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The Duchy of Vasconia (also Wasconia, later the Duchy of Gascony) was originally a Frankish march formed in the seventh century to protect the Aquitanian frontier from the Basques (Vascones). It comprised the former Roman province of Novempopulania and, at least in some periods, also the lands south of the Pyrenees centred on Pamplona.

In the ninth century, civil war within the Frankish realm led to the permanent loss of control over the transpyrenean territories and several competing claimants to legal authority in Vasconia. The settling of these political matters ended with the creation of a largely Basque (Gascon) state, de facto independent, known as Gascony.

History

Genesis

The western Pyrenean hill country was the refuge of the Basques in the period of barbarian invasions. Both the Visigoths of Spain and the Franks of Gaul sought to subdue them, but neither power ever fully brought them into the orbit of their realms. The Merovingians created, in 602, a frontier duchy on their southwest during the tripartite wars the Franks, Visigoths, and Basques. At the same time, the Visigoths created the Duchy of Cantabria as a defence against the Basques of the Navarre.

Around the year 580, both Germanic kingdoms had launched respective major campaigns against the Basques. Chilperic I sent his duke Bladastes, who was clearly defeated in Zuberoa, while Leovigild also attacked, from the south, founding a fortress called Victoriacum (probably Vitoria-Gasteiz). The brief mentions of these campaigns in the Frankish and Visigothics chronicles clearly use the term Vasconia or Wasconia for the territory extending at both sides of the Pyrenees.

Early Frankish period (602 – 660)

By the year 602, the duchy of Vasconia, under Frankish overlordship, was consolidated in the areas around the Garonne river but does not seem to have extended to the southern regions around the Adour. In the years 610 and 612 respectively, the Gothic kings Gundemar and Sisebut launched attacks against the Basques. After a Basque attack in the Ebro valley in the year 621, Chintila defeated them, raising the fortress of Olite.

In 626, the Basques rebelled against the Franks and in 635 they launched an attack on Toulouse. In 643, there was another rebellion in the north and in 648 warring with the Visigoths in the south. In the year 633, the Bishop of Pamplona was absent from the Fourth Council of Toledo, which is interpreted by some as the result of his city being under Basque control. In 626, the bishop of Eauze was exiled on the accusation of being in conivance with Basque rebels.

Union with Aquitaine (660 – 768)

In the year 660, Felix received the ducal title of both Vasconia and Aquitaine (located between the Garonne and Loire rivers). Under Felix and his successors, Frankish overlordship became merely nominal. It did become a most important regional power.

But the Muslim invasion of 711 effected a complete shift in trends. Thitherto the Frankish duke, Odo the Great, had been independent, refusing to recognise the authority of either the Merovingian king or his mayor of the palace. In 719, Pamplona was captured by the Moors. In 721, Odo defeated the Moors at the Battle of Toulouse. In 732, however, he was utterly routed at Bordeaux, after which the Muslim troops under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi plundered the country and captured Narbonne. Only by submitting to the suzerainty of his Frankish archrival, the mayor Charles Martel, could they decisively defeat the Muslim invaders at Battle of Tours. Aquitaine and its attendant marches were united then to Francia. It has been said that had Odo been victorious at Bordeaux, he would have usurped the eminence eventually to go to Martel as the defender and preserver of Christendom.

In 735, Odo died, leaving his realm to his son Hunald, who, desiring the former independence which had been his father's, attacked Martel's successors, commencing a war which was to last two generations. In 743, the situation was further complicated by the arrival of Asturian forces attacking Vasconia by the west. In 744, Hunald abdicated to his son Waifer, who repeatedly challenged Frankish overlordship, being defeated thrice by Pepin the Short in 760, 762, and 766. He was eventually murdered by his desperate followers, who pledged loyalty to Pepin.

Carolingian Vasconia

Carolingians and Muslims were a great challenge for Basques still in this period but, at least, they enjoyed certain safety by the West, as Asturias was inmersed in continuous dynastic conflicts.

The time of Charlemagne is full of struggles against Franks and Muslims, who also fought each other. Most famous is the Battle of Roncevaux in 778, where, after Frankish destruction of the walls of Pamplona, Basques ambushed and massacred Charles' rearguard.

Muslims attacked the country as well, being in possession of Pamplona for some time, but then expelled by a rebellion in 798-801, that helped to create the Basque-Muslim realm of the Banu Qassim around Tudela.

In 812 there was a second Battle of Roncevaux that ended in stalemate due to the greater precautions taken by the Franks.

Northern Basques, organized in the Duchy of Vasconia, collaborated with Franks in efforts such as the capture of Barcelona in 799 but after the death of Charlemagne in 814 there are uprisings. In 815 Louis the Pious deposed the Basque Duke Seguin, causing a widespread rebellion, led by Gartzia Semeno (who was brother or is otherwise confused with semi-legendary Eneko Aritza, first monarch of Pamplona).

In 824 was the third Battle of Roncevaux, where counts Eblo and Aznar, Frankish vassals, were captured by the joint Pamplonese and Banu Qasim forces, consolidating the independence of Pamplona.

C. 830 the lands around the Adur river are segregated from the Duchy under the name of County of Vasconia. Count Aznar Antso fought against Cordoba in 832 capturing Jaca and creating the core of Aragon. His brother and heir Sans Sancion fought against Charles the Bald, who didn't recognize him.

In 844, Vikings invaded Bordeaux and killed Duke Seguin II. His heir William was killed trying to retake Bordeaux in 848, though some sources say he was only captured and later deposed by the king. What is certain is that by 853, Sans Sancion, the Basque leader, was recognised as duke by Charles the Bald. In that same year, Muza of Tudela, relative of the Basque princes, invaded Vasconia and made Sans prisioner. In 855 Sans died and was succeeded by Arnold, who died fighting against the Norse in 864.

After him, the Duchy of Vasconia, between the Adur and the Garonne, was to be known as Duchy of Gascony. Moving away from the history of the Basque Country as the romance language (Gascon language) replaces Basque, that is confined to the mountains.

Still, the Duchy would be under Pamplonese influence in later periods, specially with Sancho the Great.

Sources

• Auñamendi Encyclopedia: Ducado de Vasconia.
• Sedycias, João. História da Língua Espanhola.
• Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Gascony.
• Monlezun, Jean Justin. Histoire de la Gascogne. 1846.
• Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476-918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
• Collins, Roger. The Basques. Blackwell Publishing: London, 1990.
• Higounet, Charles. Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen age. Bordeaux, 1963.
• Lewis, Archibald R. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
• Pertz, G, ed. Chronici Fontanellensis fragmentum in Mon. Ger. Hist. Scriptores, Vol. II.
• Pertz, G, ed. Chronicum Aquitanicum in Mon. Ger. Hist. Scriptores, Vol. II.
• Waitz, E, ed. Annales Bertiniani. Hanover: 1883.

See also

• Basque people
• Gascony
• Northern Basque Country
• Kingdom of Navarre