Catalan Courts

The Catalan Courts or General Court of Catalonia (Catalan: Corts Catalanes or Cort General de Catalunya) were the parliamentary body of the Principality of Catalonia from the 13th to the 18th century. The Catalan Courts were the result of the territorial and institutional evolution of the Comital Court of Barcelona (council of the count of Barcelona), and took its definitive institutional form in 1283, according to historian Thomas Bisson.

Composed by the king and the three estates of the realm, it has been considered by several historians as a model of medieval parliament. Scholar Charles Howard McIlwain wrote that the General Court of Catalonia had a better defined organization than the parliaments of England or France. Unlike the Courts of Castile, which at the time functioned mainly as an advisory body to which the king granted privileges and exemptions, the Catalan Courts was a regulatory body, as their decisions had the force of law, in the sense that the king could not unilaterally revoke them, being the first parliament of Europe that officially obtained the power to pass legislation, alongside the monarch. It is comparable to similar institutions across Europe, such as the Parliament of England and the diets of the German lands.

The General Courts of the Crown of Aragon were the simultaneous meeting of the Courts of Aragon, the Courts of Valencia and the Courts of Catalonia. The Kingdom of Majorca did not convene Courts and thus sent their representatives to the Courts of the Principality. As the courts could not be held outside of Aragon nor the Principality, they were frequently held in Monzón or in Fraga, both claimed by Aragon and Catalonia due to their location on the eastern bank of the Cinca river.

The Catalan Courts met for almost five centuries, until they were abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716. Thereafter the Courts of Castile operate as the unified Courts of Spain, except in Navarra. Despite some attempts to reestablish the Courts, Catalonia only recovered a legislative assembly in 1932, in the form of the current Parliament of Catalonia.

The Courts were made up of three arms (Catalan: braços), representatives of the three estates of the realm: the military estate (Braç Militar) which included representatives from the nobility, the ecclesiastical estate (Braç Eclesiàstic) which saw representatives from the religious hierarchy and the royal estate (Braç Reial) which had representatives (known as síndics) from the municipalities and villages.

The ecclesiastical arm was presided by the Archbishop of Tarragona and comprised the Catalan bishops, the prior of Catalonia of the Knights Hospitaller, the castellan of Amposta, the abbots with possession of the abbey, the priors of convents with chapter, without superior in the Principality and with mer and mixed imperium over their vassals, the commanders of the Knights Hospitaller (in principle) and the chapters of the cathedrals. They were excluded the lower secular clergy and the mendicant orders.

The Duke of Cardona was the president of the military arm, the other titular noblemen (marquises, counts and viscounts) as well as knights and other minor nobles were summoned to the Courts. Those who simply enjoyed military privilege did not participate (honored citizens of Barcelona and honored bourgeois of Perpignan and doctors of law and medicine), but only those with vassals, even if they were commoners. Despite the requirement of Catalan naturalisation, foreign lords with Catalan vassals could attend the Courts.

By the royal arm, presided by the Chief Councilor of Barcelona, were made up of representatives (síndics) of the cities and towns under direct royal jurisdiction with the consolidated privilege of participating. The force of the custom meant that, if they stopped doing it (usually due to the financial cost involved) they had to obtain the right again. The settlements belonging to royal castles (rural places) were excluded because they were made up of scattered farmers without a town. Each city was represented by one síndic, except for Barcelona (five), Perpignan (three) and Lleida, Girona, Tortosa and Balaguer (two). The síndics were tied to their municipalities by an imperative mandate. Municipal commissions were in charge of ensuring the mandate through specific instructions and epistolary contact. The síndics could not disobey them even if it was by order of a third party, including the king, and they could be dismissed in case of serious misconduct.