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Corpus of Blood
The Corpus of Blood (Corpus de Sangre) was a riot carried out in San Andrés de Palomar on June 7, 1640, by a large group of reapers, with the connivance of a good part of the local population. A small incident on Ample Street between a group of peasants and some soldiers of the tercios of the royal army, during which a reaper was badly wounded, triggered the revolt.
The year 1640 was a decisive year with grave consequences, above all from the month of May onward, when a generalized uprising took place among the entire population of the Catalan counties. It was directed against the mobilization and continued presence in the region of the tercios of the royal army, which had been sent to Catalonia because of the war with France in 1635, and against the attempt to quarter them inside the towns. Some towns refused to open their gates, such as San Feliu de Pallarols or Santa Coloma de Farnés, where the Alguacil Montrodon, sent to carry out the quartering of the soldiers, was burned alive. The reprisals carried out by the tercios in Riudarenas (May 3) and in Santa Coloma de Farnés (May 14) set off a rapid armed uprising of townspeople and peasants. It spread from the comarcas of Gerona toward the Ampurdán, toward the Vallés, and toward Osona and the Ripollés.
"Long live the faith of Christ!" and "Long live the land, death to bad government!" were the slogans of the reapers who started the popular revolt of June 7, 1640,[1][2] a day known as the Corpus of Blood.[3]
88. Among all the seditious there stood out one of the reapers, a villainous and terrible man. A lower minister of justice, a creature and officer of Monredon (of whom we have spoken), recognized him and tried to arrest him, and from this contention a quarrel arose between the two. The reaper was wounded, and a great part of his companions were already coming to his aid. Each party strove harder and harder, yet the reapers always had the advantage. Then some of the militia soldiers who guarded the palace of the Viceroy fired toward the tumult, giving everyone more provocation than remedy. At this point they furiously broke out into shouts: some demanded vengeance, while others, more ambitious, proclaimed the liberty of the homeland. Here one heard long live Catalonia and the Catalans; there others cried out: death to the bad government of Philip. These words resounded formidably for the first time in the cautious ears of the prudent. Nearly all those who did not utter them heard them with fear, and most would rather not have heard them at all. Doubt, dread, danger and confusion were all one. Each had its own action, and such different effects found room in each person; only the Royal ministers and those of the war awaited it equally in their zeal. All expected death at any moment, for the furious mob seldom stops short of blood. Many, without restraining their anger, served as heralds to the fury of others: one shouted while another struck, and the latter, hearing the former's cries, grew furious anew. They defamed the Spaniards with the most outrageous names and sought them out with eagerness and care, and whoever found and killed one was held to be brave, loyal and fortunate.[citation needed]
— Francisco Manuel de Melo, writer and chronicler.
The disturbances spread to Barcelona over the following days. The final toll was between 12 and 20 deaths, mostly royal officials. The death of the Viceroy of Catalonia, the Count of Santa Coloma, nevertheless marked a turning point in the rupture between Catalonia and the Monarchy and precipitated the outbreak of the "Reapers' War".
References
- ↑ Entry Corpus de Sang Archived 2010-06-25 at the Wayback Machine in the Gran Enciclopedia Catalana.
- ↑ Pedres de Girona - La Guerra dels Segadors (in Catalan)
- ↑ Francisco Manuel de Melo, Historia de los movimientos, separación y guerra de Cataluña, en tiempo de Felipe IV (in Spanish)
See also
External links
- El Corpus de sangre [dead link] at the Museum of the History of Catalonia (in Catalan).
