Joan Margarit I Pau Cardinal Bishop Of Gerona

This is the story of the disaster which befell Catalonia in the fifteenth century. A society already destabilised by rural and urban conflict was driven into civil war by the uncompromising nature of its oligarchies defending the status quo, and an alien monarch resolved to bend them to his will. How that blind, aged ruler overcame the patriotic fervour whipped up by his adversaries in ten years of fighting is a major theme of the book. The material devastation inflicted onCatalonia, together with the long-lasting psychological humiliation brought about by its incorporation in the new Spanish state of Fernando and Isabel, has meant that for centuries Catalans have been struggling to undo that outcome.

A landmark account that reveals the long history behind the current Catalan and Scottish independence movements A distinguished historian of Spain and Europe provides an enlightening account of the development of nationalist and separatist movements in contemporary Catalonia and Scotland. This first sustained comparative study uncovers the similarities and the contrasts between the Scottish and Catalan experiences across a five-hundred-year period, beginning with the royal marriages that brought about union with their more powerful neighbors, England and Castile respectively, and following the story through the centuries from the end of the Middle Ages until today’s dramatic events. J. H. Elliott examines the political, economic, social, cultural, and emotional factors that divide Scots and Catalans from the larger nations to which their fortunes were joined. He offers new insights into the highly topical subject of the character and development of European nationalism, the nature of separatism, and the sense of grievance underlying the secessionist aspirations that led to the Scottish referendum of 2014, the illegal Catalan referendum of October 2017, and the resulting proclamation of an independent Catalan republic.