Labourd ( eu, Lapurdi; la, Lapurdum;
Gascon: ''Labord'') is a former
French province
The Kingdom of France was organised into provinces until the National Constituent Assembly adopted a more uniform division into departments (''départements'') and districts in late 1789. The provinces continued to exist administratively until 2 ...
and part of the present-day
Pyrénées Atlantiques ''
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.
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 de ...
and
Navarre in Spain, to the east is
Basse-Navarre, to the north are the
Landes
''Landes'', or ''Lanas'' in Gascon, means moorland or heath.
''Landes'' and ''Lanas'' come from the Latin ''plānus'' meaning “‘flat, even, level, plain’”. They are therefore cognate with the English plain (and plane), the Spanish word ''l ...
. 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
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
, although the capital up to the French Revolution was
Ustaritz
Ustaritz (; eu, Uztaritze) is a town in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, southwestern France. It is located on the river Nive some inland from Bayonne. Ustaritz station has r ...
, 13 km away, where local Basque leaders assembled. Other important towns are
Biarritz,
(between Bayonne and Biarritz),
Hendaye,
Ciboure and
Saint-Jean-de-Luz along the coast, and
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 Labou ...
inland. The area is famous for the five-day ''
Fêtes de Bayonne'' and the red peppers of
Espelette. 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'' 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, is such a house and is now a museum dedicated to the author of ''
Cyrano de Bergerac'' and to Basque traditions.
Lapurdian (''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 ...
of the
Basque language spoken in the region.
History
Ancient Labourd was inhabited by the
Tarbelli, an
Aquitanian tribe. They had the fortified town of ''Lapurdum'', that eventually would become modern
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
, and give its name to the region.
In the Middle Ages it formed part of the
Duchy of Vasconia, which eventually came to be called
Gascony. In the year 844
Viking raiders conquered the former ''
oppidum'' 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).
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. In 1130–31, King
Alfonso the Battler of Aragon and Navarre
attacked Bayonne over a dispute on jurisdictions with the
Duke of Aquitaine,
William X the Saint.
Labourd was ruled directly, between 1169 and 1199, by
Richard Lionheart, 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 C ...
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 rights
[This 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, 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 most ...
, which lasted about four centuries by the legitimate viscounts of Labourd, who had established their seat in
Ustaritz
Ustaritz (; eu, Uztaritze) is a town in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, southwestern France. It is located on the river Nive some inland from Bayonne. Ustaritz station has r ...
. 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
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment.
Juries developed in England duri ...
, 12 councilors and 75 advisors.
Labourd passed to French hands in 1451, just before the end of the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
. 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 November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
, 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 out ...
.
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 pe ...
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'' burnt at the stake (see
Basque witch trials).
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 and his older brother were then representing the Biltzar (Assembly) of Labourd's
third estate 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 Portuga ...
, Labourd had its customary trade with the
Southern Basque Country 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 arron ...
.
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
whales 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 character ...
(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
, t ...
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).
See also
*
Northern Basque Country
*
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country ( eu, Euskal Herria; es, País Vasco; french: Pays basque) is the name given to the home of the Basque people. Trask, R.L. ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 The Basque country is located in the western Pyrenees, st ...
*
Basque language
Notes
References
*Urzainqui, Tomás, and Olaizola, Juan M. de, ''La Navarra marítima''. Pamiela, 1998.
{{Authority control
Former provinces of France