History books indicate that the Kingdom of Navarre was lost in the battle of Noáin or buried in the ruins of the castle of Amaiur. And although this might be the case in part, it cannot be denied that it was not maintained. Henrike II.ak wanted to organize in Baja Navarra the same structures that it had in the south of the Pyrenees, with Donapaleu or the old Iriberri as capital. This year is 500 years since the 18th of August 1523 the General Staff of Navarre took place in this locality, something similar to the Courts of Navarre, where not only the lords of the Lower Navarre met, but also the church authorities and representatives of the people to swear their fidelity to the Albreton in exchange for respecting their laws.

To recall this fact, a special festival will be held in Donapaleu on 9 September, organized by the Zabalik Association, the Nabarralde Foundation and Hernani Errotzen, with the collaboration of the Casa Consistorial de Donapaleu. There will be lecture cycles, memory events, popular food, etc. “We’ve had the memory deleted in its entirety, and just start looking here we learn that there have been important places and events,” they explain in the press dossier to present the day.

The other side of the conquest of Navarra

Since Castile invaded Navarre in 1512, the defenders of the cause of the kings of Navarre tried to recover their kingdom twice, but they found themselves again and again with the pointed teeth of the invaders. Thus, the territories located north of the Pyrenees were essential to seek refuge. In this geographically strategic area, the attempts of the noble in favor of the Spanish emperor Carlos V to take full ownership of Navarre were always sterile, either because of the hardness of the winter at the edge or because of the inability to defend the rear.

This was the case in 1521, when many fled to Donibane Garazi after the defeat of the Navarros raised in Noáin in May. After them, a Spanish army made up of thousands of soldiers, including many Vizcayans and Gipuzkoans, crossed the Pyrenees and raided the village. The Navarre garrison was exterminated and Captain Joanikot Arberoa received a cruel death for the experience of all. But behind it, the Castilians turned the fortress into ashes and returned to Pamplona, because they could not stay in that square.

In the summer of 1523 the situation was similar. A year earlier, in Amaiur the last legitimists fell in favor of the king of Navarre, when the Spaniards exploited the mythical castle. In addition, brutal repression was carried out from Noáin against all Navarros and suspicious citizens. While Henry II of Albret was in Biarnon, he began gathering defence troops from his northern territories, knowing that Charles V was ready to attack again within the competence of French King Francisco I.arekin. But also, in the face of the difficulty of recovering the Alta Navarra, he began to organize the structures of the kingdom in the Baja Navarra, in which context they were called by the General Staff in Donapaleu.

“Henry II.ak had to start from scratch in practice,” says historian Peio Monteano in Two Destinations for a Kingdom. He says that until then few lords and officers from Bajenavar participated in the Navarre institutions, so they had to name them for the first time. The first meeting was held on 18 August in the church of Jondoni Paulo and Navarre Chancellor Bernart Abadia read the oath on behalf of the monarch: "I swear to all the people of Navarra...", the Spanish Minutes say.

Since then, in Donapale the highest administrations of the kingdom of Navarre met: This same church of Jondoni Paulo became the seat of the Chancellery of Navarra, while in the existing monetary house Enrique began to issue coins of the kingdom with grace of god, with the motto of king of Navarra, tribunal, prison... Through them, numerous rules and sanctions were established on trade, agriculture, taxation and borders. But, although the intention was to meet each year by the United States, “it soon became apparent that that would be unfeasible,” says Monteano.

Castellanos occupied Baja Navarra several times since 1523. But on October 5, 1527, due to pressure from Navarre troops and biarnotes, Donapaleu became famous forever after his last looting. They would not return
any longer s.Como as a result of that long war, a border was established in the Pyrenees that until then did not exist, and that we suffer today. However, commercial and family relationships remained alive for decades. On the contrary, stimulated by the religious wars and converted the king of Navarre into king of France, this relationship was extinguished in the seventeenth century. With the unification of Pau in 1620 he integrated Luis XIII.ak – Luis II de Navarra – in Baja Navarra, Biarno and Doneza in the Crown of France, where the French had occupied these territories militarily, the higher states could not do much. These were the last scares of the independent Navarre kingdom.

Zabalik Association: “We have a powerful story”

“As in Senegal and other colonized territories, in Euskal Herria we have been shown that our ancestors were Galos and that in the battle of Ibañeta the Sarracens died to the hero Roldán, and that we were in favor of Charlemagne. That’s what we’ve been taught,” explains Mattin Irigoien, known in the theater world and member of the Zabalik Euskara association. But he says there is a “powerful story” that hasn’t been narrated 500 years ago.

A few years ago, on Day of the Unconquest in Donapale, they realized that there was a great lack of knowledge on the subject and have since participated in various initiatives. In this context they have organized the festival 1523-2023 Nafarroa Bizirik on 9 September. The programme is ready and the Loraldia exhibition is already underway in the room of the Bideak Cultural Centre, where the cultural flowering of those years in Nafarroa Beherea is explained.

Since 2010, there has been a huge amount of work in Amikuze for the promotion and recovery of the Basque Country, which we have in number 214 of the monographic magazine Larrun. On the border with Bearno the Basque Country was quickly lost in the last century: “In one generation the transition was violently cut off,” says Irigoien. Assuming the responsibility of coordinating Amikuze’s Basque cultural activity, this association is creating “breathing moments” and is working on linguistic sensitization in night schools, in Libertitua, with Otsail Ostegunak conference cycles or through a recently created leisure center, in which the presence and use of the Basque language is prioritized.

Thus, Irigoien reminds us that celebrations such as that of Donapale linked to memory and history are a “lever”, a “way to resist in Basque”. But the playwright has also underlined the importance of re-appropriation of history, because in his view this is largely the loss of language and personality, which is perfectly visible since Amikuze's past.

Restoring language and dignity

At the time of the conquest of Navarre, in Lower Navarre there were some 3,000 houses and more than one hundred lineages, headed by the lords of Lüküzé, Agramonte and Domintxain. Amikuze was one of the most populated and wealthy regions, and Donapaleu was the most important city. The chronicles of the time talk about the fact that in many houses they had eiher, in some cases they have remained with their eyherazaina, as explained by the expert in the subject Jean Claude Mailharin and the members of Zabalik in their talks.

However, over the centuries and after the dissolution of the Kingdom of Navarre, while Donapaleu and its surroundings were filled with educated and functionary people, the eyheras and the best places of bread were left in the hands of a few owners, a phenomenon that is considered a precursor of capitalist accumulation and speculation. Then, much of the population became the “home” class, drowned in debts. The landlords were tenants who lived under a slave law that came from the Middle Ages: each year they had to negotiate with their boss half of the harvest in order not to be expelled. The tenant continued until the Second World War in Amikuze, where 60 per cent of the peasants were in this situation.

The hypothesis of the members of Zabalik is that when they changed the laws and tenants were able to buy land, including the industrial production of corn, many associated this jump to French modernity and suspended the transmission of the Basque, trying to hide that past from being of another class. “Our laws, our language, our cuts were suppressed,” Irigoien. But it is surprising because there is still a living “little fire”: “It’s about how we blow through it to overcome our complexes and restore dignity.”

Although they wanted to disappear from the pages of history, the first step would be to remember that 500 years ago the Navarro kingdom survived, and they will do so in Donapale, in Basque and above the imposed borders.