The high middle ages
Sancho III (Sancho the Great) (reigned 1000-1035), controlled the
territories of Burgos, Rioja, Navarre, Gipuzkoa and Biscay (Bizkaia),
which also included today's Alava. In 1157, King García V of
Navarre, (García the Restorer), re-established Navarre's independence
after 58 years of union with the kingdom of Aragon. Ten years
later, in a document signed by the King of Pamplona Sancho VI
(Sancho the Wise), Basque is referred to as the lingua navarrorum
(the language of the Navarrese). In the monolingual Christian Vasconia,
the majority language was Basque, although scribes and the
élite classes used Latin and later the Romance languages. In the eleventh
century, a monk from San Millán de La Cogolla annotated the
Glosas Emilianenses (Emilianian Glosses) in Basque.
70. Sancho III (Sancho the Great). 71. Pilgrim to Compostella. 72.…and if you were to hear them speak, you would be reminded of
barking dogs, for they speak a barbarous language. In 1160, the French
monk Aymeric Picaud, in his account of his pilgrimage to Santiago de
Compostella, described Basque-speakers as being unsightly in appearance.
He also noted down twenty valuable words in Basque. 73. Despite centuries of political division, the archaeological, anthropological and toponymic record all shows the relationship between
the peoples of the Pyrenees and the modern-day Basques,
now located at the western end of the Pyrenees.
The population type of Upper Aragon and the Pyrenean areas of
Catalonia as well as their traditional social organisation, popular
beliefs and celebrations all bear similarities with their Basque counterparts.
The places names are also revealing: Javierre, Arro, Esterri,
Gerri, Isabarre, Sorre, Escalarre, Valle de Aran, Isobol en Cerdaña,
Pla de la Muga and the Muga river in Ampurdán. 74. Arrano (eagle) on a document issued by Sancho the Strong. 1232. 75. Throughout his reign, Sancho the Strong (1194-1234) was a
powerful figure, especially important for his military campaigns and
the system of alliances he developed with other kingdoms. He commissioned
Ferrando Petri de Funes to create the Pamplona Bible,
completed around 1200, with 976 illustrations describing the
known universe, including scenes from the Kingdom of Navarre. 76. Basque was the mother tongue of the majority of people living
in the monolingual Christian Vasconia. However the Romance language
was also spoken in a small part of the territory and an educated
minority spoke Latin. The universal language of the church
would later be replaced by Spanish and French as the language of
administration and literature. Apart from a few notes and place
names, it was not until the sixteenth century that the first written
examples of Basque were produced. 77. Scribes wrote in the romance languages, although the everyday
language of the people was Basque. The first extant written phrases in
Basque, dating from the eleventh century, were glosses from the Monastery
of San Millán de la Cogolla (in modern-day Rioja), where the
first written Castilian was also found. The "Emilianian Glosses" are short
notes. Numbers 31 and 42 read jzioqui dugu guec ...ajutu ez dugu. 78. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the term "navarro"
(Navarrese) meant "Basque speaker", as can be seen in a concord
on pasture land, in which the chiefs of the shepherds are referred to
in lingua navarrorum (1167). The term Navarrese was also used with
linguistic connotations in town charters. Centuries later, in the
General Charter of Liberties, "navarro" and "vascongado" were also
used as equivalent terms. (Roldan Jimeno). 79. Book from the Armoury of the Kingdom of Navarre. 80. Representation of Berengaria and Richar I. 81. For a century and a half after 1240, Occitan was also used in legal and official documents in Navarre and Gipuzkoa. It was also
used from 1270 in Bearne and probably in Aquitaine, in the times
of the English dukes. King Richard the Lion-heart of England married
Berengaria, the sister of Sancho the Strong. Richard I was also
the Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, which encompassed the provinces
of Labourd and Soule. The shield shows the coat of arms of
the English crown. 82. Numerous epic songs about those battles (1321-1471) have survived
to this day: Beotibar, Akondia, Urrixola, Aramaio, Arrasate,
Mungia, Bereterretxen Kanthoria. 83. Information on medieval Basque is scarce and incomplete,
coming mostly from the names of places and people, as well as a
few words (such as the legal terms used in the General Charter of
Liberties of Navarre) and some short phrases. 84. In 1394, municipal bylaws were passed into law in Huesca obliging
inhabitants in practise to speak in the Romance Aragonese tongue
and banning the use of Arabic (algaravia), Hebrew (abraych) and Basque
(basquenç) in the market of Huesca on pain of a fine of 30 soles. 85. Knight jousting. He is wearing the heraldic colours of the Baztan
Valley. 86. The few documented examples of medieval Basque, between
the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, are found mostly in monastic
sources. In 1239, Ferdinand III of Castile (Saint Ferdinand) gave the
citizens of Ojacastro (Rioja) permission to speak Basque. In 1385,
in the tax registry of Bearne, many houses in the Saison or Uhaitz
valley are recorded with one name in Gascon and another in
Basque. In 1415, an official from the Royal Treasury of Pamplona
and another from Donibane Garazi (Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port) corresponded
in Basque. 87. Wax seal of Diego Lope de Haro, Lord of Biscay. 88. In the summer of 1512, King Ferdinand II of Aragon sent the Duke
of Alba with a powerful army to conquer Navarre. Castilian and Aragonese troops began the invasion. Finally in 1530, after several
centuries of aggression, the sovereignty of the Basque-speaking
lands south of the Pyrenees came to an end.