Revolt of the Comuneros (1520–1521): Castile vs Charles V

The Revolt of the Comuneros was a rising by many of the cities of Castile against their new king, Charles I of Spain, better known as Emperor Charles V, between 1520 and 1521. It began as a protest against foreign advisers, high taxes and an absent king, and developed into an attempt to set up a rebel government in the name of the Castilian communities. The revolt was crushed at the Battle of Villalar on 23 April 1521, and the victory strengthened the crown’s hold on Castile for generations.

Background: a foreign king

Charles was born in Ghent in 1500 and raised in the Low Countries. He inherited Castile and Aragon in 1516 on the death of his grandfather Ferdinand of Aragon, ruling jointly in name with his mother, Queen Joanna, who was judged unfit to rule and kept at Tordesillas. Charles arrived in Spain only in September 1517, speaking little Castilian and surrounded by Flemish courtiers.

Castilians were angered when Charles gave important posts to these foreigners. His chief adviser, Guillaume de Croÿ, lord of Chièvres, was accused of enriching himself, and Chièvres’s young nephew was made Archbishop of Toledo, the richest see in Spain. The final blow came with Charles’s election as emperor in 1519. To pay for his journey to Germany, he summoned the Cortes, the Castilian parliament, to Santiago and then La Coruña in 1520 and pressed it to grant a new subsidy. He sailed from La Coruña on 20 May 1520, leaving Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht as regent.

The revolt spreads

Toledo was already in open revolt by April 1520, led by the nobleman Juan de Padilla. In Segovia, a crowd killed Rodrigo de Tordesillas, a city representative who had voted for the subsidy. Royal attempts to restore order backfired: on 21 August 1520 royal troops seeking artillery set fire to much of Medina del Campo, a major trading town, and the outrage pushed more cities into rebellion.

The rebel cities formed a Santa Junta, or Holy Council, first at Ávila and then at Tordesillas, where they hoped to win the support of Queen Joanna. She received them but would not sign their decrees. The Junta drew up demands for a king who lived in Castile, offices reserved for Castilians, lower taxes and regular meetings of the Cortes.

Collapse of the revolt

At first the great nobles stayed neutral, but as the revolt took on anti-seigneurial features, with risings against lords in the countryside, they rallied to the crown. Charles named two leading nobles, the Constable and the Admiral of Castile, as co-regents with Adrian. On 5 December 1520 royalist forces took Tordesillas, capturing many members of the Junta.

Divisions among the rebels weakened them further. In April 1521 the Comunero army under Padilla tried to move from Torrelobatón towards the stronghold of Toro. On 23 April 1521, in heavy rain, royalist cavalry caught it near the village of Villalar and routed it. Padilla, Juan Bravo of Segovia and Francisco Maldonado of Salamanca were captured and beheaded at Villalar the next day.

Toledo held out under Padilla’s widow, María Pacheco, until February 1522, when she fled to Portugal. Bishop Antonio de Acuña of Zamora, one of the most radical leaders, was later executed in 1526.

Key people

• Charles I of Spain (1500–1558): the young Habsburg king, absent in Germany for most of the revolt.
• Juan de Padilla (c. 1490–1521): a Toledo nobleman and the best-known military leader of the Comuneros.
• Juan Bravo (c. 1483–1521): leader of the Segovia militia, executed with Padilla at Villalar.
• María Pacheco (c. 1496–1531): Padilla’s wife, who led Toledo’s resistance after his death.
• Adrian of Utrecht (1459–1523): Charles’s former tutor and regent of Castile, elected Pope Adrian VI in January 1522.

Consequences

Charles returned to Spain in July 1522. In November he issued a general pardon, though it excluded around 300 named rebels. He learned from the revolt: he spent more time in Spain, learned Castilian, married the Portuguese princess Isabella in 1526 and gave more posts to Castilians. Castile became the loyal financial heart of his empire.

At the same time a separate rising, the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, or Germanías, shook Valencia and Majorca between 1519 and 1523. Taken together, the two revolts showed the strains created by Charles’s vast inheritance, assembled through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella and Habsburg dynastic politics.

Legacy

For three centuries the Comuneros were remembered mainly as rebels. In the nineteenth century Spanish liberals recast them as martyrs for the rights of the kingdom against royal absolutism, and painters such as Antonio Gisbert gave the execution at Villalar a heroic image. Historians still debate whether the revolt was a forward-looking constitutional movement or a defence of traditional urban privileges; most see elements of both.

Timeline

• 1517, September: Charles arrives in Spain for the first time.
• 1520, April: Toledo rises in revolt.
• 1520, 20 May: Charles sails from La Coruña for the Low Countries and Germany.
• 1520, 21 August: Royal troops burn Medina del Campo.
• 1520, 5 December: Royalists take Tordesillas.
• 1521, 23 April: The Comuneros are defeated at Villalar.
• 1521, 24 April: Padilla, Bravo and Maldonado are executed.
• 1522, February: Toledo surrenders.

Why it matters

The Revolt of the Comuneros was the most serious challenge to royal power in Castile in the sixteenth century. Its defeat confirmed the authority of the Habsburg monarchy over the towns and the Cortes. Later liberals saw the Comuneros as early defenders of constitutional freedom, and Villalar remains an important symbol of Castilian identity.