{"id":7908,"date":"2026-09-20T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=7908"},"modified":"2026-09-05T16:19:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T16:19:00","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-a-brief-history-of-the-kingdom-of-nafarroa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2026\/09\/20\/basque-fact-of-the-week-a-brief-history-of-the-kingdom-of-nafarroa\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: A Brief History of the Kingdom of Nafarroa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">In past Facts, I&#8217;ve touched on various aspects of the medieval history of the Basques, including the connection to the neighboring <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/02\/18\/basque-fact-of-the-week-the-muslim-banu-qasi-dynasty\/\">Muslim caliphate<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/04\/11\/basque-fact-of-the-week-the-sanchos-of-pamplona\/\">early<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/03\/10\/basque-fact-of-the-week-eneko-arista-the-first-king-of-pamplona\/\">rulers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/09\/26\/basque-fact-of-the-week-jeanne-dalbret-the-queen-of-nafarroa\/\">of<\/a> Pamplona, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2026\/08\/30\/basque-fact-of-the-week-the-multiple-battles-of-orreaga\/\">Battles of Orreaga<\/a> that set the stage for much of that history. It&#8217;s a complicated history, one that I don&#8217;t pretend to fully grasp. But at the heart of much of it is the Kingdom of Pamplona, which later became known as the Kingdom of Nafarroa, an ethnically Basque kingdom that unified what we now consider <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/07\/07\/basque-fact-of-the-week-what-is-the-difference-between-euskadi-euskal-herria-and-the-bac\/\">Euskal Herria<\/a>. Here is a very brief introduction to the Kingdom of Nafarroa &#8211; hope I didn&#8217;t mess it up!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-4-300x281.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-4-300x281.png 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-4.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Kingdom of Nafarroa in 1190. Image from <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kingdom_of_Navarre#\/media\/File:Espa\u00f1a_1190.jpg\">Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The entity known first as the Kingdom of Pamplona and later the Kingdom of Nafarroa was formed in 824, though the political history of the region goes much further back. It was in 824, after the third Battle of Orreaga, that <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/03\/10\/basque-fact-of-the-week-eneko-arista-the-first-king-of-pamplona\/\">Eneko Arista<\/a> became the first King of Pamplona. As implied by its original name, the center of the kingdom was Pamplona, or Iru\u00f1a in Basque. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the beginning, the region around Pamplona was still part of the C\u00f3rdoba emirate. While the kingdom was allowed to practice Christianity, it had to pay taxes to C\u00f3rdoba. Eneko rebelled against the emirate in 841, though died before the Muslim leader was forced to submit. Still, the kingdom, sitting between the Muslims to the south and the Christians to the north, was overall accommodating of their neighbors to the south.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 905, the heirs of Eneko were replaced, with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sancho_I_of_Pamplona\">Sancho Garc\u00e9s<\/a> becoming king. <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/04\/11\/basque-fact-of-the-week-the-sanchos-of-pamplona\/\">He and his heirs<\/a> ruled the kingdom until 1234. This new dynasty was much less friendly to the Muslims. One of his heirs,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sancho_II_of_Pamplona\">Sancho II<\/a>, was the first to call himself King of Nafarroa. The increased hostilities with the caliphate led to attacks on Pamplona and the killing of the then king <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Garc%C3%ADa_S%C3%A1nchez_II_of_Pamplona\">Garc\u00eda S\u00e1nchez II<\/a> in the year 1000.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>His heir, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sancho_III_of_Navarre\">Sancho III<\/a>, ruled until 1035. When he died, he split the kingdom into three. At the time, the kingdom was at its greatest extent, encompassing much of what is now considered Euskal Hernia: the Spanish province of Nafarroa, the Basque Autonomous Community, and the French region Nafarroa Beherea. It also included&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/La_Rioja_(Spain)\">La Rioja<\/a>. After Sancho III&#8217;s death and the splitting of the kingdom, the kingdom saw much turbulence, including an assassination of one of the kings. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 1512, the southern part of the kingdom was conquered by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon\">Ferdinand II of Aragon<\/a>&nbsp;and permanently annexed into Castile soon after. There were a few attempts to liberate the kingdom from the control of Castile, in 1516 and 1521, but both failed. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The northern part remained an independent kingdom, ruled first by King&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Henry_II_of_Navarre\">Henry II<\/a> and later by his daughter <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/09\/26\/basque-fact-of-the-week-jeanne-dalbret-the-queen-of-nafarroa\/\">Jeanne III<\/a>. Her son,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Henry_IV_of_France\">Henry III<\/a>, ascended to the throne of France, becoming Henry IV and joining the kingdom of Nafarroa with that of France. He would be the last independent king of Nafarroa. The title was still used by the kings of France until after the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bourbon_Restoration_in_France\">Bourbon Restoration<\/a>. The Spanish kings still use the title King of Nafarroa.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nafarroa Beherea became part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/End_of_Basque_home_rule_in_France\">Basses-Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es department<\/a> during the French Revolution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">A full list of all of Buber&#8217;s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/basque-fact-of-the-week-archive\/\">Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Primary sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kingdom_of_Navarre\">Kingdom of Navarre<\/a><\/em>, Wikipedia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In past Facts, I&#8217;ve touched on various aspects of the medieval history of the Basques, including the connection to the neighboring Muslim caliphate, the early rulers of Pamplona, and the Battles of Orreaga that set the stage for much of that history. It&#8217;s a complicated history, one that I don&#8217;t pretend to fully grasp. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[836,13],"tags":[3773,394,3020,2595,4066],"class_list":["post-7908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-history","tag-eneko-arista","tag-jean-dalbret","tag-kingdom-of-nafarroa","tag-kingdom-of-pamplona","tag-sancho-i"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-23y","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-4.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7929,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7908\/revisions\/7929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}