Navarre
The first documented use of a name resembling Navarra, Nafarroa, or Naparroa is a reference to navarros, in Eginhards early 9th Century chronicle of the feats of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Other Royal Frankish Annals feature nabarros, there are two proposed etymologies for the name. Basque nabar, multicolor (i. e. in contrast to the mountainous lands north of the original County of Navarre. Basque naba, plain + Basque herri, the linguist Joan Coromines considers naba to be linguistically part of a wider Vasconic or Aquitanian language substrate, rather than Basque per se. During the Roman Empire, the Vascones, a tribe who populated the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. In the mountainous north, the Vascones escaped large-scale Roman settlement, not so the flatter areas to the south, which were amenable to large-scale Roman farming—vineyards and wheat crops. Neither the Visigoths nor the Franks ever completely subjugated the area, the Vascones included neighbouring tribes as of the 7th century.
In AD778, the Basques defeated a Frankish army at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass and that kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of King Sancho III, comprising most of the Christian realms to the south of the Pyrenees, and even a short overlordship of Gascony. When Sancho III died in 1035, the Kingdom of Navarre was divided between his sons and it never fully recovered its political power, while its commercial importance increased as traders and pilgrims poured into the kingdom throughout the Way of Saint James. In 1200, Navarre lost the key western Basque districts to Alphonse VIII of Castile, Navarre contributed with a small but symbolic force of 200 knights to the decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 against the Almohads. The native line of kings came to an end in 1234, the Navarrese kept most of their strong laws and institutions. To the south of the Pyrenees, Navarre was annexed to the Crown of Castile, but keeping a separate status. A Chartered Government was established, and the managed to keep home rule.
After the 1839 Convention of Bergara, a version of home rule was passed in 1839. The relocation of customs from the Ebro river to the Pyrenees in 1841 prompted the collapse of Navarre’s customary cross-Pyrenean trade, amid instability in Spain, Carlists took over in Navarre and the rest of the Basque provinces. The end of the Third Carlist War saw a wave of Spanish centralization directly affecting Navarre. In 1893-1894 the Gamazada popular uprising took place centred in Pamplona against Madrids governmental decisions breaching the 1841 chartered provisions. Except for a faction, all parties in Navarre agreed on the need for a new political framework based on home rule within the Laurak Bat
Alfonso the Battler
Alfonso I, called the Battler or the Warrior, was the king of Aragon and Navarre from 1104 until his death in 1134. He was the son of King Sancho Ramírez and successor of his brother Peter I. Alfonso the Battler earned his sobriquet in the Reconquista and he won his greatest military successes in the middle Ebro, where he conquered Zaragoza in 1118 and took Ejea, Calatayud, Tarazona and Monreal del Campo. He died in September 1134 after a battle with the Muslims at the Battle of Fraga. During his brothers reign, he participated in the taking of Huesca, which became the largest city in the kingdom and he joined El Cids expeditions in Valencia. His father gave him the lordships of Biel, Ardenes, a series of deaths put Alfonso directly in line for the throne. His brothers children and Peter, died in 1103 and 1104 respectively, a passionate fighting-man, he was married in 1109 to the ambitious Queen Urraca of León, widow of Raymond of Burgundy, a passionate woman unsuited for a subordinate role.
The marriage had been arranged by her father Alfonso VI of León in 1106 to unite the two chief Christian states against the Almoravids, and to them with a capable military leader. But Urraca was tenacious of her right as queen regnant and had not learnt chastity in the household of her father. Husband and wife quarrelled with the brutality of the age and came to open war, Alfonso had the support of one section of the nobles who found their account in the confusion. The marriage of Alfonso and Urraca was declared null by the Pope, as they were cousins, in 1110. He inserted the title of imperator on the basis that he had three kingdoms under his rule, the king quarrelled with the church, and particularly the Cistercians, almost as violently as with his wife. As he defeated her, so he drove Archbishop Bernard into exile and he was finally compelled to give way in Castile and León to his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, son of Urraca and her first husband. The intervention of Pope Calixtus II brought about an arrangement between the old man and his young namesake, in 1122 in Belchite, he founded a confraternity of knights to fight against the Almoravids.
It was the start of the orders in Aragon. Years later, he organised a branch of the Militia Christi of the Holy Land at Monreal del Campo, Alfonso spent his first four years in near-constant war with the Muslims. In 1105, he conquered Ejea and Tauste and refortified Castellar, in 1106, he defeated Ahmad II al-Mustain of Zaragoza at Valtierra. In 1107, he took Tamarite de Litera and Esteban de la Litera, followed a period dominated by his relations with Castile and León through his wife, Urraca
Count of Barcelona
The Count of Barcelona was the ruler of Catalonia for much of Catalan history, from the 9th until the 15th century. The County of Barcelona was created by Charlemagne after he had conquered lands north of the river Ebro, as the county became hereditary in one family, the bond of the counts to their Frankish overlords loosened, especially after the Capetian dynasty supplanted the Carolingians. In the 12th century the Counts formed a union with the Kingdom of Aragon. In 1258, the king of France relinquished his authority over the County in the Treaty of Corbeil. Catalonia maintained its own laws, institutions and privileges until they were removed after the War of the Spanish Succession in the 18th century, Count of Barcelona remained one of the many hereditary titles of the Spanish monarchy. In the 20th century, the title regained some prominence when Juan de Borbón, in 1977, after Juan Carlos had become King upon Francos death in 1975, he officially awarded the title of Count of Barcelona to his father, who had renounced his rights to the throne.
Juan held that title until his death in 1993, when it reverted to the King who has held it ever since, Juan de Borbóns widow used the title Countess of Barcelona until her death in 2000. The succession of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla led to the creation of the Crown of Aragon, martin was the last direct descendant of Wilfred the Hairy to rule, died without legitimate heirs. By the Compromise of Caspe of 1412 the County of Barcelona, in Barcelona this was promulgated in 1716, and the title of Count of Barcelona became one of the many unused hereditary titles of the modern Spanish monarchy. List of Aragonese monarchs List of Spanish monarchs List of Viscounts of Barcelona
Aragon
Aragon is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces, Huesca and Teruel, the current Statute of Autonomy declares Aragon a nationality of Spain. Aragons northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees, within Spain, the community is flanked by Catalonia to the east and Castile–La Mancha to the south, and Castile and León, La Rioja, and Navarre to the west. Aragon is home to many rivers—most notably, the river Ebro, Spains largest river in volume and it is home to the Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees. As of 2015, the population of Aragon was 1,317,847, with more than half of it living in Zaragoza. As of 2015, half of Aragons population,50. 45%, Huesca is the only other city in the region with a population greater than 50,000. The majority of Aragonese citizens,71. 8%, live in the province of Zaragoza,17. 1% in Huesca and 11.
1% in Teruel, the population density of the region is the second lowest in Spain, only 26, 8/km2, after Castilla La Mancha. Only four cities have more than 20,000 inhabitants, Zaragoza 700,000, Huesca 50,000, Teruel 35,000 and Calatayud 20,000. Spanish is the language in most of Aragon, and it is the only official language, understood. The strip-shaped Catalan-speaking area in Aragon is often called La Franja, with such a low population density large areas of Aragon remain wild and relatively untouched. It is a land of natural contrasts, both in climate and geologically, from the green valleys and snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees to the dry plains. Aragons Pyrenees include splendid and varied mountain landscapes with soaring peaks, deep canyons, dense forests and its rugged peaks include the Aneto, the highest in the range, the misty Monte Perdido, Perdiguero and many others. The park is one of the last sanctuaries of birds of prey in the range. Many beautiful mountain butterflies and flowers can be seen in the summer, the principal valleys in the mountains include those of Hecho, Tena and others.
The green valleys hide pretty villages with nice Romanesque churches and typical Pyrenean houses with flowers on the balconies, the oldest Romanesque cathedral in Spain is located in the medieval town of Jaca in the very northern part of Huesca Province. In the Pyrenean foothills, or pre-Pyrenees, the Mallos de Riglos are a natural rock formation. Ancient castles nestle on lonely hills, the most famous being the magnificent Loarre Castle, further south, the Ebro valley, irrigated by the river Ebro, is a rich and fertile agricultural area covered with vast fields of wheat and other fruit and vegetable crops. Many beautiful and little-known settlements and Roman ruins dot the landscape here, some of the most notable towns here include Calatayud, Sos del Rey Catolico and others
Iberians
The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. The Roman sources use the term Hispani to refer to the Iberians, the term Iberian, as used by the ancient authors, had two distinct meanings. One, more general, referred to all the populations of the Iberian peninsula without regard to ethnic differences and this non-Indo-European cultural group spoke the Iberian language from the 7th to the 1st century BC. Other peoples possibly related to the Iberians are the Vascones, though related to the Aquitani than to the Iberians. The Iberian culture developed from the 6th century BC, and perhaps as early as the fifth to the third millennium BC in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, the Iberians lived in villages and oppida and their communities were based on a tribal organization. The Iberians in the Spanish Levant, were more urbanized than their neighbors in the central, the peoples in the central and northwest regions were mostly Celtic, semi-pastoral and lived in scattered villages, though they had a few fortified towns like Numantia.
They had a knowledge of writing, including bronze, in the centuries preceding Carthaginian and Roman conquest, Iberian settlements grew in social complexity, exhibiting evidence of social stratification and urbanization. This process was aided by trading contacts with the Phoenicians, Greeks. The settlement of Castellet de Banyoles in Tivissa was one of the most important ancient Iberian settlements in Catalonia that was discovered in 1912, the Treasure of Tivissa, a unique collection of silver Iberian votive offerings was found here in 1927. Lucentum was another ancient Iberian settlement, as well as Castelldefels Castle, mausoleum of Pozo Moro near the town of Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón in Castile-La Mancha seems to mark the location of another big settlement. Sagunto is the location of an ancient Iberian and Roman city of Saguntum, Greek colonists made the first historical reference to the Iberians in the 6th century BC. They defined Iberians as non-Celtic peoples south of the Ebro river, the Greeks dubbed as Iberians another people in the Caucasus region, currently known as Caucasian Iberians.
It is not known if there had any type of connection between the two peoples. The Iberians traded extensively with other Mediterranean cultures, Iberian pottery and metalwork has been found in France and North Africa. The Iberians had extensive contact with Greek colonists in the Spanish colonies of Emporion, Zakynthos, the Iberians may have adopted some of the Greeks artistic techniques. Statues such as the Lady of Baza and the Lady of Elx are thought to have made by Iberians relatively well acquainted with Greek art. Thucydides stated that one of the three tribes of Sicily, the Sicani, were of Iberian origin, though Iberian at the time could have included what we think of as Gaul. The Iberians had contacts with the Phoenicians, who had established colonies in southern Andalucia
Borja, Zaragoza
Borja is a town and municipality in the province of Zaragoza, community of Aragon, north-eastern Spain. As of 2014, its population was of 4,931, the municipality borders with Ablitas Agón, Ainzón, Alberite de San Juan, Ambel, Bulbuente, El Buste, Fréscano, Magallón, Maleján, Mallén, Tabuenca and Vera de Moncayo. It is the seat of the comarca of Campo de Borja. The towns origins date back to the 5th century BC, when a Celtiberian settlement, known as Bursau or Bursao, existed near the current ruins of the castle. After the Roman conquest the slopes of the hill were populated and it received the title of city by King Alfonso V of Aragon in 1438. During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, the Jews, forming an important part of the Borjan community, were expelled, Borja lived through a period of recession and plagues in the 17th and 18th centuries. It recovered economically starting from the 19th century, when a railway connecting the city to Cortes de Navarra was inaugurated, the industrial sector is intended to be boosted by businesses being attracted to the ongoing development Polígono Industrial Barbalanca, the Barbalanca Industrial Estate.
Church of San Miguel, in Gothic– style, with a Romanesque apse
Sancho III of Pamplona
Sancho Garcés III, known as Sancho the Great, was the King of Pamplona from 1004 until his death in 1035. He ruled the County of Aragon and by marriage the counties of Castile, Álava and he added the County of Cea in 1030 and the counties of Sobrarbe and Ribagoza. He would intervene in the Kingdom of León, taking the capital city and he was the eldest son of García Sánchez II and his wife Jimena Fernández. The year of Sanchos birth is not known, but it is no earlier than 992 and his parents were García Sánchez II the Tremulous and Jimena Fernández, daughter of Fernando Bermúdez, count of Cea on the Galician frontier. García and Jimena are first recorded as married in 992, the first record of the future king is a diploma of his fathers granting the village of Terrero to the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. The king describes Sancho merely as my son, the same diploma shows the future duke of Gascony, Sancho VI, at the court of Pamplona. His father last appears in 1000, while Sancho is first found as king in 1004, on his succession, Sancho initially ruled under a council of regency led by the bishops, his mother Jimena, and grandmother Urraca Fernández.
Sancho aspired to unify the Christian principalities in the face of the fragmentation of Muslim Spain into the taifa kingdoms following the Battle of Calatañazor, in about 1010 he married Muniadona of Castile, daughter of Sancho García of Castile, and in 1015 he began a policy of expansion. He displaced Muslim control in the former county of Sobrarbe. Raymond and Mayor annulled their marriage, creating a further division finally resolved in 1025 when Mayor retired to a Castilian convent and he forced Berengar Raymond I of Barcelona to become his vassal, though he was already a vassal of the French king. Berengar met Sancho in Zaragoza and in Navarre many times to confer on a policy against the counts of Toulouse. In 1016, Sancho fixed the border between Navarre and Castile, part of the relationship he established by marrying Muniadona, daughter of Sancho García of Castile. In 1017, he became the protector of Castile for the young García Sánchez, relations between the three Christian entities of León, and Navarre soured after the assassination of Count García in 1027.
He had been bethrothed to Sancha, daughter of Alfonso V, as García arrived in León for his wedding, he was killed by the sons of a noble he had expelled from his lands. Sancho III had opposed the wedding and the expansion of Leonese power to Castile. Sancho established relations with the Duchy of Gascony, probably of a suzerain–vassal nature, in consequence of his relationship with the monastery of Cluny, he improved the road from Gascony to León. This road would begin to bring increased traffic down to Iberia as pilgrims flocked to Santiago de Compostela, because of this, Sancho ranks as one of the first great patrons of the Saint James Way. Sancho VI of Gascony was a relative of King Sancho and spent a portion of his life at the court in Pamplona
House of Borgia
The House of Borgia was an Italo-Spanish noble family, which rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance. They were from Valencia, the surname being a toponymic from Borja, in the Crown of Aragon, especially during the reign of Alexander VI, they were suspected of many crimes, including adultery, simony, theft and murder. Because of their grasping for power, they made enemies of the Medici, the Sforza, and they were patrons of the arts who contributed to the Renaissance. The Borja or Borgia originated in the town of Borja in the Kingdom of Valencia, there were numerous unsubstantiated claims that the family was of Jewish origin. These underground rumours were propagated by, among others, Giuliano della Rovere, the rumours have persisted in popular culture for centuries, listed in the Semi-Gotha of 1912. The family themselves propagated a spurious genealogical descent from a 12th-century claimant to the crown of the Kingdom of Aragon, Pedro de Atarés, Lord of Borja, who actually died childless.
Alfons de Borja, known as Pope Callixtus III, was born to Francina Llançol and Domingo de Borja in La Torreta, which was situated in the Kingdom of Valencia. Alfons de Borja was a professor of law at the University of Lleida, at an advanced age, he was elected Pope Callixtus III in 1455 as a compromise candidate and reigned as Pope for just 3 years. Rodrigo Borgia, one of Alfonso’s nephews, was born in Xàtiva, in the Kingdom of Valencia, to Isabel de Borja i Cavanilles and he studied law at Bologna and was appointed as cardinal by his uncle, Alfons Borgia, Pope Callixtus III. He was elected Pope in 1492, taking the regnal name Alexander VI, while a cardinal, he maintained a long-term illicit relationship with Vannozza dei Cattanei, with whom he had four children, Cesare and Gioffre. Rodrigo had children by women, including one daughter with his mistress. As Alexander VI, Rodrigo was recognized as a politician and diplomat, but was widely criticized during his reign for his over-spending, sale of Church offices, lasciviousness.
As Pope, he struggled to acquire more personal and papal power and wealth and he appointed his son, Giovanni, as captain-general of the papal army, his foremost military representative, and established another son, Cesare, as a cardinal. Alexander used the marriages of his children to build alliances with powerful families in Italy, at the time, the Sforza family, which comprised the Milanese faction, was one of the most powerful in Europe, so Alexander united the two families by marrying Lucrezia to Giovanni Sforza. He married Gioffre, his youngest son from Vannozza, to Sancha of Aragon of the Crown of Aragon and it is reported that under Alexander VIs rule the Borgia hosted orgies in the Vatican palace. The Banquet of Chestnuts is considered one of the most disreputable balls of this kind, johann Burchard reports that fifty courtesans were in attendance for the entertainment of the banquet guests. It is alleged not only was the Pope present, but two of his children and Cesare. Other researchers however, such as Monsignor Peter de Roo, have rejected the rumors of the fifty courtesans as being at odds with Alexander VIs essentially decent, Pope Alexander VI died in Rome in 1503 after contracting a disease, generally believed to have been malaria
Basques
The Basques are an indigenous ethnic group characterised by the Basque language, a common Basque culture and shared ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. The Basques are known as, Euskaldunak in Basque Vasco in Spanish Basque in French, the English word Basque may be pronounced /bɑːsk/ or /bæsk/ and derives from the French Basque, which is derived from Gascon Basco, cognate with Spanish Vasco. These, in turn, come from Latin Vasco, plural Vascones, several coins from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC found in the Basque Country bear the inscription barscunes. The place where they were minted is not certain, but is thought to be somewhere near Pamplona, in Basque, the people call themselves the euskaldunak, singular euskaldun, formed from euskal- and -dun, euskaldun literally means a Basque speaker. Therefore, the neologism euskotar, plural euskotarrak, was coined in the 19th century to mean a culturally Basque person, alfonso Irigoyen posits that the word euskara is derived from an ancient Basque verb enautsi to say and the suffix -ara.
Thus euskara would literally mean way of saying, way of speaking, one item of evidence in favour of this hypothesis is found in the Spanish book Compendio Historial, written in 1571 by the Basque writer Esteban de Garibay. He records the name of the Basque language as enusquera and it may, however, be a writing mistake. In the 19th century, the Basque nationalist activist Sabino Arana posited an original root euzko which, he thought, on the basis of this putative root, Arana proposed the name Euzkadi for an independent Basque nation, composed of seven Basque historical territories. Aranas neologism Euzkadi is still used in both Basque and Spanish, since it is now the official name of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. Since the Basque language is unrelated to Indo-European, it has long thought to represent the people or culture that occupied Europe before the spread of Indo-European languages there. A comprehensive analysis of Basque genetic patterns has shown that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula and it is thought that Basques are a remnant of the early inhabitants of Western Europe, specifically those of the Franco-Cantabrian region.
Basque tribes were mentioned in Roman times by Strabo and Pliny, including the Vascones, the Aquitani. There is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that at that time, castile deprived Navarre of its coastline by conquering key western territories, leaving the kingdom landlocked. The Basques were ravaged by the War of the Bands, bitter partisan wars between local ruling families, weakened by the Navarrese civil war, the bulk of the realm eventually fell before the onslaught of the Spanish armies. However, the Navarrese territory north of the Pyrenees remained beyond the reach of an increasingly powerful Spain, Lower Navarre became a province of France in 1620. Nevertheless, the Basques enjoyed a deal of self-government until the French Revolution and the Carlist Wars. On either side of the Pyrenees, the Basques lost their native institutions, Lower Navarre, and Soule were integrated into the French department system, with Basque efforts to establish a region-specific political-administrative entity failing to take off to date.
The corresponding Basque names of these territories are Araba and Gipuzkoa, the BAC only includes three of the seven provinces of the currently called historical territories
Navarre (Kingdom of Pamplona) (Control lost in 1234)
Aragon (Control lost in 1164)
Castile (Control lost in 1126) 
León (Control lost in 1126) 
Galicia 
Portugal (Control lost in 1139)
.svg)
