Corona de Aragón - History Lab

Philip VI decrees the suppression of the Council of Aragon in 1707

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:11 +0000

The War of Succession pitted Philip of Bourbon against Archduke Charles. Philip of Bourbon, faced with the refusal of the councillors of Aragon to eliminate their charters, decreed the suppression of the Council of Aragon. The Council had jurisdiction over the territories belonging to the Crown: Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Majorca and Sardinia, and its task was to control the fueros and jurisprudence. The aim of the Felipist faction was to centralise the institutions in the Council and Chamber of Castile. Along these lines, he also contributed the Nueva Planta Decrees, which abolished the laws, institutions and privileges of the Crown of Aragon in order to bring them into line with those of Castile.

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Epidemics of plague in Spain: 16th and 17th centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:12 +0000

The plague epidemic had an early manifestation in Spain. There is evidence of outbreaks of plague along the Mediterranean strip of the peninsula as early as the 6th-8th centuries. During the 14th century, the Black Death appeared in Europe, an epidemic which, interspersed with others such as influenza and typhus, reappeared in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1596 the plague reached the peninsula via Santander, a port area. It spread virulently through the territories of Extremadura and the two Castiles, especially the area around Madrid. The Cantabrian coast and Andalusia were also affected, as well as the area between Alicante and Valencia. It was in the latter city that another plague epidemic broke out years later, in 1647. From Valencia it spread to the northern part of the Crown of Aragon: Catalonia and the Aragonese territories themselves were affected. Andalusia was also hit again, with the city of Seville suffering significant human losses, where it is estimated that 45% of the population died. It was in Seville that another epidemic appeared in 1676. With no time to recover, cities such as Seville, Cordoba, Malaga, Cadiz and Jaen were the protagonists of the horror. They were joined by Cartagena, in the Kingdom of Murcia. These were the last large-scale epidemics to occur in the peninsular territories of the Hispanic Monarchy. Once the epidemic, demographic and food crises of the 17th century were overcome, the 18th century ushered in a period of generalised growth.

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Estimates of metals and coins transported by bankers in Spain between 1601 and 1675

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

During the Modern Age, the availability of real physical money was of great importance for the Royal Treasury when it came to making payments without the need for another financial instrument such as bills of exchange. The transport of this money was conditioned by the strategies and organisation that the banquerons deployed when offering credits and making investments in America, Spain, Europe and Asia. The resource presented here shows the estimate of metals and coins transported by bankers in Spain between 1601 and 1675. The different coins and their quality were due to the type of currency used in each territory: while in Castile it was the real de vellón, in the Crown of Aragon, such as the cities of Barcelina, Zaragoza and Valencia, the metal used was silver and double silver. The author warns us that the documentary sources used are confined to Madrid, so the results are filtered through the filter of Madrid activity. The sample he has collected totals 8,760,000 ducats, equivalent to the annual expenditure of the Monarchy at the beginning of the 17th century. Of the total, 79% were coined silver reales, 10.8% uncoined silver, 9.4% fleece coins, and 0.8% gold coins. This reflects the large internal trade in metals that the Monarchy had on the peninsula.

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Evolution of the population of Palma de Mallorca (1478-1746)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:36 +0000

Demographic changes and population trends show a clear tendency towards a general increase in population during the Modern Age. This process can be divided into 3 phases, one of stagnation (1478-1573), another of increase with respect to the beginning of modernity (1573-1600), and finally the maintenance phase with cycles of ups and downs caused by subsistence, climatic and epidemiological crises (1600-1746). The dynamics of Palma de Mallorca were in tune with those of the island. It is calculated that the population of Palma was, in 1503, 30% of the total; a figure that was maintained with small variations during the 16th and 17th centuries (in 1695 it fell to 24% of the total). Consequently, the Mallorcan rural environment was very important, so much so that the population density of the island was among the highest in the Crown of Aragon and Castile at the end of the 16th century.

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List of convents of Saint Clare in the Crown of Aragon

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

The Franciscan order was one of the mendicant orders with the greatest influence in the peninsular context. Guided by the observances of Francis of Assisi, the Franciscans spread the rules of the new order throughout the peninsular territory, also reaching the Crown of Aragon. As Carmen Soriano Triguero says, the expansion of the order took place in the favourable context of the Christian conquest, where the ideological struggle against Islam was necessary, for which these monasteries constituted a revival of the faith. Similarly, their presence was necessary to promote pacification in more agitated contexts such as the wars of the two Peters. This trend was joined by the feminine aspect, and convents were built to house women who followed the rule of Francis of Assisi, normally attached to Saint Clare.

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Holders of the office of Portantveus of Governor General of Orihuela

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

Institutional changes took place in the Crown of Aragon that gradually modified some of the positions in the administration. One of these posts that evolved in accordance with the political situation was that of governor, which until the Middle Ages was associated with the first-born son of the crown or another member of the royal house. During the modern age, this post evolved into the figure of the portanveus. This was because, on many occasions, the first-born did not hold the office as he was not usually in the kingdom. Thus, despite the future transformation of the office, the protanveus remained in essence a regent. His powers included a wide range of crimes and appeals, arbitration and special jurisdiction over lords. Among the most serious crimes were lèse majesté and the minting of false money, among others. In the kingdom of Valencia, there were two portanveus that corresponded to two demarcations: That of Valencia, which was much larger, and that of Orihuela.

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Amount of the services in money granted to the Hispanic Monarchy by the Courts of Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia (1510-1604) -in Valencian, Jaquesan and Barcelonese pounds, respectively (in brackets, the conversion of Valencian and Jaquesan pounds, to Barcelonese pounds)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

During the modern age, and specifically during the Hapsburg period, the collection of state taxes was carried out through the court service. In the Crown of Castile, Spanish monarchs had an easier time obtaining the revenue they needed. This was made possible by the corregimental system implemented by the Catholic Monarchs, which allowed the arms of the state to be extended in Castilian cities and towns through the figure of the corregidor. However, the particularity of the legislation of the Crown of Aragon (with the specificity of each kingdom) complicated the granting of services. To this end, the Monarchy deployed a whole mechanism of pacts in each of the territories, such as Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia. It can be seen how the costs gradually increased with the worsening of the situation of the empire in its European wars. With the exhaustion of the Hispanic Monarchy (1580-1610), the problem of Castile’s excessive involvement in imperial expenditure was raised, and so, from the arbitrarian point of view, it was advised to involve the territories of the Crown of Aragon to a greater extent. This was achieved by increasing the costs of the services that the different kingdoms would have to pay to the monarchy.

The post Amount of the services in money granted to the Hispanic Monarchy by the Courts of Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia (1510-1604) -in Valencian, Jaquesan and Barcelonese pounds, respectively (in brackets, the conversion of Valencian and Jaquesan pounds, to Barcelonese pounds) first appeared on History Lab.

List and period of activity od the successive governors of the Kingdom of Aragon (16th-17th centuries)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

The governor of the Kingdom of Aragon was an extremely important political post. He was appointed for life and could delegate his functions. His jurisdiction extended over the whole kingdom and he was responsible, among other things, for public order, the guarantee of royal rights and royalties. It became increasingly important, especially after the court moved to Castile following the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs. The election of the governor had to include his membership of the nobility (cloak and dagger). The end of this political office came with the dismantling of the foral system with the arrival of the Bourbons. The support of a large part of the Crown of Aragon for the Austracist pretender led Philip V to put an end to this type of institution on the basis of a legitimate right of conquest.

The post List and period of activity od the successive governors of the Kingdom of Aragon (16th-17th centuries) first appeared on History Lab.

Silver coin issues in the Crown of Aragon (1480-1598)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

The discovery of America by the Hispanic Monarchy led to the use of Castilian reales in the Crown of Aragon due to the remittances of silver received by Castile. Ferdinand the Catholic sought to increase the legal value of the silver coins of the Aragonese crown so that they would not be annulled, nominally devaluing the vellon to facilitate conversion with the Castilian reales. The monarch refused to reduce the weight of the silver coins during his reign in order to prevent their export. why were the Valencian dieciochenos exported? Their weight in silver exceeded the nominal value which the law recognised. During the reign of Charles V between 1480 and 1598, the weight of the silver coinage in the Crown of Aragon tended to be reduced in the Kingdom of Valencia, without any loss of value. Thus, the weight of the Valencian dieciocheno was reduced by 25.25% in 1522 and by 29% in 1547. Compared to the Valencian money market, the Catalan one was more stable. In fact, the weight of the Catalan croat remained constant at 3.23 grams throughout the 17th century.

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Silver coin issues in the Crown of Aragon (1601-1700)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

For the Crown of Aragon, made up of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and the principality of Catalonia, the issue of silver coins was one of the main concerns of the monetary economy. If during the 16th century the weight of the Valencian dieciocheno had to be reduced so as not to exceed its legal tender value and thus avoid its export, the 17th century saw similar measures for the Catalan “croat” and real and the Valencian dieciocheno itself. In the first case, the 3.12 grams that the croat had weighed since 1493 was reduced in 1619 to 3.04 grams, reaching 2.81 grams in 1653. The Catalan real fell from 2.5 grams to 2.04 between 1674 and 1698. For its part, the Valencian silver coin ended the century at 1.87 grams, almost half the 3 grams it weighed in 1480. However, the Aragonese real remained at a fixed weight of 3.42 for more than a century: from 1519 to 1652. All these adjustments were carried out as reforms aimed at readjusting the silver to the fleece.

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