Starting in January 1640, the towns and villages of Catalonia had to accommodate 10,000 royal soldiers. The requirements and excesses of these billeted troops generated a spiral of violence. Indiscriminate repression by the army and clashes between the armed peasantry and the soldiers became increasingly frequent and brutal. Country folk began to enter many towns and cities, where they caused serious uprisings. The Count-duke of Olivares, the court favourite of Felipe II, ordered that two Barcelona councillors and Francesc de Tamarit, a member of the Generalitat, be imprisoned. They were all freed, together with other prisoners, by 2,000 armed peasants who entered Barcelona on 22 May.