By Borderline
2 years ago

The Catalan Army from 1714

The army of Catalonia "Exèrcit de Catalunya" was an army created on the 9th of July from 1713 by the Catalan Government.

On the same day, the Catalan authorities declared the war to the Kingdom of France and the Duke of Anjou, as the Catalan constitution from 1906 did not recognise him as a king of the Hispanic Monarchy.

The army started recruiting levies and the first units created were the Regiment de la diputació del General de Catalunya and the Regiment de la ciutat de Barcelona, under the commandment of Antoni de Villarroel.

Right after, the Catalan Generality recruited five more regiments of Line Infantry, which were the following:

- Regiment de la Immaculada Concepció
- Regiment de Santa Eulàlia
- Regiment d'Infanteria de la Mare de Déu dels Desemparats
- Regiment de Sant Narcís
- Regiment de Nostra Senyora del Roser

A part from this regiments, every city had it´s own regiment of line infantry during the whole Modern Age, called Coronela, the most importants were the following:

- Coronela de Tarragona
- Coronela de Barcelona
- Coronela de Tortosa
- Coronela de Lleida
- Coronela de Manresa

The Catalan constitutions recognised the rights of every city to raise regiments to protect themselves. The people on those regiments were people from the City Guilds.

Also Catalonia raised a good chivalry army, to support the Line infantry. The regiments conforming this Chivalry army were this ones:

- Regiment de cavalleria Rafael Nebot
- Regiment de cavalleria La Fe
- Regiment de cavalleria Sant Jordi
- Regiment de cavalleria Dragons de Sant Miquel
- Regiment de cavalleria Sant Jaume
- Regiment de cavalleria Pere de Bricfeus
- Companyia de cavalleria n.1 d'Hússars Hongaresos
- Companyia de cavalleria n.2 d'Hússars Hongaresos
- Companyia de cavalleria de Jordi Badia

The artillery was under the commandment of the General Joan Baptista Basset, and they were mainly deployed in Barcelona. The Marina Catalana was quiet weak as it just had 4 or 5 big battle ships and a garrison of 200 orphan boys.

Also, the Miquelets enjoyed a certain prominence in the war. The Miquelets were Catalan and Valencian light mountain troops created by Miquelet de Prats, a Cesar Borgia's man.

The Catalan army was finally defeated in Barcelona on the 11th of September 1714, after violent combats against the invaders from the Spanish and the French armies.

Regiments of Miquelets were also integrated in the Spanish army and fought in other places of the Spanish Empire, outside Spain. For example, the First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, which was composed of Catalan Miquelets, was destined in New Spain. From there, the Company played a crucial role in the Spanish colonization of the Pacific Northwest, building Fort San Miguel, the first formal European settlement in British Columbia, from 1790 to 1792. Its captain, Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor, received military decorations and even was appointed Interim Governor of California in 1800.

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