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Principality of Catalonia

Coordinates: 41°22′58″N 02°10′36″E / 41.38278°N 2.17667°E / 41.38278; 2.17667
From Tilcayo Cats, the lean encyclopaedia by Tilcayo Knowledge Systems
This article is about the historic principality. For the present-day autonomous community, see Catalonia. For the part of France, see Northern Catalonia.
Principality of Catalonia
Principat de Catalunya (Catalan)
Principatus Cathaloniae (Latin)
1173–1714
Location of the Principality of Catalonia (light green, at the left) in a diachronic map of the Mediterranean dominions of the Crown of Aragon
Location of the Principality of Catalonia (light green, at the left) in a diachronic map of the Mediterranean dominions of the Crown of Aragon
Status
CapitalBarcelona
Common languages
Religion
  • Catholicism (official)
  • Judaism (minority, until 1492)
    Sunni Islam (minority, until 1526)
DemonymCatalan(s)
GovernmentMonarchy subject to constitutions
Prince 
• 1173–1196
Alfons I (first)
• 1705–1714
Charles III (last)
President of the Generalitat 
• 1359–1362
Berenguer de Cruïlles (first)
• 1713–1714
Josep de Vilamala (last)
LegislatureGeneral Court of Catalonia
Historical era
• Legal definition of Catalonia
1173
• First Catalan Courts
1214
1359
1516
1659
11 September 1714
Population
• 1700
c. 500,000
CurrencyDiner de tern, Croat, Principat, Florin, others
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
File:Blank.png County of Barcelona
File:Blank.png Almoravid dynasty
File:Blank.png County of Pallars Jussà
File:Blank.png County of Empúries
File:Blank.png County of Urgell
File:Blank.png County of Pallars Sobirà
1659:
French Roussillon 		File:Blank.png
1714:
Kingdom of Spain 		File:Blank.png
Andorra File:Blank.png
Today part of

The Principality of Catalonia[g] was a medieval and early modern state[9][10][11][12][13] in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. For most of its existence it was in personal union with the Kingdom of Aragon and other states, constituting together the composite monarchy known as the Crown of Aragon. It was bordered by the Kingdom of Aragon to the west, the Kingdom of Valencia to the south, the Kingdom of France to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. Its sovereign or prince had the title of Count of Barcelona.[14][15] Established in the second half of the 12th century as a result of the territorial, legislative and institutional evolution of the County of Barcelona, ​​it ceased to exist as an independent political entity after the pro-Habsburg defeat of 1714 in the War of the Spanish Succession and the subsequent suppression of the Catalan institutional system by the Nueva Planta Decree of 1716. However, it remained as a territorial division until 1833. Today, the term Principat ("Principality") is used primarily to refer to the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries.[16][17]

The first reference to Catalonia and the Catalans appears in the Liber maiolichinus, a Pisan chronicle (1117-1125) of the conquest of Majorca by a joint force of Northern Italians, Catalans, and Occitans.[18] At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term 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 formed a dynastic union, later known as the Crown of Aragon; however, Aragon and Catalonia retained their own political structure and legal systems, developing separate political communities along the next centuries. Under Alfons I the Troubador (1162–1196), Catalonia was regarded as a political entity for the first time in 1173,[19] while the term Principality of Catalonia was fully formalized in 1343.

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 and Usatges) which largely limited the royal power and secured the political model of pactism (contractual system between the monarch and the Estates).[20] 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. The end of the rule of House of Barcelona (1410), serf and urban conflicts and a ten-year civil war (1462–1472) weakened the role of the Principality in Crown and international affairs.

In 1516, Charles V became monarch of both the crowns of Aragon and Castile, creating a personal union, 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 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 Catalan, Aragonese, Valencian and Majorcan institutions and legal systems and merged them into the Crown of Castile as provinces, ending their status as states.[21]

History

Main article: History of Catalonia

Origins

The Visigoths ruled after the Western Roman Empire's collapse near the end of the 5th century. Moorish Al-Andalus gained control in the early 8th century, after conquering the Visigothic kingdom in 711–718. After the defeat of Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi's troops at Tours in 732, the Franks gradually gained control of the former Visigoth territories north of the Pyrenees, which had been captured by the Muslims or had become allied with them, in what is today Catalonia. In 795, Charlemagne created what came to be known by historiography and some Frankish chronicles as the Marca Hispanica, a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania, made up of locally administered separate counties which served as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom.[22]

A distinctive Catalan culture started to develop in that period stemming from a number of these small counties throughout the northernmost part of current Catalonia. The counts of Barcelona were Frankish vassals nominated by the Carolingian emperor, then the king of the Franks, to whom they were feudatories (801–988). In 878, Wilfred the Hairy, an ethnic Visigoth from Carcassona, count of Urgell and Cerdanya, was appointed count of Barcelona, Girona and Osona. Since then, these last three counties were always ruled by the same person, becoming the political core of the future Principality of Catalonia. Upon his death in 897 Wilfred made their titles hereditaries and thus founded the dynasty of the House of Barcelona, which ruled Catalonia until the death of Martin I, its last ruling member, in 1410. Many abbeys were founded between the ninth century and the twelfth century while in the cities the episcopal seats were restored, forming important artistic and intellectual centers. These religious centers contribute to an important diffusion of the Romanesque art in Catalonia (monasteries of Santa Maria de Ripoll and Montserrat, collegiate church of Cardona, cathedral of Girona...) as well as to the maintenance of rich libraries nourished by Classical, Visigothic and Arab works. The scholar and mathematician Gerbert d'Aurillac (future pope under the name of Sylvester II) studied in Vic and Ripoll and knowledge of mathematics and astronomy were introduced from Arabic.[23]

In 988 Count Borrell II did not recognise the Frankish king Hugh Capet and his new dynasty, effectively taking Barcelona out of Frankish rule.[24] From that point on, the counts of Barcelona often referred to themselves as princeps (prince), in order to show their preeminence over the other Catalan counts.[25] During the 9th and 10th centuries, the counties increasingly became a society of aloers, peasant proprietors of small, family-based farms, who lived by subsistence agriculture and owed no formal feudal allegiance. At the start of the 11th century the Catalan Counties suffer an important process of feudalization, as the miles formed links of vassalage over this previously independent peasantry. The middle years of the century were characterized by virulent class warfare. Seigniorial violence was unleashed against the peasants, utilizing new military tactics, based on contracting well armed mercenary soldiers mounted on horses. By the end of the century, most of the aloers had been converted into vassals.[26] During the regency of countess Ermesinde of Carcassonne (1017–1057), which received the government of Barcelona after the death of her husband the count Ramon Borrell,[27] the disintegration of central power was evident. The response of the Catholic Church to the feudal violence was the establishment of the sagreres around churches and the movement of Peace and Truce of God.[28] The first assembly of Peace and Truce was presided by Abbot Oliba in Toulouges, Roussillon in 1027.[29] The grandson of Ermesinde, count Ramon Berenguer I, began the codification of Catalan law in the written Usages of Barcelona[30] which was to become the first full compilation of feudal law in Western Europe. Legal codification was part of the count's efforts to forward and somehow control the process of feudalization.[31]

Under count Ramon Berenguer III, the County of Barcelona experienced a new phase of territorial expansion.[32] This included a joint Catalan and Pisan Crusade against the Taifa of Majorca (1114) and the conquest of Tarragona (1116), restoring in the last one the archiepiscopal see of the city (1119), disbanded after the Muslim conquest. That meant the independence of the Catalan Church from the bishopric of Narbonne.[33]

Dynastic union

In 1137 count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona received the donation of the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon from king Ramiro II of Aragon,[34] and in 1150 married his daughter, queen Petronilla, establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona and its dominions with the Kingdom of Aragon, resulting in a composite monarchy known as the Crown of Aragon.[35] The reign of Ramon Berenguer IV saw the Catalan conquest of Lleida and Tortosa. Their son, Alfons, was the first king to rule Aragon and Barcelona together; the titles would be perpetually linked from then on.[36] During the reign of Alfons, in 1173, Catalonia was legally delimited for the first time, while the first compilation of the Usages of Barcelona was made in the process to turn them into the law of Catalonia (Consuetudinem Cathalonie).[19] Apart from the Usages, between 1170 and 1195 the Liber feudorum maior and the Gesta Comitum Barchinonensium were compiled and written, being considered together as the three milestones of Catalan political identity.[37]

His son, King Peter II of Aragon, faced the defense of the Occitan territories, acquired from the times of Ramon Berenguer I onwards, from the Albigensian Crusade. The Battle of Muret (12 September 1213) and the unexpected defeat of King Peter and his vassals and allies, the counts of Toulouse, Comminges and Foix, against the French–Crusader armies, resulted in the fading of the strong human, cultural and economic ties existing between the ancient territories of Catalonia and the Languedoc.[38]

In the Treaty of Corbeil, 1258, James I of Aragon, descendant of Sunifred and Bello of Carcassonne and therefore heir of the House of Barcelona, relinquished his family rights and dominions in the Languedoc and recognized the Capetian king of France Louis IX as heir of the Carolingian dynasty. In return, the King of France formally renounced his claims of feudal lordship over all the Catalan counties, confirming, from French point of view, the independence of the Catalan counties already established during the previous three centuries.[39]

As a coastal territory within the Crown of Aragon and with the increasing importance of the port of Barcelona, Catalonia became the main centre of the Crown's maritime power, promoting and helping to expand its influence and power by conquest and trade into Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Sicily.[citation needed]

Medieval splendour of the Principality

The Principality saw a prosperous period during the 13th century and the first half of the 14th. The population increased; Catalan language and culture expanded into the islands of the Western Mediterranean. The reign of Peter III of Aragon ("the Great") included the conquest of Sicily and the successful defense against a French crusade;[40] his son and successor Alfonso III ("the Generous") conquered Menorca; and Peter's second son James II conquered Sardinia; Catalonia was the center of the empire, expanding and organizing it, establishing institutional systems similar to its own.[41] Barcelona, then the most frequent royal residence, was consolidated as the administrative center of the domains with the establishment of the Royal Archives in 1318.[42][43] The Catalan Company, mercenaries led by Roger de Flor and formed by Almogavar veterans of the War of the Sicilian Vespers, were hired by the Byzantine Empire to fight the Turks, defeating them in several battles. After the assassination of Roger de Flor by orders of the emperor's son Michael Palaiologos (1305), the Company took revenge by sacking Byzantine territory, and they conquered the duchies of Athens and Neopatras in the name of the King of Aragon. Catalan rule over Greek lands lasted until 1390.[44]

This territorial expansion was accompanied by a great development of the Catalan trade, centered in Barcelona, creating an extensive trade network across the Mediterranean which competed with those of the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice.[41][45] In this line, institutions were created that would give legal protection to merchants, such as the Consulate of the Sea and the Book of the Consulate of the Sea, one of the first compilations of maritime law.[46]

At the same time, the Principality of Catalonia developed a complex institutional and political system based on the concept of pact between the estates of the realm and the monarch. Legislation (whose main piece were the Catalan Constitutions) had to be approved in the General Court of Catalonia or Catalan Courts (Cort General de Catalunya or Corts Catalanes),[47] a parliamentary body with roots dating from the 11-12th centuries Comital Court and Peace and Truce Assemblies which, from 1283 onwards, obtained the power to pass legislation along with the monarch, being the first parliament in medieval Europe to officially receive such recognition.[48] The Courts were composed of the three Estates organized in to "arms" (braços) and presided over by the monarch as count of Barcelona.[49][50][51] The first Catalan Constitutions, derived from the Usages of Barcelona, are of the ones from the Catalan Courts of Barcelona from 1283. The last ones were promulgated by the Courts of 1705–1706, presided by the disputed Habsburg King Charles III. The compilations of the Constitutions and other rights of Catalonia followed the Roman tradition of the Codex.[52]

In order to recapt the "tax of the General", the Courts of 1359 established a permanent representation of deputies, called Deputation of the General (in Catalan: Diputació del General) and later usually known as Generalitat, which gained considerable political power over the next centuries.[53]

The second quarter of the 14th century saw crucial changes for Catalonia, marked by a succession of natural catastrophes, demographic crises, stagnation and decline in the Catalan economy, and the rise of social tensions. The year 1333 was known as Lo mal any primer [ca] (Catalan: "The first bad year") due to poor wheat harvest.[54] The domains of the Aragonese Crown were affected severely by the Black Death pandemic and by later outbreaks of the plague. Between 1347 and 1497 Catalonia lost 37 percent of its population.[55]

The 15th century

In 1410, King Martin I, the last reigning monarch of the House of Barcelona, died without surviving descendants. Under the Compromise of Caspe (1412), Ferdinand from the Castilian House of Trastámara received the Crown of Aragon as Ferdinand I of Aragon.[56] Ferdinand's successor, Alfonso V ("the Magnanimous"), promoted a new stage of Catalan-Aragonese expansion, this time over the Kingdom of Naples, over which he eventually gained rule in 1443. However, he aggravated the social crisis in the Principality of Catalonia, both in the countryside and in the cities. Political conflict in Barcelona arose due to the disputes over the control of the Consell de Cent between two political factions, Biga and Busca looking for a solution to the economic crisis. Meanwhile, the remença (serfs') peasants subjected to the feudal abuses known as evil customs began to organize themselves as a syndicate against seignorial pressures, seeking protection from the monarch. Alfonso's brother, John II ("the Unreliable"), was a deeply hated regent and ruler, both in the Basque kingdom of Navarre and in Catalonia.[citation needed]

The opposition of the institutions of Catalonia to the policies of John II resulted in their support to the son of John, Charles, Prince of Viana over his denied dynastic rights. In response of the detention of Charles by his father, the Generalitat established a political body, the Council of the Principality, with whom, under menace of a conflict, John was forced to negotiate. The Capitulation of Vilafranca (1461) forced to release Charles from prison and appoint him lieutenant of Catalonia, while the king would need permission of the Generalitat to enter the Principality.[57] The content of the Capitulation represented a culmination and consolidation of pactism and the constitutional system of Catalonia.[58] However, the disagreement of King John, the death of prince Charles shortly after, and the Remença Uprising in 1462 led to the ten-year Catalan Civil War (1462–1472) that left the country exhausted. In 1472, the last separate ruler of Catalonia, King René of Anjou ("the Good"), lost the war against King John.[citation needed]

John's son, Ferdinand II ("the Catholic"), recovered the northern Catalan counties (1493), occupied during the conflict, and profoundly reformed Catalan institutions. The Constitució de l'Observança (1481) was approved, establishing the submission of royal power to the laws approved in the Catalan Courts.[59][60] After decades of conflict, the remença peasants were liberated from most of feudal abuses by the Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe (1486), in exchange for a payment.[61]

Early modern Catalonia

The ascension to the throne of Aragon of Ferdinand II (1479), already married to Isabella I of Castile, put under a personal union two of the three major monarchies in the Iberian peninsula, while the Kingdom of Navarre was incorporated later following Ferdinand II's 1512 invasion of the Basque kingdom.[citation needed]

This resulted in the reinforcement of the concept of Spain, understood as a geographical term of the Iberian Peninsula,[62] politically made up by the Crown of Aragon, Castile, and a Navarre annexed to Castile (1515). In 1492, the last remaining portion of Al-Andalus around Granada was conquered and the Spanish conquest of the Americas began. Political power began to shift away from Aragon toward Castile and, subsequently, from Castile to the Spanish Empire, which engaged in frequent warfare in Europe striving for world domination. In 1516 Charles I of Spain became the first king to rule the Crowns of Castile and Aragon simultaneously by his own right. Following the death of his paternal (House of Habsburg) grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, he was also elected Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1519.[63] The reign of Charles V was a relative harmonious period, during which Catalonia generally accepted the new structure of Spain, despite its own marginalization.[citation needed]

For an extended period, Catalonia, as part of the late Crown of Aragon, successfully retained its own institutional system and legislation against the trend observed in southern and central Europe throughout the early modern age, which eroded the importance of representative institutions,[64] until they were finally suppressed as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession defeat at the beginning of the 18th century. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the role of the political community in local affairs and the general government of the country was increased, while the royal powers remained relatively restricted, which was attested after the two last Courts (1701–1702 and 1705–1706). The prolonged absence of the monarchs, who resided most of the time in Castile, led to the consolidation of the figure of the viceroy as the representative of the king in the Principality.[65]

However, over the next century, Catalonia was on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to more centralization of power in Spain. The period saw a rise in Barbary piracy along the coast and banditry in the countryside. Tensions between the constitutional Catalan institutions and the gradually more centralized monarchy began to arise.[66] In 1626 the Count-Duke of Olivares, minister of Philip IV, tried to establish the military contribution of the states of the monarchy, the Unión de Armas (Union of Arms),[67] but the resistance of Catalonia to the project was strong. This events, alongside other factors such as the economic crisis, the continuous presence of royal soldiers and the peasants' revolts led to the Reapers' War (1640–1652), in the context of the Franco-Spanish War, in which Catalonia, governed by a Junta de Braços (revolutionary assembly or States-General) led by the president of the Generalitat, Pau Claris, broke with the Spanish king and briefly established itself as an independent republic under French protection between 1640 and 1641, and later entered in a personal union with the Kingdom of France, appointing French king Louis XIII as count of Barcelona,[68] but, after the first military successes, Catalans were finally defeated and reincorporated into the Crown of Spain in 1652.[69]

In 1659, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees signed by Philip IV, the comarques (counties) of Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir and part of la Cerdanya, now known as French Cerdagne, were ceded to France.[70] The town of Llívia remained part of Spain, however, an isolated enclave a mile north of the new border. Catalan institutions were suppressed in this part of the territory and, in 1700, public use of Catalan language was prohibited.[71] In recent times,[when?] this ceded area has come to be known by nationalist political parties in Catalonia as Northern Catalonia (Roussillon in French), part of the Catalan-spoken territories known as Catalan Countries. Currently, this region is administratively part of French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales.[citation needed]

In the last decades of the 17th century during the reign of Spain's last Habsburg king, Charles II, despite intermittent conflict between Spain and France and new internal conflicts like the Revolt of the Barretines (1687–1689), the population increased to approximately 500.000 inhabitants[72] and the Catalan economy improved. This economic growth was boosted by the export of wine to England and the Dutch Republic, as due to the trade war of French minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert against the Dutch and later to the participation of these countries in the Nine Years' War against France were not able to trade with the French. This new situation caused many Catalans to look to England and, especially, the Netherlands as political and economic models for Catalonia.[73]

At the dawn of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Bourbon Duke of Anjou claimed the throne of Spain as Philip V, and the Principality initially supported his claim. However, repressive measures of the viceroy Francisco de Velasco and authoritarian decisions of the king (some of them contrary to Catalan legislation), as well the economic policy and distrust to the French absolutism provoked that Catalonia to change sides in 1705, when Habsburg candidate, the Archduke Charles of Austria (as Charles III of Spain) landed in Barcelona.[74] Previously, the same year, the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of England signed the Pact of Genoa, receiving the first one protection to its institutions and liberties, entering in the pro-Habsburg Grand Alliance.[75]

The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) put end to the war at international level, and the allied armies withdrew from Catalonia which, nonetheless, remained fighting with its own army by decision of the Junta de Braços in a separate conflict known as the War of the Catalans, lasting until the capitulation of Barcelona after a long siege on 11 September 1714. The victorious army of Philip V occupied the capital of Catalonia and (as happened to the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia, also loyals to Charles) the king enacted the Nueva Planta decrees in 1716. The Decree abolished the main Catalan institutions and public laws (while keeping the private and mercantile laws) and replacing them with those of Castile, establishing absolutism as the new political system, and imposed the administrative use of Spanish language, progressively displacing Catalan.[76][77]

After Nueva Planta

Apart from the abolition of the Catalan institutions, the Nueva Planta decrees ensured the imposition of the new absolutist system by reforming the Royal Audience of Catalonia, making it the highest governmental body of the Principality, absorbing many of the functions of the abolished institutions and becoming the instrument with which the Captain General of Catalonia, the supreme authority of the province (replacing the viceroy), appointed by the king, would govern.[78] The division in vegueries was replaced with Castilian corregimientos. The imposition of a new tax, the cadastre, by royal decree, multiplied the tax burden in Catalonia sevenfold.[79][80] So late as in the 18th and 19th centuries, despite the military occupation, the high new taxes and the political economy of the House of Bourbon,[81] the Catalonia under Spanish administration, now as a province, resumed the process of proto-industrialization, relatively helped at the end of the century from the beginning of open commerce to America and protectionist policies enacted by the Spanish government (although the policy of Spanish government during those times changed many times between free trade and protectionism), consolidating the new economic growth model that was taking place in Catalonia since the end of the 17th century, becoming a center of Spain's industrialization; to this day, it remains one of the more industrialized parts of Spain.

In 1833, by decree of minister Javier de Burgos, all of Spain was organized into provinces, including Catalonia, which was divided in four provinces without common administration: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. Despite various attempts throughout the next decades, Catalonia wouldn't regain the administrative unity until 1914, when the four Catalan provinces were authorized to create a commonwealth (Catalan: Mancomunitat),[82] and the political autonomy until 1932, when the Generalitat was revived as a modern institution of self-government.[83]

Term and concept of Principality

The term "Principality" comes from the Latin Principatus, which in antiquity could mean "preeminence", "supremacy", "sovereignty", or "power", deriving from princeps, a term that in Christendom became generically associated with the sovereign power of monarchs.[84] During the 10th and 11th centuries, princeps was used sporadically as an honorary title (neither hereditary nor tied to a specific territory) among various counts from what would later be Catalonia, although over time its use became specifically tied to the counts of Barcelona. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, the reception of Roman law adapted to the feudal world reinforced the monarchical and sovereign meaning of princeps.[85] The Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer I, is called "Prince of Barcelona, Count of Girona and Marchis of Ausona" (princeps Barchinonensis, comes Gerundensis, marchio Ausonensis) in the Act of Consecration of the Cathedral of Barcelona (1058). There are also several references to the Prince in the Usages of Barcelona. Usage #64 calls principatus the group of counties of Barcelona, Girona, and Osona, all of them under the authority of the Count of Barcelona.[86]

It was throughout the 12th century when the Catalan counties began to form a unified and cohesive political entity –although jurisdictionally divided–, as the counts of Barcelona incorporated or vassallized the other Catalan counts and later on they became kings of Aragon, which helped them to prevail over the rest of the autonomous Catalan counts (Pallars, Urgell and Empúries), while also conquered the Islamic territories of Tortosa and Lleida. As the Count of Barcelona added those counties under his jurisdiction, the name of Catalonia was used for the whole. The terms "Catalonia" and "Catalans" were commonly used to refer to the territory as well as its inhabitants, and not just the County of Barcelona, at least since the beginnings of the 12th century, as shown in the earliest recordings of these names in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus (written between 1117–1125).[87]

The first reference to the term Principat de Cathalunya is found in the dispute between Peter IV of Aragon and III of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Mallorca in 1343,[88] and it was used again in the convocation of the General Court of Catalonia held in Perpignan in 1350, presided by Peter IV. It was intended to indicate that the territory under the laws produced by those Courts was not a kingdom, but the enlargement of the territory under the authority of the Count of Barcelona, who was also the King of Aragon, as seen in the Actas de las cortes generales de la Corona de Aragón 1362–1363.[89] However, there is an older reference, in Bernat Desclot's chronicles, dating from the second half of the 13th century,[90] in which he describes the sovereign as "prince of Catalonia, count of Barcelona".[91]

The name "Principality of Catalonia" is abundant in historical documentation that refers to Catalonia between the mid-14th century and early 19th century.[92]. It became an official and widespread category as it became synonymous with the term "kingdom" in the political, material sense, which alluded generically to polities historiographically categorized under the concept of medieval and early modern States. This political entity was part of various composite monarchies or dynastic conglomerates, such as the Crown of Aragon, the Spanish Monarchy and the Kingdom of France (1641–1652), being equivalent to the other political entities of the time, such as the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and Castile in Iberia, or England, Scotland and the Duchy of Milan in Europe.[93]

Following the Nueva Planta decree of 1716 and the subsequent dismantling of the Catalan institutional and legal system, the territory being annexed to Castile became a province of the new and more unified Kingdom of Bourbon Spain, but "Principality" continued to be the definition of the territory, as witnessed in the Nueva Planta decree itself. This state of affairs remained until the Kingdom of Spain was transformed permanently into a liberal state in 1833, when Javier de Burgos eliminated the province of the Principality of Catalonia, dividing it into the current four provinces. Thus, the term disappeared from the administrative and political reality of the country.[94]

Today, the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia doesn't mention this denomination, but it is popular among the general public and particularly, despite being republican, those who advocate for Catalan independence, in order to distinguish it from the other Catalan Countries.

Modern revisionism

In recent times, despite the term "Principality" or the historical existence of a Catalan polity is widely accepted at academic level, it has been often ignored, misrepresented or criticized in historical divulgation, social media and in political arena, particularly in Spain. The pseudo-debate about its existence became particularly widespread during the first decades of the 21st century due to the increasing demands for Catalan self-determination, being used as a tool to deny any possible historical legitimization of Catalan demands.[95]

Government and law

Pactist system

Pactism or contractualism was an institutional model, a doctrine, and a political practice present in Europe since the Early Middle Ages that served as a counterpoint to the later conception of monarchical sovereignty associated with absolutism. Historian Joaquim Albareda defines it as a doctrine based on mutual respect for the fulfillment of pacts between the king and his subjects; this doctrine formed the foundation of the composite monarchy and found its fullest expression in the lands of the Crown of Aragon.[96] Specifically, it achieved one of its most sophisticated formulations in the Principality of Catalonia.[97]

Historians of law Tomàs de Montagut and Pere Ripoll identify two fundamental legal principles of Catalonia's medieval and early modern political constitution:[98]

  • Juridical pactism: the drafting of general legislation, specifically the Constitutions and the Chapters of Court, required negotiation between the monarch and the estates assembled in the General Court of Catalonia, as well as the final consent of both parties.
  • Rule of law: everyone was bound to observe the law in force, including the monarch himself and his officials. Under the medieval legal conception underpinning this principle, law was not viewed as a free creation of political power, but rather as the declaration of a pre-existing order that was binding upon the sovereign as well.

Moreover, this system operated within an order characterized by a plurality of jurisdictions and powers whose relationships were symbiotic and based on coordination rather than strict hierarchy.[99] On this basis, Montagut and Ripoll characterize the Catalan political community as a dualist monarchy: at the highest level, it was represented by the prince and by the "General of Catalonia", the political body of the Principality. Its representative bodies were the estates assembled in the General Court of Catalonia and, on a permanent basis, the Deputation of the General. The relationship between these two powers was grounded in fidelity and conditioned by adherence to Catalan law.[100] Albareda notes that, although the system functioned within the framework of an estate-based society typical of the Ancien régime, it incorporated mechanisms for political representation and tied general legislation to the consensus of the estates assembled in the Court.[101]

Institutions

  • Cort General de Catalunya or Corts Catalanes (General Court of Catalonia or Catalan Courts): parliamentary body and main institution of the Principality, established during the 13th century and legally regulated in 1283. Summoned and presided by the monarch as count of Barcelona, it was composed by representatives the three estates of the realm (braços) and passed the general legislation and the economic donation to the Crown. Also served as monarch's council and as the place where the king could administer justice.[102]
  • Diputació del General or Generalitat de Catalunya (Deputation of the General or Generalitat of Catalonia): permanent council of deputies, established in 1359 by the Courts in order to collect the "taxes of the General",[103] and later gained political power and tasks of prosecutor, becoming the most relevant Catalan institution during the early modern age. It consisted of three deputies and three oïdors (auditors of accounts), there was one deputy and one oïdor by estate.[104]
  • Consell de Cent de Barcelona (Council of One Hundred of Barcelona): institution of government of the city of Barcelona, established during the reign of James I. The municipal authority rested on five, later six, counselors (led by the Conseller en cap, Chief Counselor) elected by a Council of hundred individuals (jurats).[citation needed]
  • Reial Audiència i Reial Consell de Catalunya (Royal Audience and Royal Council of Catalonia): supreme court of justice of Catalonia and the core of the royal government of the Princpality, established in 1493. Its members were elected by the king, and it was presided by the chancellor (Canceller) during the absence of the king and the viceroy.[105]
  • Batllia General de Catalunya
  • Conferència dels Tres Comuns (Conference of the Three Commons): joint meeting of the most dynamic and powerful institutions of the Catalan constitutional system during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Generalitat, the Military Estate and the Consell de Cent of Barcelona, in order to discuss and solve the political issues of the Principality.[citation needed]
  • Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (lit. 'Council of Arms' or 'States-General'): extraordinary parliamentary council convened by the Generalitat, composed by the representatives of the Catalan Courts who at that time were in Barcelona. The Junta operated like the Courts, but formally lacking legislative powers.[106]
  • Tribunal de Contrafaccions (Court of Contraventions): court of justice established by the Courts of 1701–1702 and improved by the Courts of 1705-1706 in order to ensure the application of the Constitutions, as well as solving and prosecuting any decisions contrary to the Catalan legislation, including the ones performed by the king or his officers, a similar role to a modern constitutional court. Its members were elected in parity by the institutions of the land and the king. It represented an important advance in the guarantee of individual and civil rights, even at the European context.[107]

Legislation

  • Constitucions de Catalunya (Constitutions of Catalonia): laws introduced and promulgated by the king and approved by the General Court of Catalonia. They had pre-eminence over the other legal rules (including royal decrees) and could only be revoked by the Courts themselves.[108]
  • Usatges de Barcelona (Usages of Barcelona): compilation of customs and legislation based on the Roman and Visigothic law of the County of Barcelona, applied to the entirely of the Principality after 1251, that form the basis for the Constitutions of Catalonia.[citation needed]
  • Capítols de Cort (Chapters of Court): laws introduced by the Estates of the Courts (or just one of them but with the consent of the other two) and approved by the king. If he approved it, the simple notation "It pleases the Lord King" was made, although it was not uncommon for the king to also include certain restrictions or clarifications on the request.[109]
  • Actes de Cort (Acts of Court): minor legislative and other rules and decrees promulgated by the Courts, which did not need the formal approval of the king. They mostly served temporary purposes and did not possess the significance of the Constitutions or Chapters of Court. Examples included appointments to offices, financial resolutions, the authorization of petitions, mandates issued to deputies, etc.[109]

Royal Officers

  • Lloctinent or Virrei de Catalunya (Lieutenant or Viceroy of Catalonia): representative of the king in the Principality from the 15th to the 18th centuries. As the alter nos of the monarch, he received the same treatment and honours.[110] Catalan Constitutions allowed to appoint non-Catalans as viceroys.
  • Portantveus de General Governador: highest official of the ordinary royal administration. The main responsibilities comprised the administration of justice throughout the territory. Legally, when the king died, he assumed the royal faculties and replaced the viceroy, an event known as vice regia, until the new king swore the constitutions.[111]
  • Canceller de Catalunya (Chancellor of Catalonia):
  • Mestre Racional: royal official who was in charge of the accounting of the Principality. There were one Mestre in every realm of the Crown of Aragon. He recorded the accounts indicating the expenses and income of the royal patrimony. The Mestre Racional of the Principality of Catalonia also had jurisdiction over the kingdoms of Majorca and Sardinia.[citation needed]

Vegueries

The vegueria was a territorial organization of Catalonia headed by a veguer (Latin: vigerius). The origins of the vegueria go back to the era of the Carolingian Empire, when vicars (Latin: vicarii, singular vicarius) were installed beneath the counts in the Marca Hispanica. The office of a vicar was a vicariate (Latin: vicariatus) and his territory was a vicaria. All these Latin terms of Carolingian administration evolved in the Catalan language.[citation needed]

The veguer was appointed by the king and was accountable to him. He was the military commander of his vegueria (and thus keeper of the publicly owned castles), the chief justice of the same district, and the man in charge of the public finances (the fisc) of the region entrusted to him. As time wore on, the functions of the veguer became more and more judicial in nature. He held a cort (court) del veguer or de la vegueria with its own seal. The cort had authority in all matter save those relating to the feudal aristocracy.[112] It commonly heard pleas of the Crown, civil, and criminal cases. The veguer did, however, retain some military functions as well: he was the commander of the militia and the superintendent of royal castles. His job was law and order and the maintenance of the king's peace: in many respects an office analogous to that of the sheriff in England.[citation needed]

Some of the larger vegueries included one or more sotsvegueries (subvigueries), which had a large degree of autonomy. At the end of the 12th century in Catalonia, there were 12 vegueries. By the end of the reign of Peter the Great (1285) there were 17, and by the time of James the Just, there were 21. After the French annexion of the vegueries of Perpignan and Vilafranca de Conflent in 1659, Catalonia retained a division of 15 vegueries, nine sotsvegueries and the special district of the Val d'Aran. These administrative divisions remained until 1716 when they were replaced by the Castilian corregimientos.[113]

Military

Main article: Military history of Catalonia


The Usage Princeps namque, dating from the 11th century, regulated the defense of the prince and the Principality,[114] and became the basis of the organization of self-defense and paramilitary units throughout Catalan history, materialized in mutual-protection agreements known as Sagramental,[115] while the militia corps was known as Sometent. The feudal system allowed to lordships, institutions and corporations to raise its own armies, as well as to be convened by the king due to feudal agreements, alongside to the vassals and subjects of the other realms, however, there was no standing army. Catalan soldiers played an important role in the expansion of the Crown to Valencia, Majorca and the Mediterranean. The Catalan navy and its Catalan Galleys contributed to expand and secure the hegemony along the sea, while the army invested much of its resources in the conquest of Sardinia and in the War of the Sicilian Vespers. After the last one, most of the Almogavers (light infantry) became mercenaries of the Great Catalan Company created by Roger de Flor in 1303.[citation needed]

Due to the outbreak of the Catalan Civil War (1462–1472), the Council of the Principality of Catalonia organised different military forces to fight against the King John II. The Civil War saw one of the first generalised use of firearms in a military conflict of Western Europe. In the General Court of Caalonia of 1493, King Ferdinand II confirmed the Princeps namque usage.[citation needed]

After the establishment of the Monarchy of Spain in the 16th century, Catalans were found in Habsburg military, however, the Usage Princeps namque and the lack of a large Catalan manpower limited their presence in comparison to the other polities of the Empire. Some cities like Barcelona gained recognition of self-defense and established urban militias, known as the Coronela. While the military conflicts with France arose, many Catalan militias took part in the fight alongside the regular army, as at the siege of Salses, in 1639.[116]

Society

Economy

For much of the Late Middle Ages, the Principality of Catalonia was the economic and commercial core of the Crown of Aragon,[117] with Barcelona serving as its main urban, mercantile, and portuary hub.[118] This Catalan economic prominence was particularly evident between the late 13th and mid-14th centuries, as merchants from Barcelona spearheaded the expansion of a dense trade network across Europe and the Mediterranean.[119] Following the conquests of Mallorca and Valencia, a hierarchical division of functions emerged among the cities of Barcelona, ​​Mallorca, and Valencia, with Barcelona leading the group and securing export and import links with distant markets. Mercantile growth was accompanied by developments in manufacturing and shipbuilding; the textile industry (which had been expanding since the 13th century) became the driving force of Catalan economic activity during the 14th and 15th centuries.[120] Commercial expansion was also supported by an extensive consular network: a privilege granted in 1266 gave the municipality of Barcelona the right to appoint overseas consuls, and records document ten Catalan consulates in the eastern Mediterranean, including those in Alexandria, Damascus, Constantinople, Famagusta, and Candia (Heraklion). Between approximately 1330 and 1430, Barcelona established itself as a premier economic center that structured and dominated key sectors of the Mediterranean region, on direct competition with Venice and Genoa.

During the last quarter of the 14th century, a severe fiscal, financial, and monetary crisis occurred, although the Catalan economy maintained a general growth trend (albeit at a slower pace) until the outbreak of the civil war of 1462–1472. Against this backdrop of financial development, the Consell de Cent established the Taula de Canvi of Barcelona in 1401, considered Europe's first public bank. The civil war caused a profound economic rupture, and subsequent recovery efforts failed to restore the region's former strength. In the early 16th century, the implementation of the Arbitration Sentence of Guadalupe fostered the emergence of a prosperous class of land-owning peasants, while agriculture recovered and manufacturing activity began to increase.[121]

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Catalan economy underwent a progressive reorganization. Between the second half of the 16th century and the early 17th century, productive activities became decentralized, and an increasingly integrated urban network took shape, led by Barcelona but with mid-sized cities playing an ever-greater role; concurrently, coastal trade revived and Catalan merchants began their initial forays into Castilian markets. In the second half of the 17th century, growing demand for wine and aguardiente from Northern Europe facilitated Catalonia's integration into Atlantic trade networks, involving Dutch and British merchants, while Barcelona's foreign trade saw significant growth between 1664 and the end of the century. By the late 17th century, some Catalan merchants had also established themselves in Seville and Cádiz to participate in colonial trade within the monopolistic system then in force. By 1700, significant economic transformations oriented towards specialization and trade (both domestic and foreign)[122] with proto-industrial features were already present.[123]

Language

Main articles: History of Catalan and Catalan literature

Catalonia constitutes the original nucleus where Catalan is spoken. The Catalan language shares common traits with the Romance languages of Iberia and Gallo-Romance languages of southern France, it is regarded by a minority of linguists as being an Ibero-Romance language (the group that includes Spanish), and by a majority as a Gallo-Romance language, such as French or Occitan from which Catalan diverged between 11th and 14th centuries.[124]

By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees. From the 8th century, the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards, conquering territories then occupied by Muslims, bringing their language with them.[125] In the 11th century, feudal documents written in dog Latin begin to show Catalan elements. By the end of the 11th century, documents written completely or mostly in Catalan begin to appear, like the Complaints of Guitard Isarn, Lord of Caboet (ca. 1080–1095), or The Oath of peace and truce of Count Pere Ramon (1098).[125]

Catalan experienced a golden age during the Late Middle Ages, reaching a peak of maturity and cultural plenitude, and expanded territorially as more lands were added to the dominions of the Crown of Aragon.[125] Examples of this can be seen in the works of Majorcan Ramon Llull (1232–1315), The Four Great Catalan Chronicles (13th–14th centuries), and the Valencian school of poetry which culminated in Ausiàs March (1397–1459). Catalan became the language of the Kingdom of Majorca, as well the main language of the Kingdom of Valencia, particularly in coastal areas. It was also extended to Sardinia and it was used as an administrative language in Sardinia, Sicily and Athens. Between the 13th and 15th centuries this language was present throughout the Mediterranean world, and it was one of the first basis of the Lingua Franca[126]

The belief that political splendor was correlated with linguistic consolidation was voiced through the Royal Chancery, which promoted a highly standardized language. By the 15th century, the city of Valencia had become the center of social and cultural dynamism. The novel of chivalry Tirant lo Blanc (1490), by Joanot Martorell, shows the transition from medieval to Renaissance values, something than can also be seen in the works of Bernat Metge and Andreu Febrer. During this period, Catalan remained as one of the 'great languages' of medieval Europe. The first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in Catalan.[125]

With the union of the crowns of Castille and Aragon (1479), the use of Castilian (Spanish) gradually became more prestigious and marked the start of the relative decline of Catalan. Along the 16th and 17th centuries, Catalan literature came under the influence of Spanish, and the urban and literary classes became largely bilingual. After the defeat of the pro-Habsburg coalition in the War of Spanish Succession (1714) Spanish replaced Catalan in most of legal documentation, becoming the administrative and political language in the Principality of Catalonia and the kingdoms of Valencia and Majorca. While the linguistic replacement solely affected the Royal Audience, the king provided with secret instructions to the new royal officers in Catalonia to further introduce Spanish: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian [Spanish] language, for which purpose he will give the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the effort being noticed."[127]

Today, Catalan is one of the three official languages of autonomous community of Catalonia, as stated in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy; the other two are Spanish, and Occitan in its Aranese variety.[128] Catalan has no official recognition in "Northern Catalonia". Catalan has official status alongside Spanish in the Balearic Islands and in the Land of Valencia (where it is called Valencian),[129] as well as Algherese Catalan alongside Italian in the city of Alghero and in Andorra as the sole official language.[130]

Symbols

As a state of royal sovereignty, the Principality Catalonia, like the other political entities of the period, did not have its own flag or coat of arms in the modern, national sense. However, a variety of royal and other symbols were used in order to identify the Principality and its institutions.

The coat of arms and flag of the Principality of Catalonia, originally the royal arms of the king of Aragon. The Senyera is one of the oldest flags in Europe to be used in present-day (but not in continuous use). There are several theories advocating either a Catalan or Aragonese origin for the symbol, appearing for the first time in a seal of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Prince of Aragon. While remained the monarch's personal emblem, from the late 14th century onwards it began to be territorialized to represent individually the states of the Crown of Aragon, particularly on the Principality.[131][132]
St George Cross (Catalan: Creu de Sant Jordi) as ensign of the Deputation of the General or Generalitat of Catalonia. The flag was mostly used by the army of the Generalitat. The legend of Saint George and the dragon emerged in the 11th century and spreading throughout Catalonia in the 13th century,[133] then the saint was adopted by the kings of Aragon as their protector. In 1456 the Catalan Courts appointed Saint George as the patron saint of the Principality of Catalonia.[134]



Flag of Barcelona, capital of the Principality, which appeared for the first time in 1329. In 1335, King Peter IV the Ceremonious gave permission to the Consell de Cent to use his royal sign (the four bars). Although in 1344 the four bars had already been fixed by decree, the number fluctuated for a long time between four and two. It was replaced during early modern era by the Saint Eulalia's flag. It also appears in some maps as the flag that identified the Principality.
Saint Eulalia's flag, it is represented the figure of Saint Eulalia of Barcelona (city’s patron) through a saltire, accompanied by the arms of the City and of the chapter of the cathedral over a crimson background. It became Barcelona's flag in 1588, leading the representation of the Consell de Cent at civic and religious events and celebrations (processions, royal entries, etc.). At the same time, it served as the city's war standard. It was the famous standard carried by Rafael Casanova (Chief Councillor of Barcelona) when he was wounded during the last stand in the defense of Barcelona on September 11, 1714.[135]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Administrative, cultural and common language.
  2. ↑ Cultural until the 15th century and common language of the Aran Valley.
  3. ↑ Widely used for administrative and liturgical purposes.
  4. ↑ In the south-west among the local Andalusi Muslim population.
  5. ↑ By the royal administration, as well as among the nobility and the cultured segments of the middle class due to diglossia. Sole official language after 1716.
  6. ↑ Exclusively the royal arms until the late 14th c., when it began to be territorialized[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
  7. ↑ Catalan: Principat de Catalunya; Occitan: Principat de Catalonha; Spanish: Principado de Cataluña; Latin: Principatus Cathaloniæ

References

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