Bandolers, execucions i cobles populars, arran d’uns fets ocorreguts a la Conca d’Òdena (1573)

Banditry was a social phenomenon that affected most places in the Hispanic monarchy. However, banditry is not a homogeneous phenomenon, it is different depending on the area and territory. In the crown of Aragon, in the 16th and 17th centuries, noble families solved their problems by hiring bandits for hire. These gangs of bandits stole, extorted and killed as a way of life or a way of work. In Catalonia from the middle of the 16th century until the end of the 1640s, banditry became a widespread evil and a problem for the authorities. In this work we analyse, through judicial documentation, one of the most important acts of Catalan banditry in the second half of the 16th century, that is to say, the capture and execution of an important gang of bandits integrated by famous bandits of the time as Moreu Palau, Camadall, Gralla and Escales, among others. The capture of the criminals was carried out by the men of the Solicitor of the Duke of Cordona, Jaume Pau Franquesa and the Militia Igualada in 1573. In the first part of this article, we analyze the facts through the interrogations that were made of the people who lived in the towns where the acts took place, mostly peasants. In this way, we are approaching the facts through the experiences of the popular classes, because they were the ones who fought, were injured or died in the fight against the bandits. In the second part of the work, we reconstruct, with the help of the Generalitat diary as the main document, the sentences handed down against the bandits and the punitive ritual suffered by those sentenced to death. In the third and last part, we study the popular literature that was printed on the facts. These chapbooks were printed before, during and shortly after the execution of the inmates and are part of the gallows literature, which was very important in the acts of execution in many European countries in the modern age.