Comuneros

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Crown of Castile was one of the most pow-erful in Europe. During the early years of his reign, Charles I of Spain was faced with an uprising known as the War of the Communities. On 23 April 1521, the Battle of Villalar took place, one of the most momentous events in modern Spanish history. On that day began the end of a revolt that some of the most outstanding historians have described as «the first modern revolution in history: the Revolution of the Communi-ties of Castile». The Battle of Villalar, as the liberals argued in the 19th century, re-presented the loss of Castile’s liberties. Why the ‘comuneros’ rebelled against the king and emperor Charles V, what their leaders Bravo, Padilla, and Maldonado wan-ted, what model of state they were seeking, and how their figure has been used and vindicated in the last two centuries, are some of the issues researched and discussed in this film.