Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe
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Signed | 21 April 1486 |
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Location | Extremadura, Spain |
Negotiators | King Ferdinand II of Aragon |
Original signatories |
The Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe (Arbitral Decision of Guadalupe) was a legal decree delivered by King
Objective
The objective of the decree was to solve the conflicts between the remensa peasants and their lords, conflicts that had motivated the two wars of the Remences. Negotiations for drafting the decree were very difficult. The king himself became directly involved and was an effective negotiator, at least in the economic sphere. Finally, King Ferdinand dictated the Sentencia Arbitral that allowed the end of the evil customs in exchange for a payment (not only for the "mal ús" remença),[1] and postponed the conflict that had lasted more than four centuries between lords and peasants.
In exchange for a payment of 60 sous per
Signing on behalf of the peasants was Francesc de Verntallat along with 18 syndicates, including Llorenç Espígol of Sant Feliu de Pallerols.
Repression
Even so, there was still repression: peasants were obliged to return all the castles that they had won from the lords, and pay 6,000 pounds compensation to the lords. While it is true that King Ferdinand freed some detainees, he also confiscated property or sterilized the land of others, or executed them.
The decree meant the beginning of a new phase in the Principality of Catalonia: the right to freely contract emphyteutic agreements, which led to general prosperity in the Catalonian countryside. By the 15th century, Catalan peasants already had a level of personal freedom that the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe was not to know before the 18th or 19th century.
See also
References
- ISBN 978-8497889261