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This article examines the Valencian and Sardinian third estates' responses to Phillip IV's monarchical power. During his reign (1621�65), the political autonomy of Cagliari and Valencia was the target of a special pressure by which their statutory powers, which they had enjoyed since medieval times, were systematically sabotaged. At each session of the kingdom's estates, in which Cagliari and Valencia held institutional and political pre-eminence, motives for friction with the Crown were made evident. At the same time, both cities often maintained tense relations with other royal municipalities, which refused to accept that they were interlocutors given preference by the monarchy when the time came to organize tax contributions. The king, in order to divide the estates and weaken resistance to his requirements, promoted this tension.
