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Fuero (Spanish:[ˈfweɾo]),Fur (Catalan:[ˈfuɾ]),Foro (Galician:[ˈfɔɾʊ]),Foru (Basque:[foɾu]) orFueru (Asturian:['fweru]) is aSpanish legal term and concept. The word comes fromLatinforum, an open space used as a market, tribunal and meeting place. The same Latin root is the origin of theFrench termsfor andfoire, and thePortuguese termsforo andforal; all of these words have related, but somewhat different meanings.
TheSpanish termfuero has a wide range of meanings, depending upon its context. It has meant a compilation of laws, especially a local or regional one; a set of laws specific to an identifiedclass orestate (for examplefuero militar, comparable to a military code of justice, orfuero eclesiástico, specific to theRoman Catholic Church). In many of these senses, its equivalent inmedieval England would be thecustumal.
In the 20th century,Francisco Franco's regime used the termfueros for several ofthe fundamental laws. The term implied these were not constitutions subject to debate and change by a sovereign people, but orders from the only legitimate source of authority, as in feudal times.
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Fuero dates back to the medieval period: thelord could concede or acknowledge afuero to certain groups or communities, most notably theRoman Catholic Church, the military, and certain regions that fell under the same monarchy asCastile or, later,Spain, but were not fully integrated into those countries.
The relations amongfueros, other bodies of law (including the role of precedent), andsovereignty is a contentious one that influences government and law in the present day. The king of León,Alfonso V, decreed the Fuero de León (1017), considered the earliest laws governing territorial and local life, as it applied to the entire kingdom, with certain provisions for the city of León. The variousBasque provinces also generally regarded theirfueros as tantamount to a municipalconstitution. This view was accepted by some others, includingPresident of the United StatesJohn Adams. He cited theBiscayanfueros as a precedent for theUnited States Constitution. (Adams,A defense…, 1786)[1] This view regardsfueros as granting or acknowledgingrights. In the contrasting view,fueros wereprivileges granted by amonarch. In the letter Adams also commented on the substantial independence of the hereditary Basque Jauntxo families as the origin for their privileges.
In practice, distinctfueros for specific classes, estates, towns, or regions usually arose out of feudal power politics. Some historians believe monarchs were forced to concede some traditions in exchange for the general acknowledgment of his or her authority, that monarchs granted fueros to reward loyal subjection, or (especially in the case of towns or regions) the monarch simply acknowledged distinct legal traditions.
In medieval Castilian law, the king could assign privileges to certain groups. The classic example of such a privileged group was the Roman Catholic Church: the clergy did not pay taxes to the state, enjoyed the income viatithes of local landholding, and were not subject to the civilcourts. Church-operatedecclesiastical courts tried churchmen for criminal offenses. Another example was the powerfulMesta organization, composed of wealthy sheepherders, who were granted vastgrazing rights inAndalusia after that land was reconquered by Spanish Christians from the Muslims (seeReconquista). Lyle N. McAlister writes inSpain and Portugal in the New World that the Mesta'sfuero helped impede the economic development of southernSpain. This resulted in a lack of opportunity, and Spaniards emigrated to theNew World to escape these constraints.[2]
During the Reconquista, the feudal lords grantedfueros to somevillas andcities, to encourage the colonization of thefrontier and of commercial routes. These laws regulated the governance and thepenal,process andcivil aspects of the places. Often thefueros already codified for one place were granted to another, with small changes, instead of crafting a new redaction from scratch.
Date | Grantor(s) | Grantee(s) |
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In contemporary Spanish usage, the wordfueros most often refers to the historic and contemporaryfueros or charters of certain regions, especially of theBasque regions. The equivalent forOccitan usage isfòr, applying to the northern regions of thePyrenees.
The whole central and western Pyrenean region wasinhabited by the Basques in the early Middle Ages within theDuchy of Vasconia. The Basques and the Pyrenean peoples—as Romance language replaced Basque in many areas by the turn of the first millennium—governed themselvesby a native set of rules, different fromRoman andGothic law but with an ever-increasing imprint of them. Typically their laws, arising from regional traditions and practices, were kept and transmitted orally. Because of this oral tradition, the Basque-language regions preserved their specific laws longer than did those Pyrenean regions that adopted Romance languages. For example,Navarrese law developed along less feudal lines than those of surrounding realms. TheFors de Bearn are another example of Pyrenean law.
Two sayings address this legal idiosyncrasy: "en Navarra hubo antes leyes que reyes," and "en Aragón antes que rey hubo ley," both meaning that law developed and existed before the kings. The force of these principles required monarchs to accommodate to the laws. This situation sometimes strained relations between the monarch and the kingdom, especially if the monarchs were alien to native laws.
This tradition of "laws before kings" was enshrined in the legendaryFueros de Sobrarbe, claimed to have been enacted by kingIñigo Arista in the 850s in the pyreneanvalley of Sobrarbe. Although a 13th-century fabrication, theFueros de Sobrarbe were subsequently used as the legal foundation for most Navarrese and AragoneseFueros from the 13th century onwards. They enshrined the traditional principle "laws before kings" both in Aragonese and Navarrese law, justified the right to rebel against illegal royal decisions, and legitimised the existence of specific institutions such as theJusticia de Aragón, designed to
The Fueros de Sobrarbe first appear mentioned in the context of the ascension of the House of Champagne to the Navarrese throne. In 1234, whenTheobald I of Champagne inherited the Navarrese throne from his uncleSancho VII of Navarre, he was pressured by burgers and nobility alike to swear he would abide his decisions by customary law and honour their customary rights and privileges. As a result, Theobald I appointed a commission to codify said laws; this resulted in the first written generalfuero, theFuero General de Navarra, enacted in 1238 and which drew its legal foundation from the fabledFueros of Sobrarbe to justify the king's authority being subjected to the Fuero.
The accession of French lineages to the throne of Navarre brought a relationship between the king and the kingdom that was alien to the Basques. The resulting disagreements were a major factor in the 13th-century uprisings and clashes between different factions and communities, e.g. theborough wars of Pamplona. The loyalty of the Basques (theNavarri) to the king was conditioned on his upholding the traditions and customs of the kingdom, which were based on oral laws.
Ferdinand II of Aragonconquered and annexed Navarre between 1512 and 1528 (up to thePyrenees). In order to gain Navarrese loyalty, the Spanish Crown represented by the Aragonese Fernando upheld the kingdom's specific laws (fueros) allowing the region to continue to function under its historic laws,[3]: 36–39, 44 whileLower Navarre remained independent, but increasingly tied toFrance, a process completed afterKing Henry III of Navarre and IV of France died.Louis XIII of France failed to respect his father's will to keep Navarre and France separate. All specific relevant legal provisions and institutions (Parliament, Courts of Justice, etc.)were devalued in 1620–1624, and critical powers transferred to the French Crown.
Since the high Middle Ages, manyBasques had been born into thehidalgo nobility. The Basques had no uniform legal corpus of laws, which varied between valleys and seigneuries. Early on (14th century) allGipuzkoans were granted noble status, several Navarrese valleys (Salazar,Roncal,Baztan, etc.) followed suit, andBiscaynes saw their universal nobility confirmed in 1525.Álava's distribution of nobility was patchy but less widespread, since the Basque specific nobility only took hold in northern areas (Ayala, etc.).Biscaynes,[4] as nobles, were theoretically excluded from torture and from the need to serve in the Spanish army, unless called for the defence of their own territory (Don Quixote's character,Sancho Panza, remarked humorously that writing and reading and beingBiscayne was enough to be secretary to the emperor). Other Basque regions had similar provisions.The reach of thefuero was not limited by the territory.Biscayans in other parts of theCrown of Castile hadextraterritoriality.They could take theappellations in cases involving them to theSala de Vizcaya ("Biscay Hall") at the top court of Castile, theChancillería de Valladolid ("Court of last resort (lit. '"chancery') ofValladolid").[5][6]
The Castilian kings took an oath to comply with the Basque laws in the different provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. These provinces and Navarre kept their self-governing bodies and their own parliaments, i.e. thediputaciones and theterritorial councils/Parliament of Navarre. However, the prevailing Castilian rule prioritized the king's will.[3]: 39–43 In addition, the ever more centralizing absolutism, especially after the accession to the throne of theBourbons, increasingly devalued the laws specific to regions and realms—Basque provinces and the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon—sparking uprisings (Matalaz's uprising inSoule 1660,[7]: 267 regularMatxinada revolts in the 17-18th centuries) and mounting tensions between the territorial governments and the Spanish central government ofCharles III andCharles IV, to the point of considering theParliament of Navarre dangerous to the royal authority and condemning "its spirit of independence and liberties."[8]: 716–717
Despite vowing loyalty to the crown, the Pyrenean Aragonese and Catalans kept their separate specific laws too, the "King of the Spains" represented a crown tying together different realms and peoples, as claimed by the Navarresediputación, as well as theParliament of Navarre's last trustee.[3]: 45 The Aragonesefueros were an obstacle forPhilip II when his former secretaryAntonio Pérez escaped the death penalty by fleeing to Aragon. The king's only means to enforce the sentence was theSpanish Inquisition, the only cross-kingdom tribunal of his domains. There were frequent conflicts of jurisdiction between the Spanish Inquisition and regional civil authorities and bishops.[9] Pérez escaped to France, but Philip's army invaded Aragon and executed its authorities.
In 1714 the Catalan and Aragonese specific laws and self-governmentwere violently suppressed. The Aragonesecount of Robres, one strongly opposing the abolition, put it down to Castilian centralism, stating that the royal prime minister, theCount-Duke of Olivares, had at last a free rein "for the kings of Spain to be independent of all laws save those of their own conscience."[10]
The Basques managed to retain their specific status for a few years after 1714, as they had supported the claimant who becamePhilip V of Spain, a king hailing from the lineage ofHenry III of Navarre. However, they could not escape the king's attempts (using military force) at centralization (1719–1723). In the run-up to theNapoleonic Wars, the relations between the absolutist Spanish Crown and the Basque governing institutions were at breaking point. By the beginning of theWar of the Pyrenees,Manuel Godoy took office as Prime Minister in Spain, and went on to take a tough approach on the Basque self-government and specific laws. Both fear and anger spread among the Basques at his uncompromising stance.
The 1789 Revolution brought the rise of the Jacobinnation state—also referred to in a Spanish context as "unitarism",[citation needed] unrelated to thereligious view of similar name. Whereas the FrenchAncien Régime recognized the regional specific laws, the new order did not allow for such autonomy. The jigsaw puzzle of fiefs was divided intodépartements, based on administrative andideological concerns, not tradition. In theFrench Basque Country, what little remained ofself-government was suppressed in 1790 during the French Revolution and the new administrative arrangement,[7]: 267 and was followed by the interruption of the customary cross-border trade between theBasque districts (holding minor internal customs or duties), the mass deportation to theLandes of thousands of residents in the bordering villages ofLabourd—Sara,Itxassou,Ascain—,[11]: 18 including the imposition (fleetingly) of alien names to villages and towns—period of theNational Convention andWar of the Pyrenees (1793–1795).
Some Basques saw a way forward in the 1808Bayonne Statute andDominique-Joseph Garat's project, initially approved by Napoleon, to create a separate Basque state,[11]: 19 but the French invasive attitude on the ground and the deadlock of the self-government project led the Basques to find help elsewhere, i.e. local liberal or moderate commanders and public figures supportive of thefueros, or the conservativeFerdinand VII. The 1812 SpanishConstitution of Cadiz received no Basque input, ignored the Basque self-government, and was accepted begrudgingly by the Basques, overwhelmed by war events. For example, the 1812 Constitution was signed by Gipuzkoan representatives to ageneral Castaños wielding menacingly a sword, and tellingly theSan Sebastián council representatives took an oath to the 1812 Constitution with the smell of smoke still wafting and surrounded by rubble.
During the two centuries since the French Revolution and theNapoleonic Era, the level of autonomy for the Basque regions within Spain has varied. The cry forfueros (meaning regional autonomy) was one of the demands of theCarlists of the 19th century, hence the strong support for Carlism from the Basque Country and (especially in theFirst Carlist War) inCatalonia andAragón. The Carlist effort to restore anabsolute monarchy was sustained militarily mainly by those whom thefueros had protected from the full weight of absolutism, due to their readiness to respect region and kingdom specific legal systems and institutions. The defeat of the Carlists in three successive wars resulted in continuing erosion of traditional Basque privileges.
The Carlist land-based small nobility (jauntxos) lost power to the newbourgeoisie, who welcomed the extension of Spanishcustoms borders from theEbro to the Pyrenees. The new borders protected the fledgling Basque industry from foreign competition and opened the Spanish market, but lost opportunities abroad since customs were imposed on the Pyrenees and the coast.
After theFirst Carlist War, the new class of Navarre negotiated separately from the rest of Basque districts theLey Paccionada (orCompromise Act) in Navarre (1841), which granted some administrative and fiscal prerogatives to the provincial government within Spain. The rest of the Basque districts managed to keep still for another 40 years a small status of self-government, definitely suppressed in 1876. The end of theThird Carlist War saw the Carlists strong in the Basque districts succumb to the Spanish troops led by KingAlfonso XII of Spain and their reducedself-government was suppressed and converted intoEconomic Agreements. Navarre's status was less altered in 1876 than that of Gipuzkoa, Biscay, and Álava, due to the separate agreement signed in 1841 by officials of the Government of Navarre with the Spanish government accepting the transformation of the kingdom into a Spanish province.
Despite capitulation agreements acknowledging specific administrative and economic prerogatives, attempts of the Spanish government to bypass them spread malaise and anger in theBasque districts, ultimately leading to the 1893–94Gamazada uprising in Navarre.Sabino Arana bore witness to the popular revolt as a Biscayne envoy to the protests.
The enthusiasm raised by the popular revolt in Navarre against the breach of war ending agreements made a deep impact on Sabino Arana, who went on to found theBasque Nationalist Party in 1895, based in Biscay but aiming beyond the boundaries of each Basque district, seeking instead a confederation of the Basque districts. Arana, of a Carlist background, rejected the Spanish monarchy and foundedBasque nationalism on the basis ofCatholicism andfueros (Lagi-Zaŕa, as he called them in Basque, "Old Law"). The competitive, Carlist vision of fueros was laid out in 1915 byEustaquio Echave-Sustaeta and in 1921 byTeodoro de Arana y Beláustegui.
The high-water mark of a restoration of Basque autonomy in recent times came under theSecond Spanish Republic in the mid twentieth century. An attempt was made at restoring some kind of Basque self-government in theStatute of Estella, initially garnering a majority of the votes, but controversially failing to take off (Pamplona, 1932). Four years later and amid a climate of war, Basque nationalists supported theleft-leaning Republic as ardently as they had earlier supported theright-wingCarlists (note that contemporaryCarlists supportedFrancisco Franco).[clarification needed] The defeat of the Republic by the forces ofFrancisco Franco led in turn to a suppression of Basque culture, including banning the public use of theBasque language.
The Franco regime consideredBiscay andGipuzkoa as "traitor provinces" and cancelled theirfueros. However, the pro-Franco provinces ofÁlava andNavarre maintained a degree of autonomy unknown in the rest of Spain, with local telephone companies, provincial limited-bailiwick police forces (miñones in Alava, and Foral Police in Navarre), road works and some taxes to support local government.
The post-FrancoSpanish Constitution of 1978 acknowledged "historical rights" and attempted to compromise in the old conflict between centralism andfederalism by establishing a constitutional provision catering to historic Catalan and Basque political demands, and leaving open the possibility of establishing their ownautonomous communities. The Spanish Constitution speaks of "nationalities" and "historic territories", but does not define them. The termnationality itself was coined for the purpose, and neither Basques nor Catalans are specifically recognized by the Constitution.
After the1981 coup d'état attempt and the ensuing passing of the restrictive LOAPA act, such possibility of autonomy got opened to whatever (reshaped) Spanish region demanded it (such asCastile and León,Valencia, etc.), even to those never struggling to have their separate identity recognized and always considering themselves invariably Spanish. TheState of Autonomous Communities took the shape of administrative districts and was ambiguous as to the actual recognition of separate identities, coming to be known ascafé para todos, or 'coffee for everyone'.
However, the provincial chartered governments (Diputación Foral /Foru Aldundia) in the Basque districts were restored, getting back significant powers. Other powers held historically by the chartered governments ("Diputación") were transferred to the new government of theBasque Country autonomous community. The Basque provinces still perform tax collection in their respective territories, coordinating with the Basque/Navarrese, Spanish, as well as European governments.
Today, the act regulating the powers of the government ofNavarre is theAmejoramiento del Fuero ("Betterment of the Fuero"), and the official name of Navarre isComunidad Foral de Navarra,foral ('chartered') being the adjectival form forfuero. The conservative governmental party in NavarreUPN (2013) claimed during its establishment (1979) and at later times the validity and continuity of the institutional framework for Navarre held duringFranco's dictatorship (1936–1975), considering the present regionalstatus quo an "improvement" of its previous status.
Whilefueros have disappeared from administrative law in Spain, (except for the Basque Country and Navarre), there are remnants of the old laws infamily law. When the Civil Code was established in Spain (1888) some parts of it did not run in some regions. In places likeGalicia and Catalonia, themarriage contracts andinheritance are still governed by local laws. This has led to peculiar forms of land distribution.[citation needed]
These laws are not uniform. For example, in Biscay, different rules regulate inheritance in thevillas, than in the country towns (tierra llana). Modern jurists try to modernize the foral family laws while keeping with their spirit.[citation needed]
During the colonial era in Spanish America, theSpanish Empire extendedfueros to the clergy, thefuero eclesiástico. The crown attempted to curtail thefuero eclesiástico, which gave the lower secular (diocesan) clergy privileges that separated them legally from their plebeian parishioners. The curtailment of thefuero has been seen as a reason why so many clerics participated in theMexican War of Independence, including insurgency leadersMiguel Hidalgo andJosé María Morelos. Removal of thefuero was seen by the Church as another act of theBourbon Reforms that alienated the Mexican population, includingAmerican-born Spaniards.[12]
In the eighteenth century, when Spain established a standing military in key areas of its overseas territory, privileges were extended to the military, thefuero militar, which had an impact on the colonial legal system and society.[13] Thefuero militar was the first time that privileges extended to plebeians, which has been argued was a cause of debasing justice.[14] Indigenous men were excluded from the military, and inter-ethnic conflicts occurred.[15] Thefuero militar presented some contradictions in colonial rule.[16][17]
In post-independence Mexico, formerlyNew Spain,fueros continued to be recognized by the Mexican state until the mid-nineteenth century. AsMexican liberals gained power, they sought to implement the liberal ideal ofequality before the law by eliminating special privileges of the clerics and the military. TheLiberal Reform and the liberalConstitution of 1857's abolition of thosefueros mobilized Mexico's conservatives, which fought acivil war, and rallied allies to their cause with the sloganreligión y fueros ("religion and privileges").[citation needed]
For post-independence Chile, thefuero militar also was an issue concerning the rights and privileges of citizenship.[18]
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