Labourd ( eu, Lapurdi; la, Lapurdum; Gascon: ''Labord'') is a former French province and part of the present-day

Pyrénées Atlantiques The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

''. It is one of the traditional Basque provinces, and identified as one of the territorial component parts of the Basque Country by many, especially by the

Basque nationalists Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group Indigenous peoples, indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation an ...

. Labourd extends from the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

to the river Adour, along the Bay of Biscay. To the south is

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

and Navarre in Spain, to the east is

Basse-Navarre Lower Navarre ( eu, Nafarroa Beherea/Baxenabarre; Gascon/Bearnese: ''Navarra Baisha''; french: Basse-Navarre ; es, Baja Navarra) is a traditional region of the present-day French ''département'' of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It corresponds to the ...

, to the north are the Landes. It has an area of almost and a population of over 200,000 (115,154 in 1901; 209,913 in 1990), the most populous of the three French Basque provinces. Over 25% of the inhabitants speak Basque (17% in the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz zone, 43% in the rest). Labourd has also long had a Gascon-speaking tradition, noticeably next to the banks of the river Adour but also more diffusely throughout the whole viscounty (about 20% in Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz). The main town of Labourd is Bayonne, although the capital up to the French Revolution was

Ustaritz Ustaritz (; eu, Uztaritze) is a town in the traditional French Basque Country, Basque province of Labourd, now a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department, southwestern France. It is located on ...

, 13 km away, where local Basque leaders assembled. Other important towns are Biarritz, Anglet (between Bayonne and Biarritz),

Hendaye Hendaye ( Basque: ''Hendaia'')HENDAIA
Ciboure Ciboure (; ,ZIBURU

Saint-Jean-de-Luz Saint-Jean-de-Luz (; eu, Donibane Lohitzune,Donibane Lohitzune
Hasparren Hasparren (; eu, Hazparne) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. A resident of Hasparren is known as a 'Hazpandar'. Geography Location It's a ''commune fait partie'' of the Basque Province of Labo ...

inland. The area is famous for the five-day '' Fêtes de Bayonne'' and the red peppers of

Espelette Espelette (; ; oc, Espeleta) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. It lies in the traditional Basque province of Labourd. Sights The town is attractive, with traditional Labourd houses and a castle. Th ...

. Many tourists come to the coast, especially to Biarritz, and the hills and mountains of the interior for walking and agri-tourism.

La Rhune Larrun (modern French: ''La Rhune'', IPA: a'run - 'good pasture', possibly a folk etymology, in French until the 20th century: ''Larhune'' ) is a mountain (905 m) at the western end of the Pyrenees. It is located on the border of France and Spain ...

(''Larrun'' in Basque), a 900 m high mountain, lies south of Saint-Jean-de-Luz on the border with Spain. The traditional buildings of Labourd have a low roof, half-timbered features, stone lintels and painted in red, white and green. The house of Edmond Rostand, Villa Arnaga at

Cambo-les-Bains Cambo-les-Bains (; eu, Kanbo) is a town in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. It lies on the south-western bank of the river Nive. Cambo-les-Bains station has rail ...

, is such a house and is now a museum dedicated to the author of ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

'' and to Basque traditions.

Lapurdian Navarro-Labourdin or Navarro-Lapurdian ( eu, nafar-lapurtera) is a Basque dialect spoken in the Lower Navarre and Labourd (Lapurdi) former provinces of the French Basque Country (in the Pyrénées Atlantiques ''département''). It consists of ...

(''Lapurtera'') is a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of the Basque language spoken in the region.

History

Ancient Labourd was inhabited by the

Tarbelli The Tarbelli were an Aquitani tribe dwelling in the present-day regions of Labourd and Chalosse, in the west of Aquitania, during the Iron Age. Alongside the Auscii, they were one of the most powerful peoples of Aquitania. They were subjugate ...

, an Aquitanian tribe. They had the fortified town of ''Lapurdum'', that eventually would become modern Bayonne, and give its name to the region. In the Middle Ages it formed part of the

Duchy of Vasconia A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between " ...

, which eventually came to be called Gascony. In the year 844

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

raiders conquered the former ''

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

'' of Lapurdum, where they established a base for their incursions. They were only expelled in 986, leaving a legacy of naval expertise in Labourd and all the coastal Basque Country. The town came out of this period attested as Bayonne (and like variants). Carte des Traites 1732

Up to this point the area of the river Adour was referred to as the County of Vasconia after the early 9th century. According to many authorities, Duke

Sancho VI of Gascony Sancho VI William (Basque: ''Antso Gilen'', French: ''Sanche Guillaume'', Gascon: ''Sans Guilhem'', Spanish: ''Sancho Guillén'') (died 4 October 1032) was the Duke of Gascony from 1009 to his death. His reign is most notable for the renewal of Ga ...

ceded Labourd and its ports, Bayonne and Biarritz, to King Sancho III of Navarre around 1023, and Sancho in turn bestowed it on his majordomo, Lope Sánchez, as viscount. This Lope was supposedly the king's relative, being a nephew of King Ramiro Garcés of Viguera. This oft-repeated story has no basis in contemporary documents, and there is no evidence that Navarre extended its territory north of the Pyrenees prior to the late 12th century. Around 1125, Bayonne was chartered by Duke

William IX of Aquitaine William IX ( oc, Guilhèm de Peitieus; ''Guilhem de Poitou'' french: Guillaume de Poitiers) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubadour, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 an ...

. In 1130–31, King Alfonso the Battler of Aragon and Navarre attacked Bayonne over a dispute on jurisdictions with the

Duke of Aquitaine The Duke of Aquitaine ( oc, Duc d'Aquitània, french: Duc d'Aquitaine, ) was the ruler of the medieval region of Aquitaine (not to be confused with modern-day Aquitaine) under the supremacy of Frankish, English, and later French kings. As su ...

, William X the Saint. Labourd was ruled directly, between 1169 and 1199, by

Richard Lionheart Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

, who gave a second charter to Bayonne c. 1174 and, c. 1175, gave to the merchants of this city the return of the duties they paid in the tolls of Poitou, Aquitaine and Gascony. This caused an uprising of Gascons and Basques (including Labourdins from outside Bayonne) but Richard defeated all the cities that had revolted. Richard married Navarrese princess

Berengaria of Navarre Berengaria of Navarre ( eu, Berengela, es, Berenguela, french: Bérengère; 1165–1170 – 23 December 1230) was Queen of England as the wife of Richard I of England. She was the eldest daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Ca ...

in 1191, which favored the trade between Navarre and Bayonne (and England). This marriage also included a jurisdictional transaction that shaped the borders of the Northern Basque Country: Lower Navarre was definitively annexed to Navarre, while Labourd and Soule remained as parts of Angevine Aquitaine. This pact was materialized in 1193 in form of the sale of their rightsThis created the strange situation that befell a string of villages hemmed in-between the new Labourd, the new Lower Navarre, Bearn and the province of Lannes, Sames,

Bidache Bidache (; ; )BIDAXUNE

, Guiche and to a lesser extent

Came A came is a divider bar used between small pieces of glass to make a larger glazing panel. There are two kinds of came: the H-shaped sections that hold two pieces together and the U-shaped sections that are used for the borders. Cames are mostl ...

, which lasted about four centuries by the legitimate viscounts of Labourd, who had established their seat in

. Ustaritz was since then the capital of Labourd, instead of Bayonne, until the suppression of the province in 1790.

John I of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

, gave to Bayonne the Municipal Law, that created the figures of

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

, 12 jurors, 12 councilors and 75 advisors. Labourd passed to French hands in 1451, just before the end of the Hundred Years' War. Since then and until 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 coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, Labourd was largely self-ruled as an autonomous French

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. In 1610, Labourd suffered a major

witch-hunt A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...

at the hands of the judge

Pierre de Lancre Pierre de Rosteguy de Lancre or Pierre de l'Ancre, Lord of De Lancre (1553–1631), was the French judge of Bordeaux who conducted the massive Labourd witch-hunt of 1609. In 1582 he was named judge in Bordeaux, and in 1608 King Henry IV commande ...

after feuds between the elites (merchant bourgeoisie vs nobility) and different social layers (nobility vs common people) took a turn for the worse over elements of superstition and alleged public morality, which ended up with some 70 supposed ''

sorginak Sorginak ( root form: ''sorgin'', absolutive case (singular): ''sorgina'') are the assistants of the goddess Mari in Basque mythology. It is also the Basque name for witches, priests and priestesses, making it difficult to distinguish between t ...

'' burnt at the stake (see

Basque witch trials The Basque Witch Trials of the seventeenth century represent the last attempt at rooting out supposed witchcraft from Navarre by the Spanish Inquisition, after a series of episodes erupted during the sixteenth century following the end of milita ...

). In 1790, France suppressed the historical provinces, including Labourd, incorporating them into the newly created département of Basses-Pyrénées, together with Béarn.

Dominique Joseph Garat Dominique Joseph Garat (8 September 17499 December 1833) was a French Basque writer, lawyer, journalist, philosopher and politician. Biography Garat was born at Bayonne, in the French Basque Country. After a good education under the direction ...

and his older brother were then representing the Biltzar (Assembly) of Labourd's

third estate The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and ...

in Paris. Like the other Basque representatives, he opposed the new administrative layout (but eventually voted for it) and the inclusion of the Basques in the same department with Bayonne and Béarn. During the

War of the Pyrenees The War of the Pyrenees, also known as War of Roussillon or War of the Convention, was the Pyrenean front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic. It pitted Revolutionary France against the kingdoms of Spain and Portug ...

, Labourd had its customary trade with the

Southern Basque Country The Southern Basque Country ( eu, Hegoalde, Hego Euskal Herria; es, Hegoalde, País Vasco y Navarra, País Vasco peninsular) is a term used to refer to the Basque territories within Spain as a unified whole. Name In Basque language, natives h ...

interrupted, and was shaken by indiscriminate repression unleashed by the Convention (1793-1794) resulting in mass deportation to the Landes of Gascony, seizure of landholdings, and the death of an estimated 1,600 civilians from the bordering towns of Sara, Itxassou, Ascain, Biriatu, etc. The abuses included the establishment of new, alien names to the villages and towns of Labourd, but they were soon after reverted to their usual names. In the last decades, petitions have asked for the separation from Béarn and the creation of a Basque département, together with the other two historical Basque provinces of Lower Navarre and

Soule Soule (Basque: Zuberoa; Zuberoan/ Soule Basque: Xiberoa or Xiberua; Occitan: ''Sola'') is a former viscounty and French province and part of the present-day Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département''. It is divided into two cantons of the arrond ...

Mariner activities

Labourd, like the other coastal territories of the Basque Country, played an important role in early European exploitation of the Atlantic Ocean. The earliest document (a bill) that mentions the whale oil or blubber dates from 670. In 1059, Labourdin whalers already gave to the viscount the oil of the first captured animal. It seems that Basques disliked the taste of

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s but made good business selling their meat and oil to the French, Castilian and Flemish. Basque whalers used for this activity the longboats known as traineras, that only allowed whaling near the coast or based in a larger ship. It seems that it was this industry, along with cod-fishing, is what brought Basque sailors to the North Sea and eventually to Newfoundland. Basque whaling in Newfoundland and Labrador began in the 1530s. By at least the early 17th century Basque whalers had reached Iceland. The development of the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

in Europe seems also a Basque and specifically Labourdine development. Three masted ships appear in a fresco of

Estella Estella may refer to: People * Diego de Estella (1524–1578) * Estella Sneider (born 1950) *Estella Warren (born 1978), Canadian actress *Estella, the ''nom de guerre'' of Italian labor leader Teresa Noce Fictional *Estella Havisham, a charact ...

(Navarre), dating to the 12th century, seals preserved in the Navarrese and Parisian historical archives also show similar ships. The rudder itself is first mentioned as steer "a la Navarraise" or "a la Bayonaise". After Navarre lost San Sebastian and

Hondarribia es, fuenterribense , population_note = , population_density_km2 = auto , blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s) , blank_info_sec1 = Basque, Spanish , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , ti ...

to Castile in 1200, it signed a treaty with Bayonne that made it the "port of Navarre" for nearly three centuries. Role that extended also into the Early Modern Age, after Navarre had been annexed by Castile (but both provinces remained autonomous).

Notes

References

*Urzainqui, Tomás, and Olaizola, Juan M. de, ''La Navarra marítima''. Pamiela, 1998. {{Authority control Former provinces of France

History

Mariner activities

See also

Notes

References