Corona de Aragón - History Lab

Folleto Bonsoms, no. 893

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:35 +0000

The War of the Spanish Succession pitted two pretenders to the throne against each other. On the one side, Philip V of Bourbon and on the other, Charles of the House of Austria. In the conflict, the territories of the Crown of Aragon, such as Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia, took sides with the Austracist contender (some of them after swearing allegiance to Philip V). The balance between the two sides was broken by the decisive confrontation that took place at the Battle of Almansa on 25 April 1707, where Philip of Bourbon’s army emerged victorious. As a result, those territories that supported the Austracist contender experienced repression in which the nobility was forced to flee to the Austrian Empire, while the foral system was dismantled. The new monarch had claimed that these territories were treacherous, so he used the legitimate right of conquest to change the legislation in force. The belligerence and uncertainty generated by the Nueva Planta edicts demanded clarification from the monarch, who specified that the repressive measures would in no way concern those who had been loyal to him in the territories in question.

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Pragmatics of June 7, 1586

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:29 +0000

Banditry was a reality that affected the territories of the Crown of Aragon, especially at the end of the 16th century. The emergence of armed bands that raided the trade routes was due to the worsening economic situation in these regions. It was a widespread reality in Catalonia, Aragon and, of course, Valencia. The difficulty in dealing with this banditry lay in the fact that it involved a large number of actors, some of whom had great power, such as nobles and churchmen, many of whom were in a disastrous situation. This was intertwined with another type of banditry such as that deployed by the Moors. The latter was the variant that most monopolised the pragmatics and was accused of being the cause of all evils. Measures designed to put an end to this type of problem encountered numerous obstacles due to the nobility’s distrust of interference in their jurisdiction, so that pragmatic pragmatics were issued which tended to admonish anyone who colluded with this type of crime. In this case, it is the pragmatic order of 7 June 1586 in Valencia. With this type of ordinances and pragmatics, an attempt was made to put an end to this evil, which caused real concern in Spain at the end of the 16th century.

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General Record of Confraternities (1769-1784)

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

The confraternities were the channel for associations during the Modern Age. Their growth worried the Enlightenment authorities, who began to view with suspicion the associations that manifested a quasi-fanaticised faith following Baroque religiosity. In 1769 they set out to count the number of confraternities existing in Spain by means of the Expediente General de Cofradías (General Record of Confraternities). This report was carried out in all the intendencies, provinces, and jurisdictions of mainland Spain. A total of 25,581 confraternities were counted; 19,024 in Castile and 6,557 in the Crown of Aragon. In addition, they calculated the annual expenses incurred by each of them, estimating, in general, 11.5 million reales. How did the Catholic Church view the phenomenon of the confraternities? Although they were a defence of Catholicism against Protestantism through the public manifestation of popular religiosity, many of the brotherhoods’ festivities were oriented towards leisure, feasting and excesses, excesses that the ecclesiastical authorities saw as profane. Consequently, many bishops supported measures to suppress confraternities that did not have royal or religious authority. Finally, it was during the French invasion and the subsequent liberal disentailments that the number of brotherhoods decreased significantly. The digitised file allows the municipalities to be searched through the intendancies.

The post General Record of Confraternities (1769-1784) first appeared on History Lab.

Decree of the Nueva Planta of the Audience of the Principality of Catalonia (1716)

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

Philip V’s victory in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) led to the establishment of a new political and administrative reality in Spain. The old feudal institutions were replaced by other forms of centralist government whose aim was, in the words of Philip V, to establish “the same laws, customs, usages, customs and courts […] to abolish and entirely repeal […] all privileges, privileges, practices and customs…”. The new reality generalised the legislation of Castile to the whole territory. However, the territories that supported Philip against Archduke Charles, the Basque areas and Navarre, did maintain the foral regime. The documentation presented here corresponds to the Nueva Planta Decree of the Audiencia of the Principality of Catalonia.

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