Military History of The Revolt of The Comuneros

Military History Of The Revolt Of The Comuneros

Military conflict in the Revolt of the Comuneros (Spanish: Guerra de las Comunidades de Castilla) spanned from 1520 to 1521. The Revolt began with mobs of urban workers attacking government officials, grew to low-level combat between small militias, and eventually saw massed armies fighting battles and sieges. The comunero rebels gained control of most of central Castile quite quickly, and the royal army was in shambles by September 1520. However, the comuneros alienated much of the landed nobility, and the nobility's personal armies helped bolster the royalist forces. The Battle of Tordesillas in December 1520 would prove a major setback for the rebels, and the most important army of the comuneros was destroyed at the Battle of Villalar in April 1521.

This article is arranged geographically, and then chronologically within each region. The royalists tended to maintain the same commanders and armies in each area, with the one major exception of when the Constable of Castile moved out of Burgos to unite with the Admiral and crush the Comuneros at Villalar. The Comuneros leaders switched between regions somewhat more, especially Bishop Acuña, but still maintained regional militias ultimately.

The most important fighting of the war, and where the fighting was mostly by organized armies rather than raiding militia bands, took part in the north-central part of the Meseta—Old Castile, which contained the capital of Valladolid, the temporary capital of both sides Tordesillas, and the stronghold of the Admiral of Castile, Medina de Rioseco. Each of these three cities was highly fortified and sought after. A decent amount of combat took place to the north around Burgos and the Basque country as well, where the Constable of Castile vied against Bishop Acuña's raids and the Count of Salvatierra. The southern part of the Meseta, New Castile, was a bastion of comunero support. The royalists never were able to deploy much in the way of armies here, depending on their allies in the Knights of St. John and the local nobility, but some notable events in the war did take place there. The rest of the country was mostly quiet: Andalusia on the southern coast was almost uniformly pro-royalist, as was Extramadura and Galicia.