The Fors de Bearn, or

fueros (), (), () or () is a Spanish legal term and concept. The word comes from Latin , an open space used as a market, tribunal and meeting place. The same Latin root is the origin of the French terms and , and the Portuguese terms and ; all ...

Béarn The Béarn (; ; oc, Bearn or ''Biarn''; eu, Bearno or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Bas ...

, are a series of legal texts (privileges, rulings, judicial sentences, decrees, formularies) compiled over centuries (mostly the eleventh to thirteenth) in the

Viscounty of Béarn The Viscounty, later Principality of Béarn ( oc, Bearn, label= Gascon or ) was a medieval lordship in the far south of France, part of the Duchy of Gascony from the late ninth century. In 1347, the viscount declared Béarn an independent princip ...

. Together they formed the constitution of Béarn at the time of their first known complete version in the fifteenth century. ''For'' is a Gascon word derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''forum'', specifically from the '' Forum Iudicium'', which was the law of the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

. The first of the ''fors'' was a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

promulgated around 1080 by Centule V for the repopulation of the ancient town of Iluro (

Oloron Oloron-Sainte-Marie (; oc, Auloron e Senta Maria; eu, Oloroe-Donamaria) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Aquitaine), southwestern France. History The town was founded by the ...

). This was the seed of the future

For de Oloron For or FOR may refer to: English language *For, a preposition *For, a complementizer *For, a grammatical conjunction Science and technology * Fornax, a constellation * for loop, a programming language statement * Frame of reference, in physics ...

, which granted the city a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

. In 1102, Gaston IV granted a privilege to his capital of Morlaas, the nucleus of a similar future For de Morlaas. Finally, in 1188, Gaston VI promulgated the

For General For or FOR may refer to: English language *For, a preposition *For, a complementizer *For, a grammatical conjunction Science and technology * Fornax, a constellation * for loop, a programming language statement * Frame of reference, in physic ...

, applicable throughout Béarn. This ''for'' included several dispensations which had accrued in the second half of the century. In the first half of the thirteenth century, the viscounts William Raymond and

Gaston VII Gaston is a masculine given name of French origin and a surname. The name "Gaston" may refer to: People First name *Gaston I, Count of Foix (1287–1315) *Gaston II, Count of Foix (1308–1343) *Gaston III, Count of Foix (1331–1391) *Gaston ...

issued a series of ''fors'' for each of the Pyrenean valleys: * Baretous (1220) *

Ossau The Ossau Valley (French: ''Vallée d'Ossau''; Gascon: ''Aussau'' / ''la vath d'Aussau'') is a valley of the French Pyrénées, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département''. Administration 18 communes belong to the Valley: Arudy, Aste-Béo ...

(1221) *First charter of

Aspe Aspe (, ca-valencia, Asp) is a town and municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Vinalopó Mitjà, in the province of Alicante, Spain. The town is located in the valley of the river Vinalopó, from Alicante city. The economy of Aspe is based ...

(1247) *Second charter of Aspe (1250) In the sixteenth century, when Béarn was united with the

Kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state took ...

, monarchs Henry II and Joanna III reorganised and improved the ''Fors''. In 1620,

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

incorporated Béarn into the

French crown France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the firs ...

, but preserved the ''Fors'', which continued to govern the viscounty until its abolition during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

in 1789.

Sources

*Tucoo-Chala, Pierre. ''Quand l'Islam était aux portes des Pyrénées''. J&D Editions: Biarritz, 1994. . *Omnes, Jean. ''Guide du curieux: Haut Béarn''. Pyremonde, 2006. {{ISBN, 2-84618-303-1.

Sources

See also