Catalan Civil War
The two factions, the royalists who supported John II of Aragon and the Catalan constitutionalists (Catalanists, pactists, and foralists), disputed the extent of royal rights in Catalonia.
When Blanche died in 1441, John retained the government of her lands and dispossessed his own eldest son, Charles (born 1421), who was made Prince of Viana in 1423.
[2] Charles was captured and released; and John tried to disinherit him by illegally naming his daughter Eleanor, who was married to Gaston IV of Foix, his successor.
In 1460 Charles left Majorca unauthorised and landed in Barcelona, where he was welcomed by the two chief factions, the Busca, which were merchants, artisans, and laborers, and the Biga, which were honored citizens and landlords.
He still refused to recognise Charles as his "first born", probably seeking to reserve that title for Ferdinand, but arousing opposition in the meantime.
[11] The peasant revolted against the Consell del Principat with the hope of receiving royal support: Juana worked hard to stoke anti-Busca sentiment in Barcelona.
On 11 March, Juana and Ferdinand left unsafe Barcelona for Girona, hoping to receive protection from the French army there.
John signed two treaties at Sauveterre (3 May) and Bayonne (9 May) with Louis XI of France whereby the French king would lend 700 lances (4,200 knights plus their retainers) in military aid to John in exchange for 200,000 écus and, as surety of payment, the cession of the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne, and the right to garrison Perpignan and Cotlliure.
Throughout the summer the Generalitat and the municipal council of Barcelona worked with the peasant leaders and various noble factions to draw up an agreement and bring an end to the revolt.
With the fall of Tarragona (31 October), Henry IV, who was approaching Barcelona by sea, opened negotiations with John and Louis XI.
[15] In April 1463 John II ceded Estella in Navarre to Castile and in June Henry formally renounced the Aragonese throne.
In October the Consell offered the throne to the constable of Portugal, a grandson of James II of Urgell, who was acclaimed as Peter V.[16] In November a delegation of Catalans approached Louis of France at Abbeville to seek his arbitration, but he loudly proclaimed himself a Catalan dynast and mused that "there are no mountains" between Catalonia and France.
He lifted the siege of Cervera, but failed to duplicate the feat at Lleida, which John captured in July, and several smaller towns.
The king had offered to pardon his enemies and respect the Constitucions and the municipal privileges, so that the Generalitat was debating submission, but a minority on the Consell was deadset against it.
On 30 July 1466 the Consell elected René the Good, the Count of Anjou and Provence and failed claimant to several crowns, as their new king.
The prince sustained heavy losses and John II, who had recently landed at Empúries, fled with his son to Tarragona.
When the Duke of Lorraine was shortly forced to return to France to raise troops, Ferdinand campaigned northwards.
All the while the king was working to foment a baronial rebellion against Louis XI of France and to foster a tripartite alliance between England, Burgundy, and Aragon.
At a General Cortes at Monzón in 1470 the king received the subsidy he requested to carry on the war until the expulsion of the French from Catalonia.
[19] Duke John of Lorraine died at Barcelona on 16 December 1470, before an attack on the mountainous redoubt of Francesc de Verntallat could be carried out.
[20] In 1471 the French troops fighting with the Catalans retired to France and the advantage shifted decidedly to John II.
The acts of the Consell and the other organs of Catalan government since the death of Charles of Viana were approved and John swore to uphold the Constitucions.
The French, angered by the abridgement of the treaty of Bayonne, counter-attacked a few weeks later, but some Castilian troops under Prince Ferdinand successfully resisted.
