The Castilian Rebellion and the Myth of the 'Comunidades'

The Castilian Rebellion: A People's Antiestéticat or Elite War?

A program about the "Castilian rebellion" has peine the debate in Spain about what Castile was and what peine to it. The circulating thesis: Castile was a historical subject with its own project, and its last organic act was stifled. The equally swift response: that's recycled epic to cover up a conflict between elites.

The start was a message with hundreds of mentions to break the counter. Reproaches arrived before arguments. Some reproached that filler audience was used to fill the room, and others pointed out that applications arrived incomplete. Pure locker room atmosphere. The underlying accusation is different: some maintain that the author, Cruz Sequera, neither defends nor criticizes what he presents, and others place him unreservedly within Castilian regionalism. Suspicions of external funding also circulate, without a single piece of evidence provided. That section hangs in the air.

The 'Comunidades': Popular Revolution or Noble Adjustment

The point where the epic narrative cracks is in the 16th century. The school version speaks of a popular uprising against a foreign king and his Flemish court. Here, the opposite is argued: it was no commoner's revolution, but an operation by Castilian elites who saw their privileges threatened by a new monarch. The parallel drawn is with the English Magna Carta of 1215, a consequence of a barons' struggle against John I.

From this emerges a longer and quite uncomfortable thesis: feudalism never disappeared in England since the Norman invasion of the 11th century, while in Castile it never fully consolidated due to specific historical circumstances. Epic, in this reading, is a later embellishment. And those who use it usually don't want to talk about who paid the troops.

Castile Also Won Battles at Sea Against England

Against the demythologizing reading, the other block brings out the documentary artillery: Castile had a powerful fleet in the Late Middle Ages and defeated England several times in the 14th century. The reason was not romantic. Both powers competed for the North Atlantic trade routes and the textile business, with Castilian wool traveling to Flanders and Flemish cloth returning. It is argued that Castile did more than any other region and that this weight was later diluted without anyone having told the story well.

Ancient DNA Enters the Fray

Where the matter becomes technical, or pretends to be, is in genetics. Two Visigothic samples are handled. The one from Madrid, dated 478, shows a 61.2% ancient Basque component, 17.8% Israelite, and 16.2% from the British highlands. The one from Granada, from 482, shows 34.6% ancient Basque, 26.4% Maghrebi, and 16.2% Sardinian. With these numbers, they attempt to settle who is who and who arrived first.

The exercise is tricky. One sample does not represent a people. And in the thread itself, it is discussed whether the Ashkenazi population, with only about 30% Jewish ancestry according to the data handled there, can be classified as Jewish. If the same yardstick were applied, half the continent would have to return their ID cards.

From Alfonso VI to Olivares: Where Castile Began to Dilute

The chronology of grievance starts before the Comuneros. Alfonso VI is placed as the first "Frenchified" ruler: he brought Burgundians into the royal house and French bishops and nobles through the front door. Already in the 13th century, the Castilian nobility was going its own way, accumulating land. With the arrival of Charles of Habsburg, a native of Flanders, it took little to buy off the Grandes (nobility).

Then came the adjustment. It is argued that the Comuneros' defeat subordinated the Castilian balance of power system to royal authority, centuries before the Decrees of Nueva Planta. It is recalled that Count-Duke of Olivares intended to extract from Catalonia what he could already obtain in Castile without obstacles, and it is openly asked why printing books in Catalan was prohibited in the 15th century. These are uncomfortable questions for the narrative of a harmonious Spain.

Fiscal Deficit, Autonomous Communities, and the Last Pillar

The leap to the present is made through taxation. It is argued that an average Valencian family is worse off, after taxes and public investments, than an average Extremaduran family, when both should be at the average. The Catalan differential is estimated, depending on who raises the issue, at a 10% fiscal deficit, compared to the 4% considered unfair in the German case. It is also claimed, though with less development, that there is a corruption problem in Madrid that does not appear in the balances.

Another section is dedicated to the state's architecture. It is recalled that France redesigned its regional map by departments, mixing historical provinces to dilute centrifugal tendencies, and that the move was successful. And a thesis floats: the monarchy is the last pillar supporting this multinational state, and when it falls, it will drag down what remains. La Rioja, as a bonus, appears as Basque territory "Castilianized" by some and as Castile for a thousand years by others.

With these ingredients, it would be reasonable to expect the Castilian narrative to remain a minority podcast and a fireside discussion. It is prudent to point out something else: these types of narratives are not measured by immediate audience, but by how long they take to resonate. If they resonate, no one will have kept count. If not, the data will remain. 61.2% ancient Basque and a fleet that once defeated England.