Viscounty of Béarn | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9th century–1620 | |||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||
 Gascony and Bearn ca.1150 | |||||||
| Capital | Lescar (up to ca.841) Morlans (10th–12th centuries) Ortès (12th–15th centuries) Pau | ||||||
| Common languages | Medieval Latin Old Occitan thenBéarnese Basque | ||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (up to the 16th century) Calvinism (up to 1620) | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Viscount or Prince | |||||||
• 9th century | Centule I | ||||||
• 1610–20 | Louis I | ||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages andRenaissance | ||||||
• Established | 9th century | ||||||
• Independence declared byGaston IIIFèbus | 25 September 1347 | ||||||
• Henry II becameKing of France | 27 February 1594 | ||||||
• Incorporated intoFrance | October 1620 | ||||||
| |||||||
TheViscounty, laterPrincipalityof Béarn (Gascon:Bearn orBiarn), was amedieval lordship in the far south ofFrance, part of theDuchy of Gascony from the late ninth century. In 1347, the viscount declared Béarn an independent principality without feudal obligations. It later entered apersonal union with theKingdom of Navarre in 1479 and with France in 1589. In 1620, the prince (who was also the king of France) formally incorporatedBéarn as aprovince of France.
The citation of a certain "Gaston [son] of Centule, viscount of Béarn" (Gasto Centuli vicecomes Bearnensis) is the first attestation of a specific regional organization in the late 860s/early 870s. The viscounty was named afterLescar, former Benearnum, last cited in 673. Its first parliamentary body, theCour Major, was formed in 1080.
A mint was established atMorlaàs under ViscountCentule V, who was alsoCount of Bigorre (1058–88). Centule sold themagisterium sectionis cognorum (right to mint coins) to a private moneyer.[1] The mint continued operating under his successors, always minting coins bearing Centule's name. It was at the time the most productive mint in Gascony.[2]
Gascony was united to theDuchy of Aquitaine in 1053. Béarn, as a part of Gascony, became subject to the dukes of Aquitaine and, in 1152, passed to thekings of England, heirs of DuchessEleanor of Aquitaine.
While nominally part of the Duchy of Aquitaine, the Viscounts of Béarn frequently joinedAragonese military campaigns between the 10th and 12th centuries. In 1170, the viscounty passed to the CatalanHouse of Montcada who paid homage to the kings of Aragon.[3][4] Under Aragonese influence, the legal charters in Béarn were further developed into theFors de Bearn.[5]
Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn, did homage to KingHenry III of England as Duke of Aquitaine atBordeaux in 1242.[6][7] In 1290, Béarn passed to theHouse of Foix with the inheritance ofMargaret, Viscountess of Béarn of the lands from her father Gaston VII.
The independence of Béarn from France andAquitaine came about as a result of theHundred Years' War (1337–1453) between France and England. In 1347, on the heels of English victory at thebattle of Crécy (1346), the ViscountGaston III Fébus paid homage to the king of France for his county of Foix, but stated that Béarn was to be held "from God and from no man in this world".[8] After the Englishvictory at Poitiers in 1356, Gaston refused to attend theEstates General of France as Count of Foix.
For the next decade, he successfully resisted the efforts of theBlack Prince to enforce his suzerainty as Prince of Aquitaine over Béarn. In 1364, Gaston dropped the lowly vicecomital title in favour of "Lord of Béarn" (Dominus Bearni).[9] Its chief seat and stronghold lay atPau, a site fortified by the 11th century, and proclaimed as official capital of the independent principality in 1464.
The official language of the sovereign principality was the local vernacularBearnès dialect ofOld Occitan. It was the spoken language of law courts and of business and it was the written language of customary law. Although vernacular languages were increasingly preferred toLatin in western Europe in the late Middle Ages, the status of Occitan in Béarn was unusual because its use was required by law: "lawyers will draft their petitions and pleas in the vernacular language of the present country, both in speech and in writing".[10]
In 1479, the Lord of Béarn,Francis Phoebus, inherited theKingdom of Navarre, across the Pyrenees to the southwest. The two sovereign entities would from then on remain inpersonal union. In 1512, the Kingdom of Navarrewas almost entirely occupied by Spain; onlyLower Navarre, north of thePyrenees, escaped Spanish permanent occupation. In 1517,Henry I (II of Navarre) inherited it, as well as Béarn, from his mother. The Bearnese monarchs extended the use of Occitan to Navarre after 1512, despite the fact that it was not the vernacular language there, whereBasque was the tongue of the people. TheEstates of Navarre convoked in 1522 (or in 1523, according to other sources) kept records in Occitan, as did theChancery of Navarre created in 1524. When Henry II revised theFueros of Navarre in 1530, he had them translated fromCastilian into Occitan.[10]
In 1564, Henry's daughter,Jeanne III, firmly opposingRome, declared Catholicism outlawed and disbanded monasteries, confiscating church property. When Jeanne's son, Henry II (III of Navarre), became KingHenry IV of France in 1589, he kept all his estates distinct from theFrench royal domain. He re-appointed his sister,Catherine, his regent in Navarre and Béarn. It was only in 1607, after Catherine's death (1604), that he acceded to the demands of theParlement of Paris, and reunited with the French crown his domains ofFoix,Bigorre andComminges, includingQuatre-Vallées andNébouzan, conforming to the tradition that the king of France would have no personal domain.
However, he refused theParlement's demand that he unite Béarn and Lower Navarre with the French crown, since these territories were not French estates, but separate realms. Had these principalities been united with France, theEdict of Nantes (1598) would have applied to them and Catholic property would have had to have been restored. Nonetheless, Henry, now a Catholic, consented to restore Catholic rights of worship in certain towns. The estates of Béarn continued to conduct business in Occitan and laws were enacted in the same.[10] Prior to the 1601, theDuc de Rohan was the heir to Navarre and Béarn, since theSalic law of France did not apply there.[11]
After Henry IV's death, Calvinists from Béarn attended the Huguenot conference atSaumur in 1611 in an effort to enlist their support for Béarnese and Navarrese independence. In 1614, the same year he came of age, Henry IV's successor,Louis XIII, was confronted by aHuguenot uprising supported by Béarn. In a meeting of the FrenchEstates General that year, the Third Estate petitioned for the union of all sovereign provinces with France. In 1616, Louis issued an edict uniting the principality with France, but it was ignored.
On 3 May 1616, theTreaty of Loudun gave the Huguenots, who had supported the rebellion of thePrince of Condé, the right join their churches with those in Béarn. Louis's edict of June 1617 ordering the restoration of property confiscated from Catholics was also ignored. In 1620, Louis marched into Béarn with a large army, convoked the estates and, sitting on his Béarnese throne, issued an edict of union with France, thus removing the principality's sovereignty.[11]
Louis preserved the freedom of worship of the Calvinists, the right of the estates to negotiate their taxes and the obligation of the king of France to swear to uphold the customary law of Béarn on his accession. He also united Béarn and Navarre: thenceforth theParlement of Navarre and Béarn had authority over both regions and would sit at Pau. Its operating language would be French. This was the first time the French language was imposed on a region incorporated into France. It was not part of an effort to convert the French king's Occitan subjects into French speakers, nor did it directly impact the Bearnese aristocracy, who had adopted French as a status language during the 16th century. It was politically symbolic, since the use of Occitan in an official capacity had been an important marker of Bearnese independence and a source of pride.[10]
