Catalan Republic (1640–1641)

The Catalan Republic (Catalan: República Catalana, IPA:) was a short-lived independent state under French protection which began to be established after the autumn of 1640 by the Junta de Braços (assembly of Estates) of the Principality of Catalonia led by the President of the Generalitat, Pau Claris, during the Reapers' War (1640–1652), and being acknowledged by the same institutions between January and December of 1641.

As the conflict with the Spanish Monarchy escalated, the Junta de Braços of Catalonia, headed by the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pau Claris, assumed the sovereignty and the effective rule of the Principality after September 1640 and ultimately, while the royal armies approached to Barcelona, accepted the establishment of the Catalan Republic on 16 January 1641. On 23 January 1641, due to the desperate military situation and French pressure, the Junta de Braços proclaimed Louis XIII as Count of Barcelona, beginning the process to put the Principality of Catalonia in a personal union with the Kingdom of France, culminated after December 1641. Louis XIII was succeeded upon his death in 1643 by Louis XIV, who remained Count of Barcelona until 1652, when Catalonia was reincorporated into the Spanish Monarchy.