Cataluña en el contexto de los cambios políticos de 1705

Abstract

In this contribution we cover a year that is crucial for the history of Catalonia, 1705, starting from a double perspective. On the one hand, we avail ourselves of unpublished sources found in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris and, on the other hand, we make use of a methodology that attempts to place the events in the general context of the monarchy in a year which would turn out to be critical for the Bourbon cause and would witness the triumph of Archduke Charles’s supporters in Catalonia. To that effect, we take as a starting point a letter written by the French Ambassador Michel Amelot in which he notifies Luis XIV of the causes that, according to Viceroy Velasco’s opinion, had brought about the loss of Catalonia: the terrible state of the troops under his command, the decisions adopted by the State Council during 1704 —which, to his opinion, had been excessively permissive with the rebels— and lastly, the policy of granting honours and pardons developed by Philip V after the end of the Courts of Barcelona of 1702.