been codified in the Codi Civil de Catalunya consisting of six books that have successively entered into force since 2003.

Another institution stemming from the Catalan autonomy statute, but independent from the Generalitat in its check and balance functions, is the Síndic de Greuges (the ombudsman) to address problems that may arise between private citizens or organizations and the Generalitat or local governments.

The Parlament de Catalunya is the legislative body of the Generalitat and represents the citizens of Catalonia. It is elected every four years by universal suffrage, and it has powers to legislate in different matters such as education, health, culture, internal institutional and territorial organization, election and control of the president of the Generalitat and the Government, budget and others, according with the Statute of Autonomy.

The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, in Catalan president de la Generalitat de Catalunya, is the highest representative of Catalonia, and is also responsible of leading the government's action.

The Executive Council, in Catalan Consell Executiu, or Government (Govern), is the body responsible of the government of the Generalitat, it holds executive and regulatory power. It comprises the president of the Generalitat, the First Minister or the Vice President and the Ministers (consellers). Its seat is the Palau de la Generalitat, in Barcelona.

 More information: Parlament de Catalunya

Catalonia is not recognized as a sovereign state by any sovereign state. However, as Catalonia has progressively gained a greater degree of self-government in recent years, the Catalan Government has established nearly bilateral relationships with foreign bodies. For the most part, these relationships are with the governments of other powerful subnational entities such as Quebec or California. In addition, like most Spanish autonomous communities, Catalonia has permanent delegations before international organizations, such as the European Union.

More recently, Catalonia has embarked upon an expansion process of its international representation by opening a number of delegations worldwide. As of 2017, these exceeded 40. Most of these offices are located in major world cities like London, New York City, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and others. Each office has specific duties assigned by their ministry or department agency. Generally, the functions of these are the representation of specific interests of the Government of Catalonia, trade and foreign investment, Catalan culture and language support, tourist promotion and international cooperation activities.

There are no specific Catalan political institutions in Northern Catalonia, other than the French département of Pyrénées-Orientales. However, since 5 September 2003, there has been a Casa de la Generalitat in Perpignan, which aims to promote the Catalan culture and facilitate exchanges between each side of the border.

More information: Museu d'Història de Catalunya

We cannot say no to what

has already been approved by the citizens.

Carles Puigdemont