Medieval History
- Vasconia, Independent With Aquitaine (660-769)
The Basques were brought to heel in 635 after a gigantic Franco-Burgundian expedition. The Basque leaders vowed loyalty to Frankish king Dagobert I, but after his death the Merovingian dynasty sank in a steady decline started with the so-called rois...
- Siege Of Narbonne (752-759)
The Siege of Narbonne took place between 752 and 759 led by the Frankish king Pepin the Short against the Muslim stronghold defended by an Umayyad garrison and its Gothic and Gallo-Roman inhabitants. The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context...
- Battle Of Toulouse (721)
The Battle of Toulouse (721) was a victory of an Aquitanian Christian army led by the duke Odo of Aquitaine over an Umayyad Muslim army besieging the city of Toulouse, and led by the governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani. The victory checked...
- Newport?s Medieval Ship Could Have Been Basque
The origins of the Newport Medieval Ship may have finally been solved ? with new research announced yesterday pointing to the north of Spain. Thanks to recent advances in tree-ring dating, experts have obtained the first scientific evidence that...
- 'christopher Ought Not To Forget'
The west tower of Aughton church on the banks of the river Derwent in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has an armorial panel on its southern face that incorporates a rather curious inscription in Old French. 'Christofer le second...
Medieval History
VASCONIA: Early Merovingian Period (602-660)
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| Prehistoric megalithic monuments like this, mainly dolmens and cromlechs, were important landmarks erected at crossroads and mountain passes. Still in the Early Medieval Ages, representatives of neighbouring tribes and valleys honoured their ancestors and held meetings there Credit: Iñaki LLM |
By the year 602, after the campaigns led by Theudebert II of Austrasia (present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, central Germany, and north-eastern France) and Theuderic II (Frankish king of Burgundy) the Franks brought to heel the Basques after a long period of instability (cf Fortunatus' poem in praise of count Gallactorius in 585). The Frankish kings decided to impose a duke with a view to bringing the Basques back to their submission and better handle their relations with them ("deiecti suae dominationi redegiunt"). The new duke was a Gallo-Roman called Genial, who in turn established a march, the Duchy of Vasconia. The Duchy of Vasconia consolidated at the turn of the century in the areas around the Garonne river.
Cantabria was a vague region extending on either side of the Ebro river from approximately Arnedo and Calahorra up to the its headwaters and the plains to their south. It was governed by a senate made up of local native lords, and a regular battlefield for Visigoths and Basques. In 574 Cantabria was subdued by Liuvigild (Amaya captured and City of Cantabria devastated), but seems to be under Frankish influence at the time of and before the creation of the Duchy of Vasconia on account of its reported Frankish suzerainty under semi-legendary duke Francio. However, the headwaters of the Ebro and the Garonne are far apart territories. What link could be postulated between Cantabrians and Vascones? Count Gallactorius of Bordeaux (floruit 585) is cited as fighting the Basques and the Cantabrians as follows: "May the Cantabrian fear you, and may the vagabond Basque [Vascon] be terrorized by your arms" (from Latin). Hence the question remains: Are the Cantabrians and Vascones regional varieties perceived to belong to a wider ethnic group? And were it be so, were duke Genial's powers meant to extend up to the Cantabria?
Whatever the answer, in the year 607 Sisebut subdued the province of Cantabria and an undefined strip of land up to the Pyrenees, reasserting the Visigoth possession of these northern regions in new expeditions undertaken in 612 and 613 ("Confirmatum est regnum Gothorum in Spaniam per mare litora usque Paereneos montes", Frankish chronicler Fredegar), commanded by kings Gundemar and Sisebut respectively. The latter, we are told, was carried out by sea ("trans Oceanum"), using vessels for the purpose.
Cantabria was a vague region extending on either side of the Ebro river from approximately Arnedo and Calahorra up to the its headwaters and the plains to their south. It was governed by a senate made up of local native lords, and a regular battlefield for Visigoths and Basques. In 574 Cantabria was subdued by Liuvigild (Amaya captured and City of Cantabria devastated), but seems to be under Frankish influence at the time of and before the creation of the Duchy of Vasconia on account of its reported Frankish suzerainty under semi-legendary duke Francio. However, the headwaters of the Ebro and the Garonne are far apart territories. What link could be postulated between Cantabrians and Vascones? Count Gallactorius of Bordeaux (floruit 585) is cited as fighting the Basques and the Cantabrians as follows: "May the Cantabrian fear you, and may the vagabond Basque [Vascon] be terrorized by your arms" (from Latin). Hence the question remains: Are the Cantabrians and Vascones regional varieties perceived to belong to a wider ethnic group? And were it be so, were duke Genial's powers meant to extend up to the Cantabria?
Whatever the answer, in the year 607 Sisebut subdued the province of Cantabria and an undefined strip of land up to the Pyrenees, reasserting the Visigoth possession of these northern regions in new expeditions undertaken in 612 and 613 ("Confirmatum est regnum Gothorum in Spaniam per mare litora usque Paereneos montes", Frankish chronicler Fredegar), commanded by kings Gundemar and Sisebut respectively. The latter, we are told, was carried out by sea ("trans Oceanum"), using vessels for the purpose.
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| The "San Adrian" (Sancta Trinitas) tunnel, used for ages by shepherds in their seasonal migrations, grew into a medieval mountain pass in Basque territory bridging continental Europe and northern Iberia Credit: Iñaki LLM |
Sources are mute on any Visigoth settlement or occupation after Sisebut's advance into the coast up to the western tip of the Pyrenees. On the other hand, Basques are then reported to be campaigning across the Tarraconense (Ebro basin), and coming from Gaul, i.e. from the north across the Pyrenees, but the Visigoth Swinthila defeated them, founded in 621 the fortress of Oligitum (Olite), but nothing is said about Pamplona, just 40 kilometres away north. Swinthila in turn punished the subjugated Basques by having them build up and settle down in Oligitum ("Ologitin civitatem Gothorum stipendiis suis et laboribus conderent"), in an urban environment where they could be controlled. Oligitum and Victoriacum may have provided the frontier line of Visigoth outposts against the Basques. The outcome of this effort to make the Basques settle down in this Romanized and Gothic urban life seems to have been flawed and the Victoriacum founded by Liuvigild (581) was never heard of again, while Oligitum only came back to the spotlight only five centuries later (Olite, charter of 1147).
In this period, it's certain the extension of the Duchy up to the Pyrenees and the west of Toulouse. In addition, the term Vasconia was by then replacing the formerly preferred Roman term Novempopulania. In 626, the Basques rebelled against the Franks, with the bishop of Eauze (Elusa) Sidocus and his father Palladius being forced to exile by the Saxon duke of Vasconia Aighyna on the accusation of supporting the Basque rebels. How this widespread rebellion related to events south of the Pyrenees is not explicitly attested, but we hear of Basques, as reported by Isidore of Seville, raiding the Ebro basin and Saragossa in 625, just about the time of the uprising in Gascony. Not only that, interestingly the archbishop of Seville points to their coming from the north, beyond the Pyrenees.
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| The unprecedented Burgundian expedition led by duke Arnebert against the Basques swept in columns east to west through the Pyrenean Valleys Credit: Filou |
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| Pyrenean highlands were a no-go in cold winter, but lower mountain passes, shared communal lands and seasonal migrations allowed for cultural ties and trade between valleys Credit: Iñaki LLM |
In 628, just two years later after the Basque uprising north of the Pyrenees, provisions were made by the Frankish king Dagobert I to assign territories in southern Gaul to his half-brother Charibert in the general area of Vasconia up to the limes Spaniae, where it is implied that the Vasconia split between Frankish and Gothic areas of influence. Three years later Charibert is reported to have extended his domains across the Pyrenees to the whole of Vasconia.
From the 589 to 684, the Bishop of Pamplona (Iruñea) was absent from the Visigoth Councils of Toledo, which is interpreted as the result of this city being under Basque or Frankish control. Historic and archaeological evidence points in that direction too, but in 642 the Visigoth Chindasuinth is reported to have been proclaimed king in Pamplona, possibly as a result of a victory over the Basques.
In 635, a gigantic Franco-Burgundian expedition led by the duke Arnebert and 9 more Burgundian dukes, 10 columns altogether, launched an attack against the Basques. The dimensions of the expedition were extraordinary, such expeditions rarely included more than two dukes. The Basque troops were forced to hide in the mountains, and each column seems to have swept a Pyrenean valley all the way east to west. We hear that Arnebert's column couldn´t escape defeat in Subola, current Soule, possibly near Atharratze (Tardets-Sorholus). Despite this fleeting Basque victory, the Basque lords were summoned by the Saxon duke of Vasconia Aeghyna, went on to travel to the Merovingian capital city of Clichy in the vicinity of Paris, and pledged allegiance to the Frankish king Dagobert I.
All the same, in 642 and 653, we are told that Basques led by Froya, of no attested origin, brought about severe disruption across the middle Ebro (Saragossa), especially attacking Church property and officials.
All the same, in 642 and 653, we are told that Basques led by Froya, of no attested origin, brought about severe disruption across the middle Ebro (Saragossa), especially attacking Church property and officials.
FURTHER READING
__________________________________________________________________________________________________1. Collins, Roger. 1990. The Basques. Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17565-2.
2. Euskomedia Fundazioa. Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia
2. Euskomedia Fundazioa. Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia
3. Lewis, Archibald R. 1965. Expansion into Gascony and Catalonia. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050. University of Texas Press.
- Vasconia, Independent With Aquitaine (660-769)
The Basques were brought to heel in 635 after a gigantic Franco-Burgundian expedition. The Basque leaders vowed loyalty to Frankish king Dagobert I, but after his death the Merovingian dynasty sank in a steady decline started with the so-called rois...
- Siege Of Narbonne (752-759)
The Siege of Narbonne took place between 752 and 759 led by the Frankish king Pepin the Short against the Muslim stronghold defended by an Umayyad garrison and its Gothic and Gallo-Roman inhabitants. The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context...
- Battle Of Toulouse (721)
The Battle of Toulouse (721) was a victory of an Aquitanian Christian army led by the duke Odo of Aquitaine over an Umayyad Muslim army besieging the city of Toulouse, and led by the governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani. The victory checked...
- Newport?s Medieval Ship Could Have Been Basque
The origins of the Newport Medieval Ship may have finally been solved ? with new research announced yesterday pointing to the north of Spain. Thanks to recent advances in tree-ring dating, experts have obtained the first scientific evidence that...
- 'christopher Ought Not To Forget'
The west tower of Aughton church on the banks of the river Derwent in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has an armorial panel on its southern face that incorporates a rather curious inscription in Old French. 'Christofer le second...
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