page_title: Revolt of the Barretinas
section_title: Quartering of soldiers
hierarchical_section_title: Revolt of the Barretinas / Quartering of soldiers
context_page_description: The Revolt of the Barretines also known as the Revolt of the Gorretes, was a Catalan rebellion fought against the government of King Charles II of Spain. The most salient complaint was against the government's quartering of soldiers. Other issues of contention were tax protests and Catalan nationalistic tensions. The revolt was funded and intensified by agents of France as part of the War of the Grand Alliance. Civil disorder lasted from 1687 to 1689.
  Support for the revolt was concentrated in rural areas, particularly the poor. The only members of the elite who supported the revolt were wealthy commoners from the countryside. The city of Barcelona, merchants, the intelligentsia, and the local government bodies were largely unsympathetic.
context_section_description: Relations between Spain and France were quite hostile in the 1680s.  Between 1683–1684, France defeated Spain in the War of the Reunions, fought mostly in the Spanish Netherlands.  King Louis XIV of France was an aggressive empire-builder who had been claiming border territories for France, notably in the states of (modern) Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries.  Still angry at losses in the Spanish Netherlands, Spain joined the League of Augsburg, an alliance between many German states, Sweden, and Spain intended to defend against France.  Fearing another French-Spanish war, the government sent Castilian troops to Catalonia to guard the border in 1687.  However, government forts and barracks were in a state of ill-repair and unequipped to shelter thirty companies of horsemen, approximately 2,400 soldiers total.  As a result, a majority of the soldiers were quartered in civilian homes.  A "military contribution" (a tax, but not named as such) was required to fund them, and the soldiers needed to eat.  The abysmal harvest of 1687, compounded by already low food supplies, pushed much of the countryside to the point of desperation.  Peasants protested to the government, asking for the soldiers to leave.  Three members of the Diputació del General (the highest constitutional body of Catalonia) forwarded these complaints to King Charles II: Anton Sayol, Daniel Sayol, and Josep Sitges.  The Viceroy of Catalonia, the Marquis of Leganés, responded by arresting and replacing the three diputats.
  The situation took a turn for the worse on October 7, 1687 in Centelles.  Centelles was already unhappy; conflict had been incubating here between the unpopular Count of Centelles (Francesc Xavier de Blanes i Carrós) and the residents.  A new provocation occurred when an army cavalryman struck a woman during an argument over a chicken.  She immediately rallied the town in defiance.  Seeking to defuse the situation, the cavalry withdrew from the town, but discontent continued to increase.  After a meeting, many towns decided to accept the continued quartering of troops, but refuse to pay the military contribution to fund them.
  Another altercation between the military and the citizenry occurred on April 4, 1688 in Villamayor.  In response, a ragtag militia marched on Mataró, an important port town, and entered on April 6.  There, they rang church bells and rallied the population with cries of "Visca la terra!" ("Long live the land!")  The leading citizens were found and compelled to argue the case of the rioters (they were threatened with the burning of their homes). Continuing to grow, the militia now marched on Barcelona, the regional capital, with an estimated 18,000 people.  Their demands were a general pardon for any actions the militia made against the soldiers, a reduced military contribution, the pardon of the three imprisoned members of the Diputació, and the release of an imprisoned official Pedro Llosas.  By Monday April 12, the government completely capitulated.  The militia was easily supplied from the countryside and the city of Barcelona was at its mercy for its own supplies.  With their demands sated, the peasants went back to their homes. A letter written to the king on April 14 from government officials in Barcelona shows the dire state of affairs:
  ... the present state of this province is the unhappiest that can be imagined, for the law has no authority because of the lack of funds in the treasury, and now with these disorders justice has totally perished.  Officials cannot leave the city in safety to draw up prosecutions or to receive testimony about crimes, nor even to arrest wrongdoers; and though we pass sentences they cannot be carried out.  This is aggravated by excesses in the use of firearms, since all the roads are full of people who openly carry them.  Soldiers cannot cross the province in safety...
caption: Catalonia, in the northeast of Spain.  The brown territory is French-controlled Roussillon.
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