Catalan Republic (1641)

The Catalan Republic (República Catalana, ) was a short-lived independent state under French protection established in 1641 by the Junta de Braços (assembly of Estates) of the Principality of Catalonia led by the President of the Generalitat, Pau Claris, during the Reapers' War (1640–1652).

As the conflict with the Spanish Monarchy escalated, the Junta de Braços of Catalonia, headed by the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pau Claris, assumed the sovereignity and the effective rule of the Principality after September 1640 and ultimately, while the royal armies approached to Barcelona, accepted the establishment of the Catalan Republic on 17 January 1641. On 23 January 1641, due to the desperate military situation and French pressure, the Junta de Braços proclaimed Louis XIII of France as Count of Barcelona, putting the Principality of Catalonia under personal union with the Kingdom of France. Louis XIII was succeeded upon his death in 1643 by Louis XIV, who remained Count of Barcelona until 1652, when Catalonia was reincorporated into the Spanish Monarchy.

History
During the Reapers' War which started in 1640 (and included as a part of the Franco-Spanish War) the Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (assembly of Estates or States-General) of Catalonia, an extraordinary body made up of the representatives of the three Estates of the realm in the Catalan Courts, summoned and presided by the Generalitat on 10 September, began to assume the sovereignty de facto due to the power void, enacting mesures such as the establishment of its own Council of Justice after the death of the royal judges of the Audience in the Corpus de Sang events, the Council of Defense of the Principality in order to respond the expected Royal counter-attack, as well the Council of Treasury which issued debt and an special tax to the nobility, while sought support in France. Bernard du Plessis-Besançon was appointed plenipotentiary of the King of France to Catalonia on 29 August 1640. On 27 October an agreement was finally reached with du Plessis-Besançon to obtain supplies against the army of the King of Spain directed by Pedro Fajardo, Marquis of los Vélez.

With the victory of the army of the Marquis of Los Vélez in Tarragona on 23 December it continued its advance towards Barcelona, while the French army of d'Espenan proceeded to leave Catalonia to France at the beginning of January 1641. Negotiations with the French intensified, on 3 January a delegation of three Catalans met with Cardinal Richelieu who assured them protection if they were an independent republic like Genoa. On 14 January du Plessis-Besançon went at the residence of the president of the Deputation of the General of Catalonia or Generalitat, Pau Claris, to still conferring.

As a result of the negotiation, on 16 January, Pau Claris presented a proposal before the Junta de Braços by which the King of France agreed to put the Principality under his protection if Catalonia changed its government to a republic. On 17 January 1641, the Junta de Braços proclaimed for the first time in history the Catalan Republic under French protection. However, a week later, following the defeat of the Catalan armies in the Battle of Martorell, close to Barcelona, du Plessis-Besançon managed to convince the Catalan authorities that the help they needed could only be obtained from France if they recognized Louis XIII of France as sovereign. Pau Claris appealed on 23 January to Louis XIII, recognizing him as Count of Barcelona (as Louis I) and placed the Principality of Catalonia in a personal union with the Kingdom of France.

On 26 January 1641, at the end of the Battle of Montjuïc, the army of Philip IV was defeated by a Franco-Catalan army and had to withdraw. Pau Claris died a month later. However, before the French king agreed to swear to the Catalan constitutions, almost a whole year passed, during which Catalonia was still governed without depending on any monarch, while maintaining de facto the republic in which the Junta de Braços retained the real power. The formal agreement of personal union between Catalonia and France was ratified by the Treaty of Peronne on 19 September 1641.

Louis XIV was titled as Count of Barcelona (as Louis II) in succession to his father in 1643. Finally, the dismissal of the Count-Duke of Olivares, the ravages caused by the famine and the plague, the commitment made by Philip IV to respect the Catalan constitutions and institutions, and the retaking of Barcelona by Philip's army put an end to the war in 1652, and the Principality of Catalonia was reincorporated into the Monarchy of Spain.