Gustavo: A brief look at the history of the “fiesta” of Villalar de los Comuneros

Every 23rd of April, the people of Castile celebrate the festival of their autonomous region, which is based on a well-known historic event.

In the location of what is today the village of Villalar de los Comuneros (Valladolid) took place the battle of Villalar, where Emperor Carlos V’s troops beat the army of commoners lead by Juan de Padilla (from Toledo), Juan Bravo (from Segovia – although he was born in Guadalajara) and Francisco and Pedro Maldonado (from Salamanca). 

Detail of the battle. Manuel Pícolo López (1887) 

The commoner troops rose up against the young King, Carlos I, son of Juana (called “la Loca”) and Felipe (called “el Hermoso”), to defend their privileges. In the Old Castilian Regime the governors had to obey a law based on the custom and the King Carlos, who had been born and raised in Gante (Flandes – the present Belgium) was seen by the Castilians as a stranger.

As he started to introduce foreigners in capital government positions such as Toledo’s archbishopric, where 20-year-old Guillermo de Croy followed the all-powerful Cardinal Cisneros, the conflict was early seen coming. And, obviously, the uprising started in Toledo.

The insurrection began to be called “community” and that’s the origin of the uprising’s name: commoner or “comuneros”. However, there are many historians that consider the uprising as a revolution, based on the development of the process. Let’s take a look.

The uprising spread to the cities of the Castilian plateau while the king was attending imperial matters in Germany. In his place, Regent Adriano de Utrecht (the future Pope Adriano VI – also a foreigner himself) couldn’t handle the situation, which ended up broadening the east kingdom of Valencia, in another conflict known as the “germanías”.

The commoners went to Tordesillas to talk to Queen Juana, where she was a recluse, to ask her to rule the kingdom according to the Castilian law, but she refused to betray her son as she had earlier refused to betray her husband and her father (Fernando “the Catholic”) even when both of them deemed her insane though probably she wasn’t.  

Anyhow, this situation was difficult to overcome for the commoners as they were gradually staying out of the current law, as I said before, a custom-based law. It was then when they took the decision to assume the functions of government and the uprising became an anti-seigneurial insurrection that they decided to support. After that, the Castilian nobility quickly abandoned its faltering attitude and sided with the king in a conflict that began to take new features. 

The final battle took place in Villalar on 23rd April, 1521. The end of the story is well-known: Juan de Padilla, Juan Bravo and Francisco Maldonado where beheaded the day after the battle and the commoners’ uprising was crushed (Padilla’s wife, María Pacheco, capitulated in Toledo one year later).  

The story of the Maldonados is more complex. At the first of the uprising, there were two, Francisco Maldonado, commissioned to direct the “salmantina” militias, and his cousin, Pedro Maldonado. Both of them shared the lead of the “salmantina” troops, but only one was beheaded the day after the battle of Villalar. Pedro Maldonado, heir to the “Casa de las Conchas” in Salamanca (as a member of the Maldonado-Pimentel’s family), was executed one year later together with other lesser-known leaders.  

Commoner captains executions. Antonio Gisbert (1860)

All in all, to explain why the Castilians celebrate a defeat symbolizes, from my point of view, the paradox of our history. The emperor’s troops won that day, but Castile lost pretty much in the long term, as supporting Emperor Carlos’s project largely conditioned and caused the ruin of the subsequent economic development.