Peace and Friendship Treaty of Barcelona (1493)

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The Peace and Friendship Treaty of Barcelona was an agreement signed in 1493 between the French King Charles VIII and the Catholic Kings Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon . On January 8, 1493, the representatives of the contracting parties in Narbonne signed the contract. On January 18, 1493 it was ratified by the French King Charles VIII in Tours and on January 19, 1493 by the Catholic Kings in Barcelona.

Political context

In the years 1492 and 1493, the young French King Charles VIII concluded peace treaties with his most important foreign opponents.

  • In Étaples , Charles VIII and Henry VII of England agreed on an armistice on November 3, 1492. Henry VII was to withdraw his invading army from Boulogne and stop fighting in Brittany. For this, Karl promised an annual payment.
  • In the Treaty of Barcelona Charles VIII gave the to his father Louis XI. Counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya ceded as pledge by John II of Aragon to John’s son Ferdinand II.
  • In the Treaty of Senlis , which was concluded in May 1493, France returned parts of the legacy of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy to the Roman-German King and later Emperor Maximilian I and his son Philip , the then Duke of Burgundy.

Historians have generally viewed these three treaties as preparatory steps for young Charles VIII on his Italian adventure. In the three treaties he made great financial, territorial, and political concessions to his main enemies.

Prehistory: Occupation of the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya

At the beginning of the Catalan Civil War, John II of Aragon signed a contract with the French King Louis XI in May 1462. The French offered military aid to the Aragonese monarch. Johann II should in exchange for 300,000 crowns to Ludwig XI. numbers. As a pledge, Johann ceded the rights to the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya to the French king. Since the agreed payment to the French king was not made, he occupied the counties on a long-term basis. Attempts by King John to subordinate the areas to his government through military attacks also failed. After the conquest of the kingdom of Granada , the Catholic kings would have had the means to regain the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya by force for the crown of Aragon .

Content of the contract

  • The text of the treaty stipulated that the kings of Castile and Aragon were not allowed to provide any help of any actual or tactical nature to any of Charles's enemies. This prohibition excepted an aid to the Pope. (The papacy clause was common in all treaties between Christian kings of the time. In the case of the Barcelona treaty, this clause was the stumbling block for the treaty to fail after a short time.)
  • The Catholic Kings and Charles agreed to consult each other beforehand before concluding treaties with other rulers.
  • Ferdinand and Isabella should only be allowed to pursue marriage projects in England and Burgundy with the consent of the French king.
  • France undertook to return the Catalan territories, the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya, to Ferdinand.

At no point in the treaty was there any reference to the claims that Charles VIII later made in relation to Naples.

Breach of contract

Immediately after the conclusion of the treaties, Charles VIII began preparing a military campaign to Italy to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. All attempts by affected regents to prevent him from doing so failed. Also Pope Alexander VI. tried diplomatic means to dissuade Karl from his plan. He justified his action against Naples on the one hand with historical claims of his house, on the other hand with the fact that he would need the Kingdom of Naples as a starting point for a planned crusade against the Turks. In February 1495 the French occupy the Kingdom of Naples. On May 20, 1495, Pope Alexander, after having been pressured in various ways by Charles, crowned him king in the cathedral of Naples.

The Catholic Kings felt bound by the treaty until Pope Alexander asked them for help. In March 1495 they began to move troops to the island of Sicily, which they ruled. In June the first fighting between French and Spanish troops took place in Calabria. The Duke of Montpensier , the French viceroy in Naples, capitulated on July 27, 1496.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peace and friendship treaty of Barcelona between Charles VIII of France and Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, 1493, in: Heinz Duchhardt / Martin Espenhorst (eds.), European peace treaties of the premodern online. (accessed June 6, 2016) ( online )
  2. ↑ Luis Suárz Fernández: El tiempo de la guerra de Granada . Ediciones Rialp, Madrid 1989, ISBN 84-321-2560-1 , pp. 305 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Randall Lesaffer: The Three Peace Treaties of 1492-1493 . In: Heinz Duchhardt, Martin Peters (Hrsg.): Calculus - Transfer - Symbol European peace treaties of the premodern . Institute for European History Mainz, Mainz 2006, p. 41 ( ieg-mainz.de [accessed on May 28, 2016]).
  4. ^ William Hickling Prescott: Historia del reinado de Fernando e Isabel, los Reyes Católicos . Ed .: John Foster Kirk. George Routledge and Sons / Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, London / Alicante 1892, p. 320 (Spanish, cervantesvirtual.com [accessed August 29, 2015]).
  5. ↑ Julio Valdeón Baruque: La Dinastía de los Trastámara . Ed .: Fundación Iberdrola España (=  Biblioteca del Mundo Hispánico ). Ediciones El Viso, o. O. (Madrid) 2006, ISBN 84-95241-50-1 , pp. 232 (Spanish, fundacioniberdrolaespana.org [PDF; accessed on January 16, 2016]).
  6. ^ William Hickling Prescott: Historia del reinado de Fernando e Isabel, los Reyes Católicos . Ed .: John Foster Kirk. George Routledge and Sons / Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, London / Alicante 1892, p. 364 (Spanish, cervantesvirtual.com [accessed August 29, 2015]).
  7. ↑ Leandro Martínez Peñas; Manuela Fernández Rodríguez: Ultima Ratio . In: La guerra y el nacimiento del Estado Moderno: Consecuencias jurídicas e institucionales de los conflictos bélicos en el reinado de los Reyes Católicos . Asociación Veritas para el Estudio de la Historia, el Derecho y las Instituciones, Valladolid 2014, ISBN 978-84-616-8611-7 , p. 139 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed February 28, 2016]).
  8. ↑ Luis Suárz Fernández: El tiempo de la guerra de Granada . Ediciones Rialp, Madrid 1989, ISBN 84-321-2560-1 , pp. 305 (Spanish).
  9. ↑ Leandro Martínez Peñas; Manuela Fernández Rodríguez: Ultima Ratio . In: La guerra y el nacimiento del Estado Moderno: Consecuencias jurídicas e institucionales de los conflictos bélicos en el reinado de los Reyes Católicos . Asociación Veritas para el Estudio de la Historia, el Derecho y las Instituciones, Valladolid 2014, ISBN 978-84-616-8611-7 , p. 142 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed February 28, 2016]).
  10. ↑ Leandro Martínez Peñas; Manuela Fernández Rodríguez: Ultima Ratio . In: La guerra y el nacimiento del Estado Moderno: Consecuencias jurídicas e institucionales de los conflictos bélicos en el reinado de los Reyes Católicos . Asociación Veritas para el Estudio de la Historia, el Derecho y las Instituciones, Valladolid 2014, ISBN 978-84-616-8611-7 , p. 143 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed February 28, 2016]).

literature

  • Randall Lesaffer: The Three Peace Treaties of 1492-1493 . In: Heinz Duchhardt, Martin Peters (Hrsg.): Calculus - Transfer - Symbol European peace treaties of the premodern . Institute for European History Mainz, Mainz 2006, p. 41–52 ( ieg-mainz.de [accessed on May 28, 2016]).
  • Leandro Martínez Peñas; Manuela Fernández Rodríguez: Ultima Ratio . In: La guerra y el nacimiento del Estado Moderno: Consecuencias jurídicas e institucionales de los conflictos bélicos en el reinado de los Reyes Católicos . Asociación Veritas para el Estudio de la Historia, el Derecho y las Instituciones, Valladolid 2014, ISBN 978-84-616-8611-7 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed February 28, 2016]).
  • Luis Suárez Fernández: El tiempo de la guerra de Granada . Ediciones Rialp, Madrid 1989, ISBN 84-321-2560-1 (Spanish).

Web links

Peace and friendship treaty of Barcelona between Charles VIII of France and Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, 1493, in: Heinz Duchhardt / Martin Espenhorst (eds.), European peace treaties of the premodern online. ( Online , accessed June 6, 2016)