Andorra's Narrow Escape from French Absorption in Reapers' War

Historian Domènec Bascompte examines how Andorra narrowly escaped absorption by France during the Reapers' War in his article "La guerra dels Segadors a Andorra," featured in the 2024 proceedings of the XXI Trobades Culturals on Pirenean conflicts.

On May 9, 1642, amid the early stages of the war, Louis XIII imposed control over northern Catalonia, including areas north of an imaginary line running up the Llobregat River through Igualada, Cervera, and La Seu d'Urgell. French forces occupied Andorra's Neutral Valleys and appointed Josep Amat as "segrestador" of the temporalities—lands, revenues, and properties—of Bishop of Urgell Pau Duran, a staunch Philip IV loyalist, along with Feliu Llorenç, the veguer of La Seu d'Urgell and Andorra.

France sought to sideline Duran, an open Philippist, by installing a temporary administrator. That same year, Louis XIII directed Andorran revenues to François Barthélémy, a royal councillor in the Parliament of Toulouse and abbot of Aunes. By 1647, intendant Pierre de Marca ordered these funds split between Abbot Beauregard and the poor of La Seu and Andorra.

Duran died in exile in 1651, and his successor, Juan Manuel de Espinosa, avoided the still-French-occupied La Seu until troops withdrew in 1659. Bascompte argues this sequestration targeted Duran personally, not the Urgell bishopric or Andorra's co-principality. French kings never claimed sole lordship over Andorra.

The 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees sealed Andorra's reprieve. France relinquished claims on Catalonia—partially occupied since 1641—in exchange for Roussillon, Conflent, and part of Cerdanya. French negotiators briefly demanded eastern Empordà from Roses, the Ribes Valley, all of Cerdanya, La Seu, and the viscounty of Castellbò, citing their position north of the watershed crest. Had these maximalist claims succeeded, Andorra's fate would have been grim, potentially integrating it into France, Toulouse's parliament, Roussillon, or Cerdanya.

The treaty affirmed Andorra's jurisdictional regime under co-princes. Yet Bascompte notes it was a delicate moment that could have led to French incorporation. Andorrans endured French troops, whom they housed and fed, until rustic yet shrewd diplomacy appealed directly to co-Prince Louis XIV for exemption—a success.

Bascompte highlights tensions between Duran and Pau Claris, a La Seu canon who led the Generalitat from 1638, culminating in the 1640 Corpus de Sang, Catalonia's secession, and French entry. Claris instigated Duran's sequestration. Had Claris prevailed and Catalonia joined France, Andorra might today be a modest Ariège commune.