Germanias revolt, Mallorca 1521-1523

Since the 15th century, Mallorcan towns and villages had been heavily indebted to the crown, which led to serious fiscal problems for the island's population. Taxation mainly affected the artisan sectors of the City of Mallorca and the peasants of the Part Forana, the territories that did not belong to the City. During the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic, measures were approved to mitigate the effects of the tax pressure, but the arrival of Charles V to the throne paralysed their implementation. In 1519, the year in which Charles V became the Holy Roman emperor, the Germanias of Valencia broke out, followed by the Comuneros revolt in Castile in 1520. To prevent popular discontent from triggering a similar revolt in the Kingdom of Mallorca, on 6 February 1521 seven artisans were arrested on charges of conspiracy. That event was the trigger for the brotherhoods revolt (named “germanias” in Castilian and “germanies” in Catalan) in Mallorca. As in Valencia, a Junta de los Trece was created, a body outside the royal power that represented the guilds of the City of Mallorca. Shortly afterwards, taxes on meat, wine and salt were abolished and slaves were freed. These measures positioned the lower Mallorcan nobility, the main censualists of the kingdom, against the germanias. The war ended with the fall of the City of Mallorca in 1523 at the hands of royalist troops. During that and the following year, dozens of "agermanats" were executed.