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Castilian War of the Communities
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| Revolt of the Comuneros |
Execution of the Comuneros of Castile, by Antonio Gisbert (1834-1901) |
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| Belligerents |
| Comuneros rebels |
Royalist Castilians,
Holy Roman Empire |
| Commanders |
Juan de Padilla,
Juan Bravo,
Francisco Maldonado,
Antonio de Acuña,
María Pacheco,
Juan de Zapata |
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor;
Adrian of Utrecht;
Íñigo Fernández, Constable of Castile;
Fadrique Enríquez, Admiral of Castile |
The Revolt of the Comuneros (Spanish: Guerra de las Comunidades de Castilla, "War of the Communities of Castille") was an armed uprising by citizens of Castile against the rule of Charles V and his administration between 1520 and 1522. At its height, the rebels controlled the heart of Castile, ruling Valladolid and Toledo.
The uprising occurred in the wake of political instability in the Crown of Castile ever since the death of Queen Isabella I in 1504. With the deaths of the other possible heirs, Ferdinand and Isabella's second daughter Joanna the Mad inherited the throne as Queen with her Burgundian husband King Philip I. However, Philip died a mere two years into his rule. With their son Charles only six years old and Joanna's mental instability, the nobles and Ferdinand of Aragon ruled in his stead while their children grew up in the Netherlands. In 1516, with the death of Ferdinand, a sixteen-year-old Charles was proclaimed King Charles I of both Castile and Aragon. In October 1517, the King came to Spain from Flanders hardly knowing how to speak (Castillian) Spanish and bringing with him a large retinue of Flemish nobles and clerics. This resulted in mistrust between the new King and the Castilian social elites, who could see the threat to their power and status.
In 1520, Charles I departed the country for the election of the Holy Roman Emperor, which he would win and become Emperor Charles V of that lineage. Adrian of Utrecht, a Dutch cardinal (and future Pope Adrian VI), was left in command as Regent of Spain. Soon, a series of riots broke out in the cities against the government and the local cortes (ruling parliaments) took power. The rebels needed to find an alternative candidate for the crown, and chose Charles' own mother, the Queen Joanna, whose madness could perhaps be controlled. After nearly a year of rebellion, the reorganized supporters of the Emperor (particularly the high nobility and the peripheral territories of Castile, such as Andalusia) and imperial troops struck a crippling blow to the comuneros at the Battle of Villalar on April 23, 1521. The following day, the rebel leaders Juan de Padilla, Juan Bravo, and Francisco Maldonado were beheaded. The army of the comuneros fell apart. Only the city of Toledo kept alive the rebellion, until its final surrender in February 1522.
The character of the revolution is a matter of some historiographical debate. According to some scholars, the revolt was one of the first modern revolutions, notably because of the anti-noble sentiment against social injustice and its basis on ideals of democracy and freedom. Others consider it a more typical rebellion against high taxes and perceived foreign control. The revolt has been mythologized and used politically by some; Juan Martín Díez, a liberal resistance fighter against both the Spanish royalty and the French, visited Villalar on April 23, 1821 to mark the third centenary of the defeat. Conservative intellectuals have traditionally adopted more pro-Imperial stances toward the revolt, not considering it a defeat at all and being critical of many aspects of the comuneros' government. With Franco's dictatorship passing and the establishment of the autonomous community of Castile and León, positive commemoration of the comunidades has risen. April 23 is now celebrated by some as Castile and León Day, and the incident is often referenced in Castilian nationalism.
Origins
The discontent that would become the revolt had been brewing for years before its outbreak. The second half of the fifteenth century saw profound political, social, and economic changes. The balance achieved with the firm reign of Ferdinand and Isabella over both Castile and Aragon faltered at the beginning of the sixteenth century.[1] Along with Isabella's death, a series of bad harvests and plague epidemics struck the land. Together with tax and fiscal pressure, discontent spread widely among all classes of the population. The area that suffered the most was central Castile, its agriculture struck by crop failures. The coastlines, such as in Andalusia, were still able to rely on maritime trade as a counterweight to the internal economic troubles. Burgos in the north still prospered with the monopoly its merchants exercised on the wool trade, a fact resented by others. Meanwhile, nobles, resentful of power centralized by Isabella during her reign, sought to reclaim privileges for themselves.[1]
Given the situation, all parties involved turned toward the State to act the role of arbitrator. The Castilian government became increasingly large with each successive government, but seemed little able to address the problems. King Philip the Handsome ruled for a mere two years; he was replaced by Archbishop Cisneros as regent for a short time, and then Ferdinand II who ruled from Aragon. Ferdinand's claim to continue ruling Castile was somewhat flimsy after his wife Isabella's death, but no plausible opponents existed. The theoretical heir, Joanna the Mad (Juana la Loca in Spanish), was mentally unfit to succeed her late husband Philip I.
In 1516, Ferdinand II died. The remaining heir was Ferdinand and Isabella's grandson Charles, who became King Charles I of both Castile and Aragon in co-regency with his mother Joanna. Charles was brought up in Flanders, the homeland of his father Philip, and barely knew Castilian Spanish. The population greeted him with skepticism, but also hope that he would bring stability back. Following the arrival of the new king in late 1517, his Flemish court began to occupy positions of power in Castile; young Charles trusted people he knew from the Netherlands. Among the most scandalous of these was the appointment of William de Croÿ as Archbishop of Toledo to succeed Archbishop Cisneros, a former regent of the country.[1] Six months later into his rule, discontent openly simmered in the Courts of Valladolid. Even some monks began to preach openly denouncing the Court, the Flemish, and the passivity of the nobility. Discontent spread to the working classes and, as the first public protest, placards appeared in churches saying:
You, land of Castile, very wretched and damned are you to suffer that as noble a kingdom as you are, you will be governed by those who have no love for you.[2]
Under these conditions, Charles' grandfather Emperor Maximilian I died in 1519, causing a new election to be held. Charles campaigned aggressively for the post, vying with King Francis I of France to bribe the most electors. Charles won the election, becoming Emperor Charles V. Charles was to head to Germany to take possession of his new domains in the Holy Roman Empire.[1]
The council of Toledo has been at the forefront of cities who were protesting against the imperial election, decrying the short-term expenses that would be borne by Castile and questioning the role of Castile in this new political framework, given the possibility of that the Crown would become a mere imperial province. Faced with this situation, Toledo called for a convocation of the cortes, the Spanish parliamentary bodies, so that the King would be forced to explain himself. Thus, in late March 1520, Charles I convened the cortes in Santiago de Compostela with the aim of ending the opposition and obtaining approval for new taxes to cover expenses on his journey to Germany.[1] However, the cortes was stacked with supporters of the king and given very limited powers. This cortes only increased support for the opposition. The opposition soon circulated a statement created by some Franciscan friars, Augustinians, and Dominicans of Salamanca. The clerics' statement had three fundamental principles: We should reject any new duties; we ought to reject the Empire in favor of Castile; and if the king does not take into account his subjects, the Comunidades themselves should defend the interests of the kingdom. It was the first occasion in which the word comunidades (communities, communes) appeared. At this point, most of the members of the Cortes in Santiago intended to vote against the King's requested duties and taxes, even with the Cortes stacked with royalists. In response, Charles decided to suspend the Cortes on April 4. He convened it again in Corunna (also known as A/La Coruña) on April 22, this time getting his program passed. On May 20, he embarked for Germany, and left as regent of his Spanish possessions his former tutor Adrian of Utrecht, the future Pope Adrian VI.
Beginnings of the Revolt
Toledo, home of the first Comunidad.
Rebelliousness in Toledo
In April 1520, Toledo was already unstable. The situation erupted when the King summoned the aldermen of the city (correctly perceived as anti-royalist) to Santiago de Compostela. The order came on April 15; one day later, as the aldermen with at their head prepared to leave, a large crowd opposed to the departure rioted and drove out the royal administrators instead. A citizen's committee was elected under the leadership of Juan Lopez de Padilla and Pedro Lasso de Vega, naming themselves a Comunidad. On May 31, the remaining administrators were driven from the fortifications in the Alcázar of Toledo. Following the departure of the King to Germany, the riots multiplied in the cities of the plateau, especially after the arrival of legislators who voted "yes" to the taxes Charles had asked for. Segovia had some of the earliest and most violent incidents; on May 29 and 30, the town executed two administrators and the city's legislator who had voted "yes." Incidents of a similar size occurred in cities such as Burgos and Guadalajara, while others, such as León, Ávila, and Zamora, suffered only minor altercations. In Valladolid, the seat of power, no incidents occurred due to the presence Cardinal Adrian and the Royal Council.
Proposals to other cities
Faced with widespread discontent, on June 8 Toledo's council suggested to cities with a vote in the Cortes to hold an emergency meeting with five goals:
- Cancel the taxes voted in Corunna's cortes.
- A return to the per-head system of collectting taxes.
- Reserve officials and church benefits to Castilians.
- Prohibit the money from leaving the kingdom to fund foreign affairs.
- Designate a Castilian to lead the kingdom in the absence of the king.
Reaction to the proposals
These claims permeated Spanish society, especially the first two which joined the allegations concerning the lowly manner in which the king had obtained the throne of the Empire via bribes to the prince-electors.[1] Ideas began to circulate of replacing the King; Toledo, in pursuit of what it saw as high ideals, floated the possibility of turning the cities of Castile into independent free cities, similar to what has already happened with Genoa and other Italian territories. The other competing proposal was to dethrone Charles I and go to Tordesillas to return to his mother Queen Joanna to the throne. With these ideas, the revolt moved from being a protest against the tax burden to take the profile of an authentic revolution.[1]
Other cities followed the lead of Toledo and deposed their governments. The comuneros were strong in the central plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as scattered other places such as Murcia. However, there were few attempts at rebellion elsewhere, such as Galicia or the Basque country to the north or Andalusia to the south. The rebels sought to expand their revolutionary ideas to the rest of the kingdom, but its scope weakened as it moved away from the two Castiles. The biggest achievement of the rebels in the north was setting up a Comunidad in Plasencia, but this was undermined by the close proximity of other royalist cities such as Ciudad Rodrigo and Cáceres. Comunidads in the south were set up in Jaen, Ubeda, and Baeza, unique in Andalusia, but with time they were drawn back into the royalists. Murcia stayed with the rebel cause, but was under constant influence from nearby royalist cities and was threatened by the German Imperial soldiers present in neighboring Valencia in the Kingdom of Aragon.[1]
The rebels were strongest in the central plateau of Castile; the royalists thrived in Andalucia in the South and Galicia in the North, supported by Imperial troops to the east in Aragon. Rebel cities are in purple; Royalist cities are in green; cities with both elements present or that vacillated are in both colors.
Expansion of the Rebellion
The Junta of Ávila
A revolutionary cortes, La Santa Junta de las Comunidades, held its first session in Ávila and declared itself as the legitimate government deposing the Royal Council. Padilla was named Captain-General, and troops were assembled. Still, only four cities sent representatives at first: Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, and Toro.
Blockade of Segovia
Segovia, the city which was liberated in the first clash between the Comuneros and the Royalists.
After the poor turnout for the Junta, the situation changed dramatically when on June 10 Mayor Ronquillo of Segovia was ordered to investigate the recent murder of Segovia's legislator. To do so, he threatened the Segovianans with a blockade of foodstuffs and other supplies. Faced with this, the people of Segovia, led by milita leader and low noble Juan Bravo, closed ranks around the Comunidad. Segovia threw in with the comuneros, and requested help against Ronquillo's besieging army from the cities of Toledo and Madrid. The cities responded by sending their militias captained by Juan de Padilla and Juan Zapata, who won in the first major confrontation between the forces of the king and the rebels.
Burning of Medina del Campo
Faced with the situation in Segovia, Regent and Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht raised the possibility of using the royal artillery located in nearby Medina del Campo to take Segovia and defeat Padilla. Adrian ordered his commander Antonio de Fonseca to seize the artillery. Fonseca arrived on August 21 in Medina to take possession, but encountered heavy resistance from the population, which correctly interpreted that the artillery was to be used against Segovia. As a distraction, Fonseca ordered the creation of a small fire to disperse the citizens, but with no effect. He had to withdraw his troops, and the fire grew out of control with no government to contain it. The burning of Medina del Campo resulted in the destruction of an important part of the town and was a public relations disaster for the government. It caused uprisings in all Castile, especially cities that previously been neutral such as Valladolid. The establishment of the Comunidad of Valladolid caused the most important core of the Iberian plateau to declare for the rebels, upending the stability of the government. New members now joined the Santa Junta of Avila, with the Royal Council looking increasingly disreputable and discredited. Adrian's army started to disintegrate.
The Junta of Tordesillas
Joanna the Mad, theoretically the Queen and co-regent of Castile with her son Charles, but actually having no power whatsoever.
The comunero army now properly organized itself, integrating the militias of Toledo, Madrid, and Segovia. In route to Tordesillas, they encountered the aldermen of Martín Muñoz de las Posadas the day that Fonseca set Medina del Campo on fire. Suitably warned, they went to the town to take possession of the artillery that had just been denied to Fonseca's troops. On August 29, the comuneros' army finally arrived at Tordesillas with the goal of freeing Queen Joanna and declaring her the sole sovereign. The rebels entered talks with her, and she demanded that the Junta be located at her own pleasure. Thus, the Junta moved from Ávila to Tordesillas and invited cities that had not yet sent representatives to do so. A total of fourteen cities were represented in the Cortes Generales of Tordesillas: Burgos, Soria, Segovia, Ávila, Valladolid, León, Salamanca, Zamora, Toro, Toledo, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Murcia, and Madrid. The only invited cities that failed to attend were the four Andalusian cities: Seville, Granada, Cordoba, and Jaén. Since most of the kingdom was represented at Tordesillas, the Junta renamed itself the Cortes Generales. On September 24, 1520, the mad Queen, for the first and only time, presided over the Cortes.
The legislators met with Queen Joanna and explained the purpose of the Cortes: to proclaim her sovereignty and restore lost stability to the kingdom. The next day, September 25, the Cortes issued a declaration pledging to use arms if necessary and for the whole to aid any one city that was threatened. On September 26, the Cortes of Tordesillas declared itself the new legitimate government and denounced the Royal Council. The oaths of self-defense were taken by all the cities represented over a number of days, finishing by September 30. The revolutionary government now had some structure and a free hand to act, with the Royal Council still ineffective and confused.
Popular and government response
Turning of the Nobles
The growing success of the revolt of the comuneros led to accusations against members of the old government of complicity with royal abuses. Protests began against excesses committed by the high nobility. This was the case in Dueñas, where on September 1, 1520, the vassals revolted against their lord, the Count of Buendía. This uprising was followed by others of a similar anti-feudal nature. The comuneros were forced to take a position: defending the rebels or their lords. The Cortes decided to support these new revolts. The dynamics of the uprising thus changed rather profoundly as it could now jeopardize the status of the manorial system as a whole. The nobles had previously been somewhat sympathetic to the cause due to their loss of privileges to the central government. However, these new developments lead to a dramatic drop in support for the comuneros from aristocrats and noblemen frightened by the more radical elements of the revolution.
Response of Charles V
Adrian of Utrecht, future Pope Adrian VI, was an unpopular regent in the absence of the King. He spearheaded the policy of recruiting the nobility back to the royalist side, and two Castilian co-regents were appointed to lessen the appearance of foreign control.
Charles V responded vigorously. Through Cardinal Adrian, he undertook new policy initiatives, such as canceling the taxes granted in the Cortes of Corunna. Most important was his brillant counterstroke in appointing two new co-regents: the Constable of Castile, Iñigo Fernández, and the Admiral of Castile, Fadrique Enriquez.[3] In addition, Adrian approached the nobles to convince them that their best interests lay with the king. The Royal Council was re-established in the fief of Admiral Enriquez, Medina de Rioseco, which enabled the Council to be nearer to the revolting cities and reassure skeptical royalists. They also represented a threat to the revolting cities from there, as the Royal Army was now based from there and began training.
Organization, funding, and diplomacy
The first political defeats of the comuneros came in October 1520, with the Royal Council members settling in Medina de Rioseco, protected by the Admiral of Castile. The comuneros' attempt to use Juana for legitimacy did not bear fruit, as she blocked their initiatives, fell into a stupor, and refused to sign any edicts.
In turn, discordant voices inside the comuneros now began to be heard, especially in Burgos. The wavering position of Burgos soon reached the ears of the Constable of Castile, and under orders from the king he proceeded to enter the city on November 1, giving into everything that the city demanded in exchange for them leaving the Junta.
Following this incident, the Royal Council hoped that other cities would imitate Burgos and leave the comuneros peacefully. Valladolid was considered especially likely to turn as the former seat of royal power, but supporters of the king were away from the political life of the city for too long and it remained rebel-controlled. The Admiral of Castile continued his campaign to try to convince the comuneros of their defeat and that there was no choice but to surrender weapons and avoid a violent suppression. This attitude hid a great shortage of funds on the royal side, which was only remedied with financial assistance from Portugal and the return of lost confidence from Castilian bankers, who saw reassuring signs in the change of side of Burgos.
During October and November 1520, both sides accepted that a military conclusion would soon be necessary, and actively devoted themselves to fundraising, recruiting soldiers, and training their troops. Royal power began to once again exceed the rebellion with the support of the nobility and the Castilian merchants. The communeros organized their militias in the major cities and levied new taxes and charges on the environs outside the cities.
The End
A view of Tordesillas, the town in which the comuneros and royalists battled for control of the Queen.
In February 1521, the comunero army was victorious at Torrelobaton, but two months later (23th april 1521) it received a crushing defeat in the Battle of Villalar. Juan de Padilla together with the two other main leaders, Francisco Maldonado and Juan Bravo were executed and town after town succumbed. The last town resisting was the one where it all started, Toledo. The defense of the city was organized by Maria Pacheco, widow of Padilla. The city surrendered on October 25 under the condition that the life of the comuneros be spared. A truce seemed to be in place but broke down on February 3, 1522, when the Imperial troops crushed a final insurrection. Maria Pacheco fled to Portugal, where she died ten years later.
Aftermath
With the failure of the uprising, Castile became integrated into the Habsburgs' empire. From thereon Castile, under the domination of its loyal nobility, provided the bulk of the Habsburg's military and financial resources, and later, administrators. It became the keystone of the Habsburgs' growing empire. The restored powers of a nobility with their medieval notions about status, government and economics was to retard and even reverse the social and economic development of Spain, which for a long time was disguised by the ever rising importation of silver from the American mines. It would take more than a century, but with the Castilian nobility identifying totally with the Habsburg cause, Castile's interests would be endlessly sacrificed, and ultimately when Castile finally began to crumble under its extraordinary exertions the empire of the Habsburgs soon followed. For now, however, Charles established a repressive regime, but also learned to change his policy towards Spain. He left the administration of Castile largely in Spanish hands. Upon abdication, he partitioned his realm and handed Spain to his son Philip. With Isabella I's reforms reversed, the nobility regained power.
The revolt had a distinct Castilian character and was directed against foreigners. Juan de Padilla and Maria Pacheco were the heroes that arose out of the masses. The spontaneous and sudden developments of the uprising were surprising, yet crumbled in the face of determined resolve, and under its own contradictions.
The regional feast of the modern autonomous community of Castille & Leon commemorates the Comuneros, with ceremonies being held at Villalar, now renamed Villalar de los Comuneros, every 23 April.
See also
References
- Miller, T. The Castles and the Crown. Coward-McCann, New York, 1963.
- José Luis Díez (Madrid, 1977), Los Comuneros de Castilla, Editorial Mañana. ISBN 84-7421-025-9.
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