Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre (in Basque, Nafarroako Erresuma) was one of the medieval kingdoms of Europe located on both sides of the western Pyrenees, but with most of of its territory located to the south of the Pyrenean mountain range, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. It was the successor, from 1162, of the kingdom of Pamplona, founded by the Basques around the Navarrese capital in 824, according to some historians. After a few years of expansion and the subsequent territorial decline at the hands of Castile and Aragon, the Kingdom of Navarra stabilized with two distinct territories: Alta Navarra, to the south of the Pyrenees and where the capital and most of the of population and resources, and Lower Navarra or Continental Navarra, to the north of the Pyrenees. Between 1234 and 1512 it was linked to the kingdom of France, and within its orbit, for several centuries through various dynasties (Champagne, Capetian, Évreux and Foix). On some occasions directly attached to the French throne (as with the Capetians) between 1284 and 1328.
The end of the kingdom's independence occurred when Ferdinand the Catholic, and later his Burgundian grandson Carlos I of Spain, carried out the military conquest between 1512 and 1528 with different resistances. Several attempts were made to recover independence in the following years and finally Carlos I of Spain withdrew from Lower Navarre due to his difficult control. Therefore, this portion continued to be independent, maintaining the Foix and Albret dynasties, until it became dynastically associated with the French Crown when its king, Enrique III, rose to the Gallic throne. Thus, the French monarchs called themselves "Kings of France and Navarre". The union of the kingdom of Navarre to France, purely dynastic, was made while always preserving its own institutions (thus, when Louis XVI convened the States General of France, Navarre did not formally send deputies to these, but to the king in person, independently and with its own notebook of grievances). However, its differentiated status within the Crown ended in 1789, when it was abolished as a kingdom. On the other hand, peninsular Navarra or Alta Navarra became one more of the kingdoms and territories of the Crown of Castile and finally of the Hispanic Monarchy, a status that it retained, governed by a viceroy, until 1841, the date on which it became to be considered a Spanish "foral province" by means of the later called Pact Law, after the First Carlist War.
General information
The kingdom of Navarre arose from a small territory that, after a period of expansion, gradually dwindled in size and power, undermined by disputes between the ruling classes and the conquests made by neighboring kingdoms.
The area of Navarre was structured in a dual way after the Muslim invasion of the peninsula in the 8th century. The north remained under Muslim rule for a short time and was soon organized into a Christian nucleus of fleeting submission to the Carolingian Empire and with its center in the city of Pamplona, a town founded in Roman times as Pompaelo by Pompey on a settlement pre-existing Vascon, which some authors consider was already called "Iruña". Its first known leader was Íñigo Íñiguez —or Íñigo Arista ("Enneco Cognomento Aresta")—, known head of what is considered the first Navarrese dynasty.
In the south, a Hispanic Gothic nobleman from the area (Casius) made a pact with the Muslim invaders and converted to Islam, thus managing to continue dominating that area of the Ebro valley and prolonging this power among his lineage (the Banu Qasi), who for generations will assert their power in the south of the current Navarrese territory, allying themselves with the Arista on various occasions against the central power of the Cordovan emirate, or the expansionist desire of the Carolingian Empire.
Navarre was one of the mountain nuclei of Christian resistance promoted by the Carolingian Franks that were formed in the Pyrenees, against the Islamic domination of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in Aragon and Catalonia. Initially it was known by the Frankish chroniclers as Kingdom of Pamploneses or Kingdom of Pamplona and a little later, as Kingdom of Pamplona-Nájera in reference to the importance in its organization of the city of Rioja
In its stage of greatest territorial expansion, during the Middle Ages, the kingdom included Atlantic territories and expanded beyond the Ebro River, towards territories located in the contemporary autonomous communities of Aragon, Cantabria, Castilla y León, La Rioja, Basque Country and the French administrative regions of Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees, in the former provinces of Gascogne and Occitania. The Basque capitals of Vitoria and San Sebastián were founded by the Navarrese king Sancho VI el Sabio.
In its final stage, the kingdom was divided into:
- The Navarre peninsular or Alta Navarra, which was invaded with the mainland Navarre in 1512 by Fernando the Catholic with the support of Luis Beaumont, son of the Belarusian leader exiled after losing the civil war of Navarre years before, and was annexed to the Crown of Castile. It was integrated into the Kingdom of Spain or Hispanic Monarchy, retaining its own institutions as a kingdom. In 1530 King Carlos I of Spain decided to leave the Baja Navarra for its difficult control. The Alta Navarra remains an integral kingdom of Spain until in 1841 it is abolished its status and becomes a region or province.
- The mainland Navarre or Lower Navarre, who joined with France in the late 16th century, and in 1620 was integrated into the French Monarchy. It preserved its own institutions and privileges until 1789, at the time of the Revolution, holding the title of the French Bourbons of France and of Navarre. However, during the French Restoration, Louis XVIII and Carlos X recovered the title of kings of France and Navarre during their reigns, during the first third of the nineteenth century.
The title of the crown prince is Príncipe de Viana, which is currently held by Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, daughter and heiress of King Felipe VI of Spain.
Historical evolution
Reign of Visigoths and Franks
For the period of the history of the Basques contemporary to the formation and consolidation of the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania, there are few direct sources available on the events and the internal organization of the Basques, and they are often contradictory.
Some historians suppose that the Basques were never subdued by the Visigoths in their claim to achieve the territorial unity of all the old Hispano-Roman provinces. Other authors, mainly in the XIX century, assumed that the Visigoths did come to dominate the land of the Basques. The scarcity of data has led to the creation of the legend about the Domuit vascones (dominated the Basques), a supposed phrase that would be included in the chronicles of all the Gothic kings, but which seems to be an invention of the novelist Francisco Navarro Villoslada.
The reflections of other specialists recall the friendly attitude of the Basques in the Roman period and the absence of relevant conflicts during the Late Empire, highlighting the difficulty of explaining those confrontations without relying on the context of the affirmation of autonomous power in Aquitaine and the rivalries between the Franks and the Visigoths.
The Visigothic domination of Pamplona is a politically controversial issue. Despite having been the episcopal seat of the Visigothic church, and there being Visigothic necropolises in Pamplona, there is some controversy about whether or not there was Visigothic domination over the city or, simply, coexistence. The archaeological and documentary testimonies have received different interpretations in some cases derived from political controversy.
Aquitaine
In the year 632 the Merovingian king Dagobert I led an expedition to Zaragoza in support of Sisenando who had revolted against the authority of Suintila. A few years later, Dagoberto gathered an army of Burgundians with whom he unsuccessfully tried to occupy the entire & # 34; homeland of Vasconia & # 34; in 635. However, in 636 Dagoberto obtained after a new military campaign, the loyalty oath of the Basques in the service of Aighina, Saxon duke of Bordeaux. After the death of Dagobert I in the year 639, the Merovingian power weakened to give way to a period of consolidation of an autonomous power known as the Duchy of Aquitaine within the Frankish kingdom, but for which reference sources are unknown until it is cited. the concession to Félix, patrician of Toulouse, of control of all the cities up to the Pyrenees and of the Basques around 672. For some authors, Félix's policy of confrontation with the Frankish power would have been continued by his successor Lupo, a process that would culminate in the time of Eudes, which would achieve the recognition of regnum for the southern part of ancient Gaul.
During the 6th and 7th centuries, there are theories that the Basques from the north crossed the Pyrenees, occupying Aquitaine, in present-day France, where their language influenced the Romance language that would give rise to Gascon, to which they gave the Gascony name.
Muslim invasion: Roncesvalles and the formation of the Kingdom of Pamplona
During the winter of 713, the Muslim armies reached the middle valley of the Ebro, which was governed by the Hispano-Visigothic count Casio, who chose to submit to the Umayyad caliph and convert to Islam in exchange for maintaining his power in the region, thus giving rise to to the lineage of the Banu Qasi. Pamplona, however, was finally occupied in 718 after resisting and forced to pay tribute to the Muslim governors, who established a protectorate. The Muslim defeat at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 against the Franks of Charles Martel weakened the Muslim position, but the wali Uqba redressed the situation by installing a military garrison in the city between 734 and 741.
The Hispanic Mark of Charlemagne
The Marca Hispánica was the political-military frontier of the Carolingian Empire south of the Pyrenees. After the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, this territory was dominated by military garrisons established in places like Pamplona, Aragón, Ribagorza, Pallars, Urgel, Cerdanya or Roussillon. At the end of the 8th century, the Carolingians intervened in the northeast of the peninsula with the support of the autochthonous population of the mountains. Frankish domination then became effective further south after the conquest of Gerona (785) and Barcelona (801). In the Hispanic March, made up of counties dependent on the Carolingian monarchs, at the beginning of the 9th century, the Frankish counts were replaced by autochthonous nobles.
The territory won from the Muslims was configured as the Hispanic Marca, as opposed to the Andalusian Marca Superior, and ran from Pamplona to Barcelona. Of all of them, those that achieved the greatest prominence were those of Pamplona, established in the first quarter of the 9th century as a kingdom; Aragon, constituted as an independent county in 809; Urgell, an important episcopal see and county with its own dynasty since 815; and the county of Barcelona, which over time became hegemonic over its neighbours, those of Ausona and Gerona.
Roncesvalles
Charlemagne, taking advantage of the rebellion of the governor of Zaragoza to intervene in the Peninsula, crossed Basque territory with a Frankish army and destroyed the defenses of Pamplona in his advance towards Zaragoza, where upon his arrival the alliances of the rebels changed forced him to retire. Charlemagne's interest in Hispanic affairs led him to support a rebellion in the Vilayate of the Upper March of al-Andalus led by Sulaymán al-Arabi, who intended to rise up as Emir of Córdoba with the support of the Franks, in exchange for handing over the Frank Emperor the Saraqusta square.
Charlemagne arrived at the gates of the city in 778, however Husayn, the Vali of Zaragoza, refused to allow the Carolingian army to enter. Due to the complexity that a long siege of such a fortified place would entail, with an army so far from his logistics center, he gave up and began the journey back to his kingdom. After reducing Pamplona, the capital of the Basque allies of the Banu Qasi, to ruins, on August 15, 778, Charlemagne with the most powerful army of the eighth century headed north through the Roncesvalles pass, between the Ibañeta pass and the Valcarlos hollow. At that point they were the object of a forceful ambush by parties of native Basques, probably instigated by the faithful to the sons of Sulaymán, Aysun and Matruh ben Sulayman al-Arabí, who caused a general disaster to the rear of his army, commanded by his nephew Roldán, by throwing rocks and darts at them. The Chanson de Roland immortalized the event. The independence of the western counties with respect to King Charlemagne was decided in the failure of the capture of Saraqusta.
The Kingdom of Pamplona
At least until the year 1130, the kings were called Pampilonensium rex. /i>.
The Kingdom of Pamplona is the name used by some historians, according to the Annals of the Frankish Kings to refer to what it was during the Early Middle Ages the political entity that arose around the civitas of Pompaelo, which had been the main city in the territory of the Basques during the time of Ancient Rome in the region of the Western Pyrenees, and the leadership of the figure of Íñigo Arista who founded the royal dynasty and the entity in 824, with the support of his allies from the Banu Qasi family, lords of Tudela, and the bishopric of Pamplona. There is no consensus among specialists to discern the precise number of monarchs and the duration of their mandates, nor on the extent of their territory and influence.
The Íñiguez dynasty ended with Fortún Garcés who, according to tradition, who is known as Fortún the Monk, abdicated and retired to the monastery of Leire, being replaced by the Jiménez dynasty in 905, which began with Sancho Garcés I (905-925) whose kingdom is known as the Kingdom of Pamplona or Navarra.
Pamplona was for a long time the most important and richest city in Christian territory. Numerous attempts to make it their capital were made by small mountain groups of Christians and later by nearby territories. In addition to having a large and stable population because it is located in the rich and fertile valley of the Arga river; It was an important communication hub between the Islamic world to the south and Christian Europe to the north, through the Basque Pyrenean passes and the coastal ports of the Cantabrian Sea, and the east-west routes that Christian pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago also followed towards the kingdom of León, which crossed the Frankish counties of the Carolingian Empire in present-day Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia from the county's Mediterranean coast, and beyond, through the Mediterranean ports. Its neutrality and good relations with its warlike neighbors contributed to its prosperity and wealth: trade and exchange of leather crafts, musical instruments, books and weapons, ivory, precious stones, cloth, oil, silk, wool, gold, spices. It was this fame of wealth that incited the Vikings to raid the city in the years 858-859.
The constant threat exerted on the Basque lands from both sides of the Pyrenees favored the emergence of two leading factions among the Basque aristocracy, the Íñigo supported by Muslims by kinship with the Banu Qasi, and the Velascos supported by the Carolingian Franks. When the governor of Pamplona Mutarrif Ibn Musa was assassinated in 799 by Carolingian supporters, the Íñigos turned to the Banu Qasi family to regain control of the city. However, in 812 the emir Al-Hakam I and Ludovico Pío agreed to a truce whereby the Carolingians took control of Pamplona, delegating the government to Velasco al Gasalqí. At the end of the truce, Al-Hakam resumed hostilities with the Franks and managed to recover Pamplona in 816, whose control the Franks relinquished from then on. Íñigo Arista, would be designated the first king of Pamplona until 851.
The first Navarrese dynasty (the Aristas) will be replaced after three reigns and in a still mysterious episode by the Jimena dynasty, which would expand the land of the kingdom with the incorporation of La Rioja lands and the Zona Media Navarre, under which Navarra will reach the largest territorial extension at the expense of Islam and the neighboring Christian manors.
The Mediterranean coast, curdled since ancient times with watchtowers against Barbary piracy, to the cry of "Moors on the Coast" In 858 he sees the Normans going up the Ebro from Tortosa, going up to the kingdom of Navarra, leaving behind the impregnable cities of Zaragoza and Tudela. They then go up its tributary, the Aragón River, until they meet the Arga River, which they also go up, reaching Pamplona and looting it, kidnapping the Navarrese king. In 859 the Vikings arrived in Pamplona and kidnapped the new king García I Iñíguez. Only after paying an expensive ransom did the king return to Pamplona, but from then on the old alliance between the Arista and the Banu Qasi has been broken and García I will be an ally of the kingdom of Asturias.
Due to the internal problems of Cordoba and the change in attitude of the Navarrese, the only enemy of Ordoño I will be the leader of the Banu Qasí, Musa ibn Musa, who called himself third king of Spain. In continuous rebellion against Córdoba, he tries to secure the Ebro valley as it passes through La Rioja. Musa, in 855, was going to carry out a harsh razzia against Álava and al-Qilá (Castilla) and after that he was concerned with restoring and strengthening the military garrison of Albelda. Seeing the threat that this fortress poses to the eastern domains of the Asturian kingdom, Ordoño I and the Navarrese launched an offensive against Albelda. After a hard fight, Ordoño takes the fortress and razes it. This battle will give rise in the XII century to the legendary battle of Clavijo, which by many is considered only a legend forged by the archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada.
Musa II continued fighting against Navarrese and Cordoba until his death in 862. Meanwhile his son Lupp or Lope ben Musà, governor of Toledo, declared himself a vassal of Ordoño I. The Navarrese of Basque origin, Subh, Subh umm Walad, mother of the third Caliph of Córdoba, Hixem II, and one of the most influential women of the Islamic era, was probably born in the 940s and died around 999.
The Navarrese-Aragonese
The Navarro-Aragonese language, a Romance language, prior to Castilian, spoken in the Ebro valley during the Middle Ages, with current strongholds in the Aragonese Pyrenees, known as Aragonese and borrowings in the Castilian from La Rioja, Ribera de Navarra and Aragón, with different gradations. It has its origin in the Latin dialect, during the Kingdom of Pamplona, on a strong Basque substratum. The language receives, in its medieval period, the name among linguists of "Navarro-Aragonés", due to the initial Aragonese dependence on the Kingdom of Navarre.
The so-called "Reconquista", or expansion of the Kingdom of Navarre over Muslim and Christian lands, with the consequent repopulation of the Kingdom of Navarre with Christians, would take the language with it throughout the conquered territory. The annexation by the Kingdom of Navarra of the Aragonese counties meant an important influence of the Navarro-Aragonese language on the subsequent territories of the Crown of Aragon and on Spanish.
The first written record of the language is in the Glossas Emilianenses, in the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja).
The expansion of Sancho III el Mayor
The heyday will take place with Sancho III el Mayor. He ascended the throne between the year 1000 and 1004, inheriting the kingdom of Navarra and the county of Aragon, under the guidance of a regency council made up of the bishops and his mother, and incorporating extensive territories into his domains, such as the county of Castilla in addition to the traditional land of the kingdom (Pamplona and Nájera). The dynastic union with Aragon occurred in two periods: from the year 1000 to 1035 and from the year 1076 to 1134.
Under his rule, the Christian kingdom of Nájera-Pamplona reached its greatest territorial extension, covering almost the entire northern third of the peninsula, from Astorga to Ribagorza in the reorganization of the kingdom, it is believed that he created the Viscounty of Labort, between 1021 and 1023, with residence of the viscount in Bayonne and that of Baztán around 1025. On the death of Duke Sancho Guillermo de Vasconia, Duke of Vasconia, on October 4, 1032, he tried to extend his authority over the former ultra-Pyrenean Vasconia included between the Pyrenees and the Garonne, although he did not succeed, when he inherited the Eudes duchy.
By the North, the border of the Pamplonian kingdom is clear, the Pyrenees (although the authority of the Navarre kings to the Baztan has been extended, which is most likely, but cannot be credited until 1066), and was not changed. It is not true, despite all the times it has been said, that Sancho III attained the domain of Gascony (the only Vasconia of that time, that is, the territory between the Pyrenees and the Garonne, in which the population we can consider Basque by its language was only a minority). The Navarre king only pretended to happen in 1032 to the Duke of Gascuña Sancho Guillermo, who was dead without descendants, which was enough for him to reign in Gascuña in some documents. But the truth is that the inheritance fell in Eudes.
He had his residence in Nájera, extending his relations beyond the Pyrenees, with the Duchy of Gascony, and accepting the new political, religious and intellectual currents.
His reign coincided with the crisis of the Caliphate world, which began with the death of Almanzor and ended with the beginning of the Taifa Kingdoms. He sought the unification of the Christian states, either by bonds of vassalage or under his own command.
In 1016, he established the borders between Navarra and the County of Castilla, and began a period of cordial relations between both States, facilitated by his marriage to Munia, also known as Muniadona, daughter of the Castilian count Sancho García. From this marriage were born Fernando (Fernando I of Castilla), Gonzalo (Count of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza) and the daughters Mayor and Jimena, queen of León when she married Bermudo III.
He took advantage of the internal difficulties of Sobrarbe-Ribagorza to assert his interests as a descendant of Dadildis del Pallars and seize the county (1016-1019).
He was entrusted with the guardianship of Count García de Castilla. Alfonso V de León took advantage of this situation to seize the highlands located between the Cea and Pisuerga rivers. Sancho III opposed the expansion of Leon and agreed to the marriage between García de Castilla and Sancha de León. On the death of Sancho III the Greater, his eldest son inherits him with the obligation of the rest of the brothers to pay vassalage to him, but they do not respect the testamentary will of the monarch and finally the kingdom is divided among his children, thus creating the kingdoms of Aragon, Castilla and Navarre.
During the reign of García Sánchez III (1035 - Atapuerca, September 15, 1054) nicknamed "el de Nájera", and his son Sancho Garcés, Navarre separated from neighboring kingdoms.
Pamplona and Aragon
In 1076, after the assassination of Sancho IV, that of Peñalén (thrown from a so-called cliff located in Funes) Pamplona and Aragón will be together again for almost 60 years during the reign of three monarchs: Sancho Ramírez (1076- 1094), his son Pedro I (1094-1104) and, finally, his brother, Alfonso I el Batallador (1104-1134), being in this period when the capture of Tudela and its district is consummated. After the death without descendants of Alfonso I (1134) neither Aragonese nor Navarrese respected the will of their king Emperor Alfonso, who left the kingdoms to the order of the Temple and other military orders, each kingdom choosing a different king, separating the crowns of Pamplona and Aragon after 50 years. In what will be Navarre, he is succeeded by García Ramírez de Pamplona, the Restorer (1134-1150).
The progressive territorial decline of the kingdom
By separating from Aragon, Navarra became a kingdom with no possibility of expansion, as it had no border with Muslim territories and found itself sandwiched between the now much more powerful Castilla y Aragón, territorially the kingdom of Navarre was gradually shrinking, although culturally it continues its expansion.
Thus, the Arbitral Award of King Henry II of England of March 16, 1177, made between King Alfonso VIII, on behalf of the Crown of Castile, and King Sancho VI the Wise, on behalf of part of the Kingdom of Navarre, relating to territorial ownership and border limits, was issued after both accepted a Pact-Agreement on August 25, 1176 in which they accepted the discretion of the English king and that a seven-year truce would be respected. Said award ordered the delivery to Castilla of certain territories, mainly from La Rioja, Navarra receiving in consideration, among others, the territories of Álava, Guipúzcoa and Duranguesado (Vizcaya), in addition to financial compensation. None of the parties complied with the ruling, although both parties subsequently agreed to abide only by matters relating to the situation of the territories of the current community of La Rioja, which ceased to belong to the Kingdom of Navarra from that date. There are several interpretations of said award.
Castilian and Aragonese expansionism made the Navarrese territory shrink. The determination to distribute it to them is recorded in several treaties made by said kingdoms in the 12th century. The kings of these two kingdoms signed the "Treaty of Cazola" March 1179 or 1198, to divide up the kingdom of Navarre, with the new border between the two kingdoms being the Arga River, which crosses Navarre from north to south.
The loss of Álava, Guipúzcoa and Duranguesado (1200)
This was the case around 1200 and despite Navarrese repopulation work in the area (which resulted, among others, in the foundation of Vitoria and San Sebastián, two of the three capitals of the current autonomous community of the Basque Country), Castilla, Supported by the lower nobility, it obtained the support of local factions in Duranguesado, and in Álava, after having besieged Vitoria for nine months.
As for Guipúzcoa, it has often been believed that due to the military superiority demonstrated by the Castilian army commanded by the Lord of Vizcaya in Vitoria and before the entry of Castilian troops into its territory, Guipúzcoa was incorporated into Castile through negotiation. However, after rereading known historical sources, this belief must be reconsidered, since it has been discovered that, like Vitoria, San Sebastián was also conquered militarily.
The older relatives of Guipúzcoa, who were already divided into two irreconcilable factions, maintained their positions: the Oñacinos supported the aggregation with Castile, and the Gamboínos defended the continuation of the union with Navarre.
In turn, these factions had the support of the Navarrese factions and thus the Beamonteses supported the Oñacinos and the Agramonteses the Gamboínos.
Internal reorganization
The work of the monarchs of the 13th century, after the partial conquest of Navarre, will be based on the reconstruction and internal reorganization of the kingdom and on coping with the continuous desire for distribution among its neighbors. Despite everything, and personally persuaded by the Archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada from Puente, he participated in companies such as the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), in which the Navarrese monarch Sancho VII el Fuerte stood out.
The death without issue of Sancho VII el Fuerte, despite having left an adoption pact with Jaime of Aragon, marks the enthronement in Navarre of almost two centuries of French dynasties (the Champagne, Capet and Évreux dynasties), who will also have territories in France and will neglect to varying degrees the government of the small kingdom.
War of Navarrería (1276)
The city of Pamplona was divided into independent and conflicting boroughs (Navarrería and San Miguel against the boroughs of San Cernín and San Nicolás), allied with other states, for example, the Navarrería neighborhood was razed by French troops in 1276 and the confrontation extended throughout Navarre, defeating the Castilian allies and establishing the rapprochement of Navarre with France.
The Civil War (1451)
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After the establishment of the House of Trastámara in Aragon in the mid-15th century, the socio-political crisis in the kingdom gradually polarized the forces of Navarre around two factions: the Beamonteses and the Agramonteses.
This is a complex conflict with changing positions and attitudes that apparently is a conflict between noble factions, but that also seems to show some type of mountain-river socioeconomic confrontation, according to some authors. In any case, both factions had a distribution throughout Navarre. This confrontation would lead to a civil war in 1441, when Juan II of Aragón (king consort of Navarre) kept the throne for himself, instead of ceding it to his son Carlos, prince of Viana, to which it corresponded. Carlos had been designated heir to the kingdom by the will of his mother, Queen Blanca, even prescribing said document that he not take possession of the kingdom without the approval of his father Juan II. In 1452 the prince was captured in the battle of Aibar.
The civil war persisted after the death of Carlos, Prince of Viana in 1461 and that of Juan II in 1479. The Beamonteses had the support of the Castilians, while the Agramonteses first had the Aragonese as allies (for being Juan II King of Aragon) and then to the French.
Demographically, the Kingdom of Navarre had reached its lowest point between the years 1450 and 1465, coinciding with the most acute episodes of the civil conflict (which was not directly bloody); Added to the loss of population due to sabotage was the plague epidemic between 1504 and 1507, recovering higher population levels from 1530 (once the conquest of Navarre by Castile and Aragon was completed and settled).
The Castilian-Aragonese conquest (1512)
| Territory incorporated in Castile in 1463 | |
| Domains of the house of Albret | |
| Dominios de la casa de Foix | |
| Kingdom of Navarre incorporated in Castile in 1515 | |
| Baja Navarra abandoned by Castilla in 1530 |
At the end of the 15th century the King of Aragon Ferdinand the Catholic carried out continuous interference in the civil war in Navarre in support of to the Beaumonteses and that in some periods had meant a true military occupation. At the beginning of the XVI century, the Beaumontese had lost the civil war and their leader had fled into Castilian exile, where he died. From there his descendant supported the Aragonese king in his already determined invasion of the kingdom of Navarre. This meant that in 1512 the King of Navarre was forced to sign the Treaty of Blois, by which he obtained support from the kingdom of France in the face of possible aggression. This was considered by Castile and Aragon as a belligerence, since Francisco I of France was facing the Castilian-Aragonese and was also declared a schismatic monarch at the V Lateran Council by Pope Julius II.
Fernando el Católico, who was the stepbrother of the late Carlos Príncipe de Viana (son of Juan II and his first marriage to Queen Blanca I), began the invasion on July 10 with the capture of Goizueta, although it was not publicized and eight days before the signing of the Treaty of Blois. The bulk of the army of more than 16,000 well-equipped and experienced men entered Navarra from Álava on July 22, under the command of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, second Duke of Alba with the support of the Beaumontese leader Count of Lerín (Condestable of Navarra). and his men.
The powerful army settled on the outskirts of Pamplona (specifically in the Arazuri palace, dominated by the Beamontese faction), then a city of between 6,000 and 10,000 souls and poorly fortified, which signed the surrender on July 25. The Simancas archive contains documents related to this period.
In other parts of Navarra, the resistance was greater: Lumbier until August 10, Estella until August, Viana until August 15, Roncal until September 9, the same as Tudela, which was the largest stronghold in Agramonte, where forces from Aragon had to come to take it. The Navarrese kings Juan and Catalina took refuge in their domains of Béarn from where they organized the resistance.
The conquest of Upper Navarre did not end here, since Catherine de Foix and Juan III de Albret, and later Henry II, supported by the French monarchs, made up to three military attempts to recover the kingdom.
The first was carried out that same year, in November, when an army of Navarrese from Agramonte, French and mercenaries entered the kingdom with 15,000 men under the command of Juan de Albret and General La Palice. Several inland cities rose up, such as Estella, Cábrega, Villamayor de Monjardín and Tafalla, coming to lay siege to Pamplona from November 3 to 30. Before the arrival of Castilian reinforcements for El Perdón, a hasty assault was carried out on November 27 of Pamplona, which failed. Due to the proximity of winter, the Franco-Navarrese troops began the withdrawal towards Baztán. In the port of Velate, the rear guard was surprised by Castilian forces, dominated by Gipuzkoans from Oñacino, under the command of López de Ayala, in what has been called the Battle of Velate with the defeat and loss of twelve artillery pieces, and the discusses whether there was also the loss of more than a thousand Franco-Navarrese men.
The second took place in 1516, taking advantage of the death of Ferdinand the Catholic and the complicated Castilian succession. The army, under the command of Marshal Pedro de Navarra, poorly equipped and equipped, was defeated at Roncal by Colonel Cristóbal de Villalba. The marshal was taken prisoner (he would die assassinated in the castle of Simancas in 1522). To avoid further problems, Cardinal Cisneros, Regent of Castile, ordered the demolition of all the fortresses, except for the strategic ones and those belonging to the Beamontese allies.
Unsuccessfully, the military route was attempted, the diplomatic one was attempted. Thus, two meetings between the parties took place, in Noyón (1516) and Montpellier (1519), which did not produce any success, so the Navarrese kings, supported by France, made a last war effort.
In 1521, taking advantage of the War of the Communities that devastated Castile, and with the reign of Enrique II, who had the unconditional support of Francisco I of France, eager to weaken Carlos I at all costs, a generalized uprising took place throughout Navarre, including the towns in Beamonte, while a Navarrese-Gascon army that came from the north managed to reconquer all of Navarre. However, the attack had taken too long, not taking place until May, when in April the comuneros had been crushed by royal troops. Furthermore, instead of consolidating the victory, the Navarrese-Gascon army wanted to enter Logroño, besieging it, which caused the Castilian army to reorganize itself with three army corps. On June 10, the troops began to withdraw due to the pressure of the Castilian troops in a number that tripled that of Navarrese. There was some confrontation in Puente la Reina, and after committing several strategic errors, they finally faced each other in a bloody battle of Noáin (June 30, 1521), on the outskirts of Pamplona, where no less than 5,000 combatants lost their lives. After this defeat, the remnants of the Franco-Navarrese army dispersed, although around October some combatants became strong in the Maya castle (Baztán valley), where they resisted until July 19, 1522, and in the Fuenterrabía fortress, which it resisted until March 1524. In December 1523, Carlos I decreed a pardon for the rebels, excluding some seventy members of the Navarrese nobility. In order to achieve the fall of Fuenterrabía, the emperor decreed a new pardon, including those excluded from the previous one, on condition that an oath of fidelity was sworn to him. Thus ended the attempts to recover the independence of Alta Navarra. The instability of the occupation in Lower Navarre made Carlos I renounce it definitively, retiring definitively in 1530, where the King of Navarre, Enrique II, maintained the independence of the kingdom.
Despite the various attempts at reconquest, Fernando el Católico had continued working to consolidate the institutional incorporation of Navarre into his domains. In 1513, the Cortes de Navarra, convened in Pamplona by the Castilian viceroy and only with the assistance of people from Beamonte, named Ferdinand the Catholic King of Navarre. On July 7, 1515, the Parliament of Castile in Burgos, without any Navarrese present, annexed the Kingdom of Navarre to that of Castile. The new king promised to respect the privileges of the kingdom.
Subsequent kings continued to swear to the laws of Navarra. However, from the 18th century, the fueros began to be definitively attacked until they were abolished in the 19th century. As an additional ideological justification, apart from the Treaty of Blois (which was the excuse that considered Navarre an enemy state), Ferdinand the Catholic had in his favor the fact that Pope Julius II excommunicated the kings of Navarre and dispossessed them of the kingdom. alleging collusion of the Navarrese royal house with the Protestantism that was spreading through the south of France and its alliance with the French monarch, declared schismatic.
In 1516, Cardinal Cisneros ordered the removal of all defensive signs in Navarre, due to the impossibility of defending all the castles with the Castilian army. Navarra came to have more than a hundred castles in all that was the Kingdom of Navarra. Very few have remained standing, and these only partially, topped.
After an irregular occupation of Lower Navarre, including San Juan de Pie de Puerto by the troops of Emperor Charles V, in 1528, he decided to abandon the territory due to its difficult defense. In this part of the kingdom of Navarre, the Albret-Foix dynasty continued, which would connect with that of Bourbon, who would come to reign in France and although their domains in the Bearne were greater than those of Navarre, these Navarrese territories conferred them royal dignity, and His successors very jealously kept it separate, even after acceding to the throne of France and took the title of King of France and Navarre. Louis XIII accepted a reconciliation of the Fort et costumas deu Royaume de Navarra deça ports in 1611 but taking care that no chapters on public law were included. In 1620 he published the edict of incorporation of the Kingdom of Navarre together with the territories of Bearne, Andorra and Donnezan to the Crown of France, preserving its inhabitants in their privileges, frankness, liberties and rights.; in 1789, with The French Revolution saw the abolition of all the privileges of all the territories of the monarchy in a common law, suppressing the title of kings of France and Navarre in 1789, despite the opposition of Navarre. In 1790, The National Assembly decreed the creation of the Bajos Pyrénées department (currently the Atlantic Pyrenees) into which the Bearne, Baja Navarra and other nearby lands entered.
From that moment on, the current peninsular Navarra will be integrated into the Hispanic Monarchy, not presenting significant instability and remaining with the Castilian crown when around 1640 the territorial system of the Habsburg monarchy entered into crisis with the separation of Portugal and the revolt in Catalonia. In spite of everything, and gradually, as the Franco-Spanish rivalry spreads to other areas, Navarra will become a forgotten kingdom and increasingly marginalized from the centers of political and economic power. The Habsburg dynasty established the figure of a viceroy in Pamplona, while the courts of the kingdom remained very active.
During the War of the Spanish Succession, Navarre (despite the fierce anti-French sentiment of the people) will side in favor of the Duke of Anjou (future Philip V) instead of Archduke Charles of Austria (as the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon). That is why both Tudela and Sangüesa were occupied by Austrian troops. At the end of the conflict, Navarra, like the Basque provinces, retained their privileges against the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon, declared traitors by Felipe V and stripped of their foral prerogatives by the Nueva Planta Decrees.
Logically, the new reigning dynasty showed itself to be much more centralist and less pact-oriented than the Habsburg and on several occasions the foral regime was called into question from the government of the monarchy.
The province of Navarra (1841)
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On November 14, 1833, the Carlist rebels elected Tomás de Zumalacárregui as their leader in Estella.
General Maroto in charge of the Carlist troops of the North and General Espartero as representative of the government of Isabel II, on August 29, 1839, sign the Oñate Agreement that put an end to the First Carlist War (1833-1840) in the north of the peninsula, confirmed by what is known as "el Abrazo de Vergara" between Maroto and Espartero on August 31. Maroto did not have the support of the suitor Don Carlos and neither did he have the agreement of part of his troops. On September 14, 1839, the Carlist claimant and the troops that remained faithful to him crossed the French border and the war that began in 1833, with the majority support of the rural population of Navarra for the royal claimant Don Carlos, ended on the northern front.
This agreement also agrees to eliminate certain regional features to adapt them to the constitution of 1837 (Article 1. The captain general, Mr. Baldomero Espartero, will recommend with interest to the Government the fulfillment of his offer to formally commit to propose to the Cortes the concession or modification of the fueros.), as later reflected in the Decree of Confirmation of Fueros of 1839, with the commitment to respect the fueros «without prejudice to the constitutional unity of the monarchy”, "hearing" Navarra and the Basque Provinces.
The liberal government wanted to impose its centralist principles and abolish the privileges because they considered them unfair medieval privileges and for this reason the liberals of the Provincial Council with Yanguas Miranda as visible head, negotiated with the central government the abolition of almost all regional privileges. In this way, in 1841 and by means of the Law Modifying the Fueros de Navarra, later called the Navarre Pact Law, the Kingdom of Navarra ceased to exist and began to be considered a "foral province", with which it definitively lost its sovereignty in favor of of Spanish sovereignty. With this, it lost prerogatives, such as exemption from military service and the minting of its own currency, as well as the transfer of customs from the Ebro to the Pyrenees. However, the province continued to retain broad fiscal, administrative, and tax autonomy consigned in the Agreement Law of 1841.
The adjective "Actioned" it made reference to the fact that its promulgation was agreed with the Provincial Council, which was controlled by the Navarrese liberals. This entire process was openly criticized by Ángel Sagaseta de Ilurdoz Garraza, the last Trustee of the Kingdom's Courts.
The minister of Sagasta, Germán Gamazo, tried to abolish the fiscal autonomy of the Pact Law in 1893, causing a popular and institutional reaction called «Gamazada». This regulation was not applied because the minister resigned for other reasons, among others, due to the rebellion in Cuba in 1895.
Languages in the Middle Ages
Most of the population spoke Basque, and to a minority, Romance variants: the endogenous Navarrese Romance, and the exogenous Languedocian Occitan Romance variant. Basque would continue to be predominant among the rural population, although, Despite its deep roots among the common people, it was nevertheless written infrequently and in any case informally. Navarrese romance, adopted as the language of the royal chancery in 1223, leaving Latin behind, was the official language of the kingdom at least since 1329, This Romance variant would gradually prevail over Occitan in the written language, being replaced by Castilian at the end of the Middle Ages. North of the Pyrenees, in Lower Navarre, the texts of ecclesiastical administrations, stately and municipal appear written in Navarrese romance and in Gascon.
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