page_title: History of Catalonia
section_title: The 15th century
hierarchical_section_title: History of Catalonia / Catalonia and Aragon (1100–1469) / The 15th century
caption_attribution_description: Español: Masia típica catalana de Heretat de Guàrdia, en el municipio de La Baronia de Rialb (Prepirineo catalán). Català: Mas d'Heretat de Guàrdia: masia típica catalana a La Baronia de Rialb (Prepirineu català).
context_page_description: Catalonia was first settled during the Middle Palaeolithic era. Like the rest of the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula, the area was occupied by the Iberians and several Greek colonies were established on the coast before the Roman conquest. It was the first area of Hispania conquered by the Romans. It then came under Visigothic rule after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. In 718, the area was occupied by the Umayyad Caliphate and became a part of Muslim ruled al-Andalus. The Frankish Empire conquered the area from the Muslims, ending with the conquest of Barcelona in 801, as part of the creation of a larger buffer zone of Christian counties against Islamic rule known as the Marca Hispanica. In the 10th century the County of Barcelona became progressively independent from Frankish rule.
context_section_description: Ferdinand's successor, Alfonso V ("the Magnanimous"), promoted a new stage of Aragonese expansion, this time over the Kingdom of Naples, over which he finally gained dominion in 1443. At the same time, though, he aggravated the social crisis in the Principality of Catalonia, both in the countryside and in the cities. Alfonso's brother, John II ("the Unreliable"), was an exceptionally deeply hated and opposed regent and ruler - both in the Basque kingdom of Navarre and in Catalonia.
  The outcome of these conflicts was the 1462 "remença" (serfs') rebellion, a peasant rebellion against seignorial pressures, which led to a ten-year civil war 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.
  The remença conflict did not reach any definitive conclusion and from 1493 France formally annexed the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne, which it had occupied during the conflict. Ferdinand II of Aragon ("the Catholic") profoundly reformed Catalan institutions, recovered without war the northern Catalan counties, increased active involvement in Italy and finally resolved the major grievances of the remences with the Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe in 1486, in exchange for a payment. The Sentencia allowed the beginning of the right to freely contract emphyteutic agreements, which led to general prosperity in the Catalan countryside throughout the next centuries.
  In 1481, the Catalan Courts approved the Constitució de l'Observança, which established the submission of royal power to the laws of the Principality of Catalonia.
caption: Masia of Heretat de Guàrdia (La Baronia de Rialb). After the Sentencia of Guadalupe, the masies ruled by emphyeutic system became one the basis of prosperity in Catalan countryside
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