General Court of the Principality of Catalonia Cort General del Principat de Catalunya (Catalan) |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Established | 1192 1283 (first regulated) |
Disbanded | 1714 |
Preceded by | Cort Comtal, Peace and Truce Assemblies |
Succeeded by | Courts of Castile |
Leadership | |
Seats | Síndics (Braç Reial), Nobles (Braç Militar), Clerics (Braç Eclesiàstic) |
Meeting place | |
Itinerant, different places of Catalonia. The Palau de la Generalitat was the place where the last Courts (1705-1706) were met | |
Footnotes | |
See also: Parliament of Catalonia |
The Catalan Courts or General Court of Catalonia (Catalan: Corts Catalanes or Cort General de Catalunya) was the policymaking and parliamentary body of the Principality of Catalonia from the 13th to the 18th century. The courts were made up of three arms or estates: the military estate which included representatives from the nobility, the ecclesiastical estate which saw representatives from the religious hierarchy and the royal estate which had representatives from the municipalities. The courts were summoned by the king who opened with a royal proclamation while the arms were in charge of legislating, always with the support of the sovereign. If the laws that were approved came from the king they received the name of "Constitutions", if they came from the Estates, "Court Chapters". If the king passed a law unilaterally it was called "Acts of Courts" and required ratification by the courts.
It is comparable to similar institutions across Europe, such as the Parliament of England and the Diets (German: Landtage) of the German "lands".
The General Courts of the Crown of Aragon were held jointly and simultaneously with the Courts of Aragon, Valencian Courts and the Courts of Catalonia. The Kingdom of Majorca did not convene Courts and thus sent their representatives to the Courts of the Principality. As the courts could not be held outside of Aragon nor the Principality, they were frequently held in Monzón or in Fraga, Aragonese towns which lay equidistant between Zaragoza and Barcelona.