Remença
Encyclopedia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
mode of serf
SERF
A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...
dom. Those who were serfs under this mode are properly
pagesos de remença (pagesos meaning "peasants"); they are often (though not quite correctly) referred to simply as remences (singular remença).
The Rebellion of the Remences or War of the Remences was a popular revolt in late medieval Europe
Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the bourgeois in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals of the 14th through early 16th centuries, part of a larger "Crisis of the Late Middle Ages"...
against seignorial pressures that began in Catalonia in 1462 and ended a decade later without definitive result.
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
("Ferdinand the Catholic") finally resolved the conflict with the Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe in 1486.
The term remença derives from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
redementia emphasized the possibility of redemption from servitude. http://www.elalmanaque.com/diciembre/15-12-eti.htm
In the early 14th century, the rise of the Catalan cities and the expansion of the Catalan culture and the Aragonese Empire led to a decline in the rural population, which declined still further due to the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
. The nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
began to enforce strictly the rules tying peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
s to the land; they also began a much stricter enforcement of seignorial rights in general than had been the practice in recent centuries.
The strongest support for open rebellion came from the poorest peasants. Those with more goods — who were in the majority on the Plain of Vic
Vic
Vic is the capital of the comarca of Osona, in the Barcelona Province, Catalonia, Spain. Vic's location, only 69 km far from Barcelona and 60 km from Girona, has made it one of the most important towns in central Catalonia.-History:...
, l'Empordà
Empordà
Empordà is a historical region of Catalonia divided since 1936 into two comarques, Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà....
, and el Vallès
Vallès
El Vallès is a historical county in Catalonia, Spain, located in the center of the Catalan Pre-coastal range. It is nowadays represented by two separate administrative divisions which are part of the Barcelona Province, named comarques...
— tried to appeal to the king for reforms and the end of seignorial abuses. The monarchy had some reasons to wish to have the peasants as an independent force, since the Aragonese crown was continually in a power struggle with the nobility.
In the mid-15th century, Alfonso V of Aragon
Alfonso V of Aragon
Alfonso the Magnanimous KG was the King of Aragon , Valencia , Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica , and Sicily and Count of Barcelona from 1416 and King of Naples from 1442 until his death...
, "the Magnanimous", allowed the peasants to form a sindicat remença, a peasants' guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
or primitive trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, granted them their liberty and intervened in several other ways against the abuses. However, the Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
sided with the nobility; along with the Generalitat
Generalitat
Generalitat is the name of the autonomous systems of government of two of the present Spanish autonomous communities: Catalonia and the Valencian Community. The term is also used for the government of the semi-autonomous comarca of Val d'Aran, the Generalitat a l'Aran.Generalitat refers to all...
, controlled by the nobles, their opposition led Alfonso to reverse himself.
Alfonso's successor, John II
John II of Aragon
John II the Faithless, also known as the Great was the King of Aragon from 1458 until 1479, and jure uxoris King of Navarre from 1425 until his death. He was the son of Ferdinand I and his wife Eleanor of Alburquerque...
, sought the peasants' help against the nobility. By May 1461, the peasantry had declared themselves in favor of the king against the nobles.
In 1462, the pagesos de remença rebelled; this coincided with the War Against John II by the nobles. The peasants, under the leadership of Verntallat des d'Hostoles, fought mainly in the mountainous interior, while the king and the more traditional armed forces loyal to him fought nearer the Mediterranean coast. After ten years, John won the war, but failed to abolish serfdom or even to bring about significant reforms.
In 1485, a second rebellion broke out, under the leadership of Pere Joan Sala. In the face of this rebellion, Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
, "the Catholic" issued the Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe (1486), outlawing the more severe abuses and allowing remences to be redeemed by a payment of 60 sou
Sou
Sou may refer to:* Sou , a type of food pastry* Sou , a film by Theodore Ushev for Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction* Solidus #France, French slang for coins...
s per household, leaving a rural society that was still feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
in character, but significantly reformed.