Revolt of the Comuneros: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox military conflict

|image=[[File:Comuneros.jpg|alt=Two men and a priest stand in the center, overseeing the proceedings. A dead body lies on the ground; a man triumphantly lifts up his severed head in the background. A bearded man with hands bound is being brought forward to be executed next.|300px]]

|combatant1= [[List of people associated with the Revolt of the Comuneros#Comuneros|Comuneros rebels]]

|combatant2= [[List of people associated with the Revolt of the Comuneros#Royalists|Royalist Castilians]]

|notes=¹February 3, 1522 is also used as an end date; see [[#Revolt of February 1522|1522 revolt]].

}}

{{Campaignbox Revolt of the Comuneros}}

[[File:Fachada de la iglesia conventual de San Pablo (Valladolid).jpg|thumb|right|275px|alt=A tall stone building, topped with a cross.|[[San Pablo Church]] in [[Valladolid]], seat of a Cortes held in 1518. Protests emerged when the Flemish adviser [[Jean de Sauvage]] was named its president, presaging later troubles.]]

The '''Revolt of the Comuneros''' ({{lang-es|Guerra de las Comunidades de Castilla}}, "War of the Communities of Castile") was an uprising by citizens of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] against the rule of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I]] and his administration between 1520 and 1521. At its height, the rebels controlled the heart of Castile, ruling the cities of [[Valladolid]], [[Tordesillas]], and [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]].

 

 

==Origins==

Discontent had been brewing for years before the Revolt of the Comuneros. The second half of the 15th century saw profound political, economic, and social changes in Spain. Economic growth created new urban industries and offered a route to power and wealth not tied to the aristocracy. Support from these urban elites was critical to [[Catholic Monarchs|Ferdinand and Isabella's]] centralization of power, and they acted as a counterweight to the landed aristocracy and the clergy.<ref name="Halp10">[[#Hal81|Haliczer 1981]], p. 10.</ref>

 

 

Charles was brought up in [[Flanders]], the homeland of his father Philip, and barely knew Castilian.<ref>[[#Lyn64|Lynch 1964]], p. 36.</ref> The people greeted him with skepticism, but also hoped he would restore stability. With the arrival of the new king in late 1517, [[List of people associated with the Revolt of the Comuneros#Royal Council and Advisers|his Flemish court]] took positions of power in Castile; young Charles only trusted people he knew from the [[Burgundian Netherlands|Netherlands]]. Among the most scandalous of these was the appointment of the twenty-year-old [[William de Croÿ (bishop)|William de Croÿ]] as [[Archbishop of Toledo]]. The Archbishopric was an important position; it had been held by [[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros|Archbishop Cisneros]], the former regent of the country.<ref>[[#Hal81|Haliczer 1981]], p. 126.</ref><ref name="Lynch38" /> Six months into his rule, discontent openly simmered among rich and poor alike. Even some monks began to agitate, denouncing the opulence of the royal court, the Flemish, and the nobility in their sermons. One of the first public protests involved placards posted in churches, which read:

{{blockquote|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.<ref>[[#Die77|J. L. Díez 1977]], p. 7. "Tú, tierra de Castilla, muy desgraciada y maldita eres al sufrir que un tan noble reino como eres, sea gobernado por quienes no te tienen amor."</ref>}}

With the unrest growing, Charles' paternal grandfather [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I]] died in 1519. A new election had to be held to choose the next emperor. Charles campaigned aggressively for the post, vying with [[Francis I of France|King Francis I of France]] to bribe the most [[prince-elector]]s.<ref name="sea50">[[#Sea28|Seaver 1928]], p. 50.</ref> Charles I won the election, becoming Emperor Charles V and cementing the power of the [[House of Habsburg]]. He prepared to head to Germany to take possession of his new domains in the Holy Roman Empire.<ref name="sea50" />

 

===Proposals to other cities===

With widespread discontent circulating, on June 8 Toledo's council suggested to cities with a vote in the Cortes to hold an emergency meeting. They proffered five goals:

 

These claims, especially the first two, spread quickly through society.<ref name="perez53" /> Ideas began to circulate of replacing the king; Toledo's leaders floated the possibility of turning the cities of Castile into independent [[City-state|free cities]], similar to [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]] and other [[Repubbliche Marinare|Italian republics]].<ref name="perez53" /> Competing proposals suggested keeping the monarchy, but dethroning Charles. They proposed that he be replaced by either his mother Queen Joanna or his Castilian-born brother [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand]].<ref name="Hal159" /> With these ideas, the revolt shifted from a simple protest against taxes to a broader revolution. Many cities, while not quite in outright revolt, stopped sending taxes to the Royal Council and began to self-govern.<ref name="hal164">[[#Hal81|Haliczer 1981]], p. 164.</ref>

 

===Turning of the nobles===

 

===Response of Charles I===

==Battle of Tordesillas==

{{main|Battle of Tordesillas (1520)}}

 

===Leadership disputes===

Gradually, both the city of Toledo and its leader Juan López de Padilla lost influence within the Junta, though Padilla retained popularity and prestige among the commoners. Two new figures emerged within the ''Comunidades'', [[Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Count of Ureña|Pedro Girón]] and [[Antonio Osorio de Acuña]]. Girón was one of the most powerful nobles who supported the comuneros; his rebellion is thought to originate from Charles' refusal to grant Girón the prestigious [[Dukes of Medina Sidonia|Duchy of Medina-Sidonia]] a year prior to the war. Antonio de Acuña was the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Zamora in Spain|Bishop of Zamora]]. Acuña was also the head of the ''Comunidad'' in Zamora and the leader of its army, which included more than 300 priests.<ref>[[#Per01|Pérez 2001]], p. 75.</ref><ref name="Alfonso Guilarte">[[#Gui83|Guilarte 1983]].</ref>

 

 

==Later influence==

The revolt, fresh in the memory of Spain, is referenced in several literary works during [[Spanish Golden Age|Spain's Golden Age]]. [[Don Quixote]] references the rebellion in a conversation with [[Sancho Panza|Sancho]], and [[Francisco de Quevedo]] uses the word "comunero" as a synonym for "rebel" in his works.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cervantes |first=Miguel de |author-link=Miguel de Cervantes |title=Don Quixote de la Mancha |url=http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/dqfj4.htm |access-date=2008-09-27 |publisher=Rodolfo Schevill and Adolfo Bonilla; digital form and editing by Fred F. Jehle |language=es |chapter=Volume 2, Chapter 43 |page=61 |year=1615 |isbn=0-394-90892-9 |archive-date=2009-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201090421/http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/cervante/dqfj4.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[[#Per01|Pérez 2001]], p. 236.</ref>

 

 

At the beginning of the 19th century, the image of the comuneros began to be rehabilitated by scholars such as Manuel Quintana as precursors of freedom and martyrs against [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutism]].<ref>[[#Per01|Pérez 2001]], p. 238.</ref> The decline of Castilian liberty was linked to the later decline of Spain.<ref name="nietoviahal">[[#Hal81|Haliczer 1981]], p. 7. Haliczer is citing [[#Nie73|Gutiérrez Nieto 1973]], pp. 57–58 for Quintana's views; p. 84 for Danvila's views; and p. 98 for Marañón's views.</ref> The first major commemorative event came in 1821, the third [[wikt:centenary|centenary]] of the [[Battle of Villalar]]. [[Juan Martín Díez]], a nationalistic liberal military leader who had fought in the [[Peninsular war#Guerrilla war|resistance against Napoleon]], led an expedition to find and exhume the remains of the three leaders executed in 1521. Díez praised the comuneros on behalf of the [[Trienio Liberal|liberal government in power at the time]], likely the first positive governmental recognition for their cause. This view was challenged by conservatives who viewed a centralized state as modern and progressive, especially after the anarchy and fragmentation of the [[Glorious Revolution (Spain)|1868 Revolution in Spain]].<ref name="nietoviahal" /> [[Manuel Danvila]], a conservative government minister, published the six-volume ''Historia critica y documentada de las Comunidades de Castilla'' from 1897 to 1900, one of the most important works of scholarship on the revolt.<ref>[[#Sea28|Seaver 1928]], p. 376.</ref> Drawing on collected original sources, Danvila emphasized the fiscal demands of the comuneros, and cast them as traditionalist, reactionary, medieval, and feudal.<ref name="nietoviahal" /> Though a liberal, intellectual [[Gregorio Marañón]] shared the dim view of the comuneros that again prevailed in Spain; he cast the conflict as one between a modern, progressive state open to beneficent foreign influence against a conservative, reactionary, and xenophobic Spain hypersensitive to religious and cultural deviance with an insistence on spurious racial purity.<ref name="nietoviahal" />

 

[[Francisco Franco|General Franco]]'s government from 1939 to 1975 also encouraged an unfavorable interpretation of the comuneros.<ref name="clavero" /> According to approved historians such as [[José María Pemán]], the revolt was fundamentally an issue of petty [[Nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain|Spanish regionalism]], something which Franco did his best to discourage. Additionally, the comuneros did not properly appreciate Spain's "imperial destiny."<ref>[[#Nie73|Gutiérrez Nieto 1973]], p. 96. Nieto is referring to Pemán's ''Breve Historia a España'', pp. 208–211.</ref>

Since the mid-twentieth century, others have sought more materialist reasons for the revolt. Historians such as [[José Antonio Maravall]] and [[Joseph Pérez]] portray the developing revolt as alliances of different social coalitions around shifting economic interests, with the "industrial bourgeoisie" of artisans and woolworkers combining with the intellectuals and the low nobility against the aristocrats and the merchants.<ref>[[#Hal81|Haliczer 1981]], p. 8. Haliczer is citing [[#Per70|Pérez 1970]], p. 19.</ref> Maravall, who views the revolt as one of the first modern revolutions, especially stresses the ideological conflict and intellectual nature of the revolt, with features such as the first proposed written constitution of Castile.<ref>[[#Hal81|Haliczer 1981]], p. 8.</ref>

 

With [[Spanish transition to democracy|Spain's transition to democracy]] following Franco's death, celebration of the comuneros started to become permissible again. On April 23, 1976, a small ceremony was held clandestinely in Villalar; only two years later, in 1978, the event had become a huge demonstration of 200,000 in support of Castilian autonomy.<ref name="clavero">{{cite journal |last=González Clavero |first=Mariano |year=2002 |title=Fuerzas políticas en el proceso autonómico de Castilla y León: 1975–1983 |journal=Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes |language=es |pages=337–342 |url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?Ref=12030&portal=33 |access-date=2008-11-12 }}</ref> The [[Autonomous communities of Spain|autonomous community]] of [[Castile and León]] was created in response to public demand in 1983, and it recognized April 23 as an [[Castile and León Day|official holiday]] in 1986.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boe.es/g/es/bases_datos/doc.php?coleccion=iberlex&id=1986/90009&codmap |title=Ley por la que se declara Fiesta de la Comunidad de Castilla y León el día 23 de abril |access-date=2008-10-18 |date=1986-04-17 |publisher=[[Boletín Oficial del Estado]] |location=Madrid |language=es }} {{Dead link|date=May 2021}}</ref> Similarly, each February 3 since 1988 has been celebrated by the [[Castilian nationalism|Castilian nationalist]] party [[Tierra Comunera]] in Toledo. The celebration highlights the roles of Juan López de Padilla and [[María Pacheco]], and is done in memory of the rebellion in 1522, the last event of the war.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.tierracomunera.org/es/contenido/?iddoc=6043 |title = Toledo celebra el XX Homenaje a los Comuneros |publisher=[[Tierra Comunera]] |access-date = 2008-07-25 |language=es }}</ref>

 

==See also==

 

=== Bibliography ===

{{refbegin}}

* {{cite book |last=Haliczer |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Haliczer |title=The Comuneros of Castile: The Forging of a Revolution, 1475–1521 |year=1981 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=Madison, Wisconsin |isbn=0-299-08500-7 |ref=Hal81 }}

{{refend}}

 

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{{refend}}

 

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[[Category:1520s in Spain]]

[[Category:16th-century rebellions]]

[[Category:Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]]

[[Category:Rebellions in Spain]]

[[Category:Tordesillas]]