Revolt of the Brotherhoods

It also bore a strong anti-Islamic aspect, as rebels rioted against Valencia's peasant Muslim population (also called mudéjars, to contrast with crypto-Muslims or Moriscos in the Crown of Castile, where Islam was outlawed) and imposed forced conversions to Christianity.

Both rebellions were partially inspired by the departure for Germany of Charles, the new King of both Castile and Aragon (in a personal union that would form the basis for the Kingdom of Spain), to take the throne as Holy Roman Emperor and leaving behind a somewhat disreputable Royal Council and regent.

Spanish relations with Muslim nations and North Africa were still exceedingly poor after the Reconquista, and the coast of Aragon was constantly raided by Barbary pirates.

In order to maintain a coastal defense against the pirates without the cost of deploying the army, Ferdinand gave the Germanies permission to arm themselves and form their own paramilitary brigades.

Of more importance for Aragon, in the summer of 1519 Charles granted his permission to the Germanies to arm themselves against the raiding Muslim fleets.

Llorenç and the Council of Thirteen gave power to the Germanies, who re-established their monopolies on their professions and forbade anyone to work who did not affiliate with one of the guilds.

The tension increased with the nomination of the Castilian war veteran Diego Hurtado de Mendoza as viceroy in April 1520.

At this point, the Germanies staged a coup d'état in which Mendoza was forced to flee and popular representatives replaced most of the remaining government functions and the courts.

The death of Llorenç robbed the moderate faction (including Caro, Sorolla, and Montfort), concerned with the good governance of Valencia, of its strongest voice; the radical faction took power (including Urgellés, Estellés, Peris, and Borrell) which sought land reform and a social revolution to reduce the power of the aristocracy.

In the summer of 1520, some military actions occurred such as an assault on the viscounty of Xelva, the pillage of noble palaces, and the redistribution of nearby land.

The Germanies took over several cities at once: in the north, the regions of the Maestrat and Camp de Morvedre; and in the south, in Alzira, Xàtiva, Gandia, and Elx.

The southern front saw more success, as the rebels commanded by Vicent Peris took the castle of Xàtiva and won an important victory in the Battle of Gandia against the personal troops of the viceroy on July 23, 1521.

After the battle, the agermanats looted the town and farmland of the Gandia region, and undertook a campaign of forced baptisms upon all the Muslims of the Safor.

Distracted by internal disputes, the agermanats suffered a crushing defeat a mere week after their victory at Gandia in the Battle of Oriola.

The Marquis of Los Vélez commanded the victorious royal army manned with reinforcements from Andalusia, and approximately 4,000 agermanats were killed.

Viceroy Mendoza also advocated a policy of conciliation, offering generous terms to those who surrendered and agreed to return to royal governance.

The revolt was known in other realms of Aragon, and inspired a new overthrow of the government in the Kingdom of Majorca after the unpopular imprisonment of seven guild members.

The nobles who survived the massacre that occurred in the Bellver Castle took refuge in Alcúdia, the only part of the island that remained faithful to the King during the year and a half the Germanies ruled Majorca.

The nobles used the poorer Muslims as a cheap labor supply, which encouraged friction between them and lowly paid or unemployed Christians jealous of their jobs and annoyed at their effect on wages.

[3] This decision provoked two uprisings from the recently converted population, one in Benaguasil in November 1525 and another in Sierra de Espadán in Castellón in March 1526.

This decision ended the Muslim exception of the mudéjars in the country, but began the problem of Moriscos in Valencia whose Christian faith was, understandably, insincere.

Viceroy Diego Hurtado de Mendoza did not wish to start a new revolt, but took action against the most important of the leaders, and issued a general pardon to minor agermanats who had merely served in the army.

The period of heavier repression ended on December 23, 1524, when Germaine signed a pardon for one of the six main guilds of the City of Valencia and by extension the other Germanies.

Germaine was in favor of the integration of Spain, and Valencian nationalists point to her pardon as one of the first official documents in Aragon written in Castilian Spanish.

[citation needed] The Revolt's failure is often seen as a political catalyst for Valencia's shift to a modern, centralized, and authoritarian state away from a feudal one.