Tordesillas
Although the Santa Junta was reacting against both Charles, and the governmental system of Castile, the majority did not seek to remove the crown, merely to reduce its power while strengthening their own. Accordingly, the newly formed League attacked, and swiftly conquered, Tordesillas, home of Joanna the Mad. Although she was deemed unfit to rule, Joanna was technically the heir to the crown of Castile, and the Junta hoped to gain her support. If Joanna had been persuaded the Junta could have directly challenged, not just Charles' control in Castile, but his very right to be king. However, Joanna did not give her support, and while the rebels still claimed her blessing, they had no written evidence.
Valladolid and the State of the Rebellion
Juan Padilla then led the Junta's forces to Valladolid, which he entered at the end of September, arresting Adrian and the rest of the royal council. By this stage a fourteenth comunero had joined the League - Murcia - and the rebellion was spreading to many non-Cortes towns and other, smaller, urban areas; these also formed their own councils. However, just as not every Castilian town joined the Comunero Movement, not all joined the Santa Junta. Economic, political and social interests varied from region to region, often from town to town, causing differing reactions to the riots; in some areas these variations drew towns away from the rebellion.For example, the Junta received little support from the south. Of the four Cortes towns in Andalucia - the southern most province of Castile - none joined the Holy League. The Andalucian grandees were particularly dominant, both in the country and the towns, and they acted swiftly to stop rioting and quell the, often considerable, support for the Santa Junta, while simultaneously directing any revolutionary fervour to causes they favoured. Indeed, these towns, which included Seville and Córboda, formed their own union with the nobles: the League of La Rambla. This had several goals, one of which was to prevent the Santa Junta from gaining power, by force if necessary.
The Santa Junta makes its Demands
In November, the Junta made demands of Charles: he should return to Spain at once, marry, reform his court, remove the foreigners from his government and lower the taxes. While these requests reflect the direct reaction to Charles' policies, other demands stem from the long-standing desire of the towns to increase their role in Castile. The Santa Junta wanted the Cortes to be given far greater powers, meeting automatically every three years and having an active say in the affairs of state. One historian has summed the extreme end of these ideas up as follows:"The rebels wanted to remodel the constitution so that it became a confederation of free towns with the Cortes elevated in importance to become the main institution of the state...to reduce the status of the king to that of a low-paid pensioner of the legislature..." (Bonney, The European Dynastic States, Oxford, 111).
The demands are a sign that the League was certainly considering, even if it had not accepted, Charles as king, and they were acting to moderate him. Presumably the League's leaders realised that Joanna really was too mad to be their monarch, while the infant Ferdinand - the preferred choice of many Castilians - had already been moved away to Europe. Historians have also noted how the League's demands appear to target those elements of Charles' reign which differed from the idealised view of Ferdinand and Isabella: the latter were ever present Spanish rulers, while the former was absent and foreign. To some extent, the Cortes sought to Hispanise their new monarch.
