Bandits, banditry and royal power in Catalonia between the 16th and 17th centuries Authors Ernest Belenguer Universitat de Barcelona Abstract This article is a synthesis of a phenomenon – banditry in Catalonia – which peaked in the century and a half between approximately 1500 and 1630. In this article, by ‘banditry’ we mean the kind waged by both the upper classes and nobility and the lower classes. With forerunners in the late Middle Ages, banditry is ultimately part of a history of social transversality in all sectors, which seriously hinderedits official repression – from the Crown to the Diputació del General (General Deputation) – because bandits had infiltrated all the institutions, including the Reial Audiència (Appellate Court). This article then describes the most vivid periods of banditry, its leading personalities or groups, including the nyerros and cadells, and the savage violence that it generated far and wide. Nonetheless, a minimal comparison with broad swaths of the Mediterranean reveals that banditry is not unique to the history of Catalonia. Author Biography Ernest Belenguer, Universitat de Barcelona Ernest Belenguer was born in Valencia, where he earned a doctorate in Modern History and taught classes. He moved to Barcelona —Universitat Autònoma— in 1972. After six years as a chair at the Universitat de les Illes Balears (1980-1986), he permanently moved to the Universitat de Barcelona, where he remains an emeritus professor. From his extensive teaching and research experience, one unusual fact is that Belenguer has taught in all the major Catalan-speaking universities, and in all of them he has left studies from the late Middle Ages and early Modern Age, as seen through his books in Catalan like Jaume I a través de la història, Jaume I i el seu regnat, València en la crisi del segle xv, and Ferran el Catòlic, and in Spanish like El Imperio de Carlos V, El Imperio Hispánico and Un reino escondido: Mallorca, de Carlos V a Felipe II. However, even better proof is his supervision of large compilations like Història de les Illes Balears, Història d’Andorra, the six-volume completion of the Història del País Valencià, La forja dels Països Catalans, segles xiii-xv, which is volume 3 of the general work by Enciclopèdia Catalana on the Catalan-speaking lands, and Història de la Corona d’Aragó. He also wrote the extensive prologue to volume 3 of the Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya: La Generalitat en la cruïlla dels conflictes jurisdiccionals (1578-1611). Downloads PDF Issue No. 8 (2015): Catalan Historical Review Section English Version License Submission of a manuscript to Catalan Historical Review implies: that the work described has not been published before, including publication on the World Wide Web (except in the form of an Abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that all coauthors have agreed to its publication. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material and will act on behalf of any and all co-authors regarding the editorial review and publication processes.If an article is accepted for publication in Catalan Historical Review, the authors (or other copyright holder) must transfer to the journal the copyright, which covers the right —not exclusive— to reproduce and distribute the article including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. Nevertheless, all articles in Catalan Historical Review will be available on the internet to any reader at no cost. The journal allows users to freely download, copy, print, distribute, search, and link to the full text of any article, provided the authorship and source of the published article is cited. The copyright owner’s consent does not include copying for new works, or resale.In these cases, the specific written permission of Catalan Historical Review must first be obtained.Authors are requested to create a link to the published article on the journal’s website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: ‘‘The original publication is available on LINK at http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/. Please use the appropriate URL for the article in LINK. Articles disseminated via LINK are indexed, abstracted, and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia. ISSN: 2013-4088 (electronic edition); 2013-407X (print edition)
