Towards the end of the 17th century, a part of these new peasant population profited from the prosperity arising from cultivating and exporting mainly wine and its derivatives, brandy and prunes, and to a lesser extent, silk.
Their reasons were various, ranging from loyalty to the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, hate towards the French by a part of the merchants and the industrials, and distrust for the suspected centralist attitude of Philip V of Spain, as seen by the Bourbon rule in France.
Merchants and exporters of wine, brandy, silk, and other farming products, which were politically and economically very important, contacted a key person for their cause: General Joan Baptista Basset.
From 1704, Francesc Davila, who was probably a leader of the Segona Germania who had escaped persecution, toured all the southern counties of Valencia explaining to the peasants that the Austrian pretender was ready to abolish all the rights of the nobles to higher taxes than the ones imposed by James I.
[citation needed] Together with the viceroy, Duke Gandia, a long list of Nobles and "botiflers" siding with Philip V of Spain fled, not to Valencia, but to Castile; they did not trust the resistance of the capital, and with reason.
[citation needed] At the same time, news from the uprising in the Principality of Catalonia arrived, where a rebelling had expelled the "Felipist" military and where Charles III himself had triumphantly disembarked in Barcelona.
This news was enough to spread the uprising through in the rest of the Kingdom of Valencia, especially in its northern part, from Vinaròs and Benicarló to Vila-real and Castelló, where the Maulets were specially strong.
Once Basset was established in Valencia, practically exercising the function of Viceroy, and with most of the country under control of the Maulets (meaning, of the armed villagers), the first thing was to abolish all taxes to the nobles.
Even though his arrival saved the delicate situation from enemies' attacks, it also meant the creation of another political power led by Count Cardona, with a military force independent from the Maulets and with no intention of allowing what they considered "plebeian excesses".
It all points to the fact that count Cardona and the English general had instructions, probably from the King, to end the "excesses" of Basset and the Maulets,[citation needed] in this way trying to gain back the support of the nobles, most of them siding with the Bourbons.
Sure enough, Charles III, as an owner of royal lands and main lord of the Order of Montesa, had experienced a reduction in his income, by the Maulets' refusal to pay.
Cardona and Peterborough then started an offensive centred at some of Basset's collaborators, pointing to the illegal confiscation and loot for personal use of the goods from the French and the Botiflers, and imprisoned them awaiting trial.
[citation needed] But a renewed Maulet revolt, this time against one whom they considered their legitimate King, all with a Bourbon army at the doors of the Kingdom ready for war, would have been suicidal.
Consequently, Maulets resigned and stopped their protests, believing that the pretender Charles, in coming to Valencia shortly, would repair the injustice and would free Basset.
When the Bourbon armies, led by Berwick himself, laid siege on Barcelona two regiments of Valencians were formed, the Mare de Déu dels Desamparats and the Sant Vicent Ferrer,[citation needed] to fight along their comrades in Catalonia.
Others, who managed to escape from the Bourbon troops via Majorca, or who were later on freed, ended up exiled in Vienna,[citation needed] at the court of "their" Charles III, now emperor of Austria.