Bayonne

 ( Communes Of Pyrénées-atlantiques ) 

In the 1st century AD, during the Roman occupation, Bayonne already seems to have been of some importance since the Romans surrounded the city with a wall to keep out the Tarbelli, Aquitani, or the proto-Basque who then occupied a territory that extended south of modern-day Landes, to the modern French Basque country, the Chalosse, the valleys of the Adour, the mountain streams of Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and to the Gave d'Oloron.Charles Athanase Walckenaer, Ancient Historical Geography and comparison of the Cisalpine and Transalpine Gauls, followed by a geographical analysis of ancient routes and accompanied by a nine map Atlas, Vol. 1, P. Dufart, 1839, 1085 pages .

The archaeological discoveries of October and November 1995 provided a shred of evidence to support this projection. In the four layers of sub-soil along the foundation of the Gothic cathedral (in the "apse of the cathedral" area), a 2-metre depth was found of old objects from the end of the 1st century—in particular sigillated Gallic ceramics from Montans imitating Italian styles, thin-walled bowls, and fragments of amphorae.Sigillata ceramics of red brick colour, the resulting relief decoration is decorated before firing by stamping In the "southern sector" near the cloister door, there were objects from the second half of the 1st century as well as coins from the first half of the 3rd century.In The Week in Basque Country, M. Esteban, March 1996

A very high probability of human presence, not solely military, seems to provisionally confirm the occupation of the site at least around the third century.

A Roman Castra dating to the end of the 4th century has been proven as a fortified place of Novempopulania. Named Lapurdum, the name became the name of the province of Labourd.The Notitia Dignitatum imperii Romani, dating from 340 to 420 AD, mentions the seat of the tribune of the cohort of Novempopulania in these terms: "In provincia Novempopulana tribunus cohortis Novempopulanae Lapurdo" According to Eugene Goyheneche, the name Baiona designated the city, the port, and the cathedral while that of Lapurdum was only a territorial designation. On the presumed origin of the division of the Basque language, Hector Iglesias, consulted on 5 August 2014 . This Roman settlement was strategic as it allowed the monitoring of the trans-Pyrenean roads and of local people rebellious to the Roman power. The construction covered 6 to 10 hectares according to several authors.Renée Mussot-Goulard, The Gascons, Atlantica, 2001 Gérard Coulon, The Gallo-Romains: life, work, beliefs, diversions—54 BC – 486 AD, Paris, 2006, Errance, Hespérides collection, , p. 21 , retains the number 10 hectares.According to Eugène Goyheneche in Basque Country: Soule, Labourd, Lower Navarre, Société nouvelle d’éditions régionales et de diffusion, Pau, 1979, BnF FRBNF34647711, the old Roman wall which is still visible in parts was in the shape of a polygon of perimeter in an area of .

The Romans left the city in the 4th century and the Basques, who had always been present, dominated the former Novempopulania province between the Garonne, the Ocean, and the Pyrénées. Novempopulania was renamed Vasconia and then Gascony after a Germanic deformation (resulting from the Visigoth and Franks invasions). Basquisation of the plains region was too weak against the advance of romanization. From the mixture between the Basque and Latin language Gascon language was created.Jacques Allières, The Basques, Paris, Presses universitaires de France,?March 2003 (1st ed. 1997), 127 p. and , .

Documentation on Bayonne for the period from the High Middle Ages are virtually nonexistent,Peter Hourmat, ( History of Bayonne from its origins to the French Revolution of 1789, Society of Sciences Letters Arts of Bayonne,1986, pp. 27 to 35 )deplores the lack of sources for the period 5th century to the 10th century: "If the existence of a major military site is attested by the remains of the tower walls of a castrum, the headquarters or refuge of a cohort in the last days of the Roman Empire, in the half a millennium that followed the collapse of the latter plunges us into an almost total ignorance of who occupied the area of the castrum and the identity of the people. A heavy silence covers the fate of Lapurdum and documents at our disposal for five centuries can be counted on the fingers of one hand and these lead to different or contradictory interpretations ... . So this story becomes a long series of question marks, for example that of Novempopulania".The Treaty of Andelot signed in 587 between Guntram, king of Burgundy, and Brunhilda of Austrasia, mentions Lapurdo; it documents the return to Brunhilda of several cities including Aire, Couserans and Lapurdo, each "with its territories" ("cum terminibus"). Manex Goyhenetche indicates that in the 6th century, the term civitas was used to designate a fortress. "The Franks dynasties of Austrasia and Neustria by the Treaty of Andelot, consolidated their grip on part of the former territory of the Nine Peoples ... In the 4th century Lapurdum continued to exist and by the end of the 6th century returned to its function as a fortress. Lapurdum controlled firstly the routes leading to the Pyrenean passes and secondly the cabotage routes of the Frankish fleets from Bordeaux to Asturias ".Manex Goyhenetche, General History of Basque country, Prehistory, Roman era, Middle Ages, Vol. 1, Elkarlanean, Donostia and Bayonne, 1998, 492 pages, , BnF FRBNF37031711, p. 134 . with the exception of two Norman intrusions: one questionable in 844 and a second attested in 892.p. 152.

When Labourd was created in 1023, Bayonne was the capital and the Viscount resided there.The Vicount resided in Chatelet ( lou Castet), next to the entry to the current Cinq Cantons (Five Cantons) which was the Roman gate leading to the port source: Eugene Goyheneche, The Basque Country: Soule, Labourd, Lower Navarre, New Society regional editions and distribution, Pau, 1979 (Record BNF FRBNF34647711). The history of Bayonne proper started in 1056 when Raymond II the Younger, Bishop of Bazas, had the mission to build the Church of BayonneIt can be deduced that it existed prior to that date.

The construction was under the authority of Raymond III of Martres, Bishop of Bayonne from 1122 to 1125, combined with Viscount Bertrand for the Romanesque cathedral, the rear of which can still be seen today, and the first wooden bridge across the Adour extending the Mayou bridge over the Nive, which inaugurated the heyday of Bayonne. From 1120, new districts were created under population pressure. The development of areas between the old Roman city of Grand Bayonne and the Nive also developed during this period, then between the Nive and the Adour at the place that became Petit Bayonne. A Jacobin Convent was located there in 1225 then that of the Cordeliers in 1247. Construction of and modifications to the defences of the city also developed to protect the new districts.p. 152.

In 1130, the King of Aragon Alfonso the Battler besieged the city without success. Bayonne became an Angevin Empire possession when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, the future king of England, in 1152.p. 6. This alliance gave Bayonne many commercial privileges. The Bayonnaises became carriers of Bordeaux wines and other south-western products like resin, ham, and Isatis tinctoria to England.p. 171. Bayonne was then an important military base. In 1177, King Richard separated the Viscounty of Labourd whose capital then became Ustaritz. Like many cities at the time, in 1215 Bayonne obtained the award of a municipal charter and was emancipated from feudal powers.On 12 April 1215 John, King of England, granted Bayonne a legal personality that would last throughout the Middle Ages and, to some extent, until the French Revolution. The form of the charter resembled that of La Rochelle. According to Eugene Goyheneche, "the city is governed by the "Hundred Peers" who were actually a mayor, twelve deputies, twelve councilors, and seventy-five peers who were co-opted and proposed each year by the mayor for the king's choice. The mayor was head of the administrative, judiciary, and military: he had custody of the keys to the city and some mayors were admirals in the bayonnaise fleet. The king was represented by a marshal" source: Eugene Goyheneche, The Basque Country: Soule, Labourd, Lower Navarre, Societe new regional editions and distribution, Pau, 1979 (Record BNF FRBNF34647711) .

The official publication, in 1273, of a Coutume unique to the city, remained in force for five centuries until the separation of Bayonne from Labourd.p. 160.Relations with Labourd were often difficult and caused many bloody conflicts. The most famous of them took place in 1343 when the mayor of Bayonne, Pé de Poyane, killed five labourdin nobles: an episode which, according to Eugene Goyheneche, had its origin in a fictional story of On the Proudines bridge at Villefranque, retold by Augustine Chaho and Hippolyte Taine.

Bayonnaise industry at that time was dominated by shipbuilding: wood (oak, beech, chestnut from the Pyrenees, and pine from Landes forest) being overabundant.p. 162. There was also maritime activity in providing crews for whaling, commercial marine or, and it was often so at a time when it was easy to turn any merchant ship into a warship, the English Royal Navy.p. 163.For example a Bayonnais fleet participated in the Siege of Calais led by the English in 1346 which consisted of 15 vessels and 439 men source: Eugene Goyheneche, The Basque Country: Soule, Labourd, Lower Navarre, Society new regional editions and distribution, Pau,1979 (Record BNF FRBNF34647711), p. 163. .

The city continued to be fortified by the kings of France to protect it from danger from the Spanish border. In 1454, Charles VII created a separate judicial district: the Seneschal of LannesLéon Cadier, Seneschal of Lannes under Charles VII, royal administration and provincials states, A. Picard, Paris, 1885, 92 pages, consulted 16 June 2014 . a "single subdivision of Guyenne during the English period" which had jurisdiction over a wide area including Bayonne, Dax and Saint-Sever and which exercised civil justice, criminal jurisdiction within the competence of the district councilors. Over time, the "Seneschal of the Sword", which was at Dax, lost any role other than protocol, and Bayonne, along with Dax and Saint-Sever, became the de facto seat of a separate Seneschal under the authority of a "lieutenant-general of the Seneschal".p. 160.

In May 1462, King Louis XI authorized the holding of two annual fairsTwo annual fairs: one on the first day of Lent and the other 1 August: "... grant them free fairs in perpetuity of all Aydes, imposicions, impostz and any other subsidies qualxconques, which one will be held the first day of karesme and the other on the first day of August ..." as letters patent of Louis XI established at Montferrand in May 1462. by letters patent after signing the Treaty of Bayonne after which it was confirmed by the coutoumes of the inhabitants in July 1472 following the death of Charles de Valois, Duke de Berry, the king's brother.p. 164.

At the time the Spanish Inquisition raged in the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled Spain and also later, Portugal, then settled in Southern France, including in Saint-Esprit (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), a northern district of Bayonne located along the northern bank of the Adour river. They brought with them chocolate and the recipe for its preparation.p. 27. In 1750, the Jewish population in Saint-Esprit (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is estimated to have reached about 3,500 people.

The golden age of the city ended in the 15th century with the loss of trade with England and the silting of the port of Bayonne created by the movement of the course of the Adour to the north.p. 187.

At the beginning of the 16th century Labourd suffered the emergence of the Bubonic plague. Its path can be tracked by reading the Registers. Gascon Registers, Vol. 1, pp. 44, 53, 141, 154, 158–159, 195, and 233—cited by Manex Goyhenetche, General History of Basque Country III: Economic and social revolution from the 16th to the 18th century, Vol. 3, Donostia / Bayonne, Elkarlanean,? 2001, 411 p. ( and , ), p. 42–43. In July 1515, the city of Bayonne was "prohibited to welcome people from plague-stricken places" and on 21 October, "we inhibit and prohibit all peasants and residents of this city ... to go Parish Bidart ... because of the contagion of the plague". On 11 April 1518, the plague raged in Saint-Jean-de-Luz and the city of Bayonne "inhibited and prohibited for all peasants and city inhabitants and other foreigners to maintain relationships at the location and Parish of Saint-Jean-de-Luz where people have died of the plague". On 11 November 1518, the plague was present in Bayonne to the point that in 1519 the city council moved to the district of Brindos (Berindos at the time) in Anglet.Ferdinand Barbe, The Epidemics of pestilence in Bayonne in the 16th century, Bulletin de la Société des sciences et lettres de Bayonne, 1947—cited by Manex Goyhenetche, General History of Basque Country III: Economic and social revolution from the 16th to the 18th century, Vol. 3, Donostia / Bayonne, Elkarlanean,? 2001, 411 p. ( and , ), p. 42.

In 1523, Marshal Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec resisted the Spaniards under Philibert of Chalon in the service of Charles V and lifted the siege of Bayonne.p. 11. It was at Château-Vieux that the ransom demand for the release of Francis I, taken prisoner after his defeat at the Battle of Pavia, was gathered.Francis I was replaced as a captive by his two eldest sons: Francis III, Duke of Brittany, and Henry II of France who were finally released in 1530 after payment of the ransom.

The meeting in 1565 between Catherine de Medici and the envoy of Philip II: the Duke of Alba, is known as the Interview of Bayonne. At the time that Catholics and Protestants tore each other apart in parts of the kingdom of France, Bayonne seemed relatively untouched by these troubles.Vincent Hiribarren, Bayonne at the beginning of the Wars of Religion, Revue d’histoire de Bayonne, du Pays basque et du Bas-Adour, Vol. 159, 2004, p. 95–122 . An iron fist from the city leaders did not appear to be unknown. In fact, they never hesitated to use violence and criminal sanctions for keeping order in the name of the "public good".Vincent Hiribarren, For God, King, and the good of the city, Bayonne deliberations from 1565 to 1569, Memoir by Maitrise under the direction of Denis Crouzet, université Paris IV-Sorbonne, June 2003, 137 p. Two brothers, Saubat and Johannes Sorhaindo who were both lieutenants of the mayor of Bayonne in the second half of the 16th century, perfectly embody this period. They often wavered between Catholicism and Protestantism but always wanted to ensure the unity and prestige of the city.Vincent Hiribarren, A lion at the head of a thousand sheep. the Sorhaindo family in Bayonne at the end of the 16th century, Vol. 166, Bulletin of the Basque museum, 2005, p. 19–34.

In the 16th century, the king's engineers, under the direction of Louis de Foix, were dispatched to rearrange the course of the Adour by creating an estuary to maintain the river bed. The river discharged in the right place to the Ocean on 28 October 1578.p. 214. The port of Bayonne then attained a greater level of activity. Fishing for cod and whale ensured the wealth of fishermen and shipowners.

From 1611 to 1612, the college Principal of Bayonne was a man of 26 years old with a future: Cornelius Jansen known as Jansénius, the future Bishop of Ypres. Bayonne became the birthplace of Jansenism, an austere science which strongly disrupted the monarchy of Louis XIV.Pierre Hourmat, Bulletin SSLAB, Collection No. 157, The City of Bayonne Library, p. 257 .Pierre Hourmat, Bulletin SSLAB, Collection No. 158, The City of Bayonne Library, p. 158 .

During the sporadic conflicts that troubled the French countryside from the mid 17th century, Bayonne peasants were short of powder and projectiles. They attached the long hunting knives in the barrels of their muskets and that way they fashioned makeshift spears later called .François Noel, L. J. M. Carpentier, Puissant (Mr.), New Dictionary of the origins, inventions, and discoveries in arts, sciences, geography, agriculture, commerce etc., Janet et Cotelle, 1833, p. 143 In that same century, Vauban was charged by Louis XIV to fortify the city. He added a citadel built on a hill overlooking the district of San Espirit Cap deou do Punt.Pierre Hourmat, Vauban and the fortifications of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Société des Sciences Lettres & Arts de Bayonne, 1984, p. 32 .

In 1792, the district of Saint-Esprit (that revolutionaries renamed Port-de-la-Montagne)Eugène Goyheneche, Our Basque Land, Société nouvelle d’éditions régionales et de diffusion, Pau, 1979, BnF FRBNF33028848, p. 93 . located on the right bank of the Adour, was separated from the city and renamed Jean-Jacques Rousseau.. It was reunited with Bayonne on 1 June 1857. For 65 years, the autonomous commune was part of the department of Landes.p. 25.

In 1808, at the Château of Marracq, the act of abdication of the Spanish king Charles IV in favour of Napoleon was signed under the "friendly pressure" of the Emperor. In the process, the Bayonne Statute was initialed as the first Spanish constitution.p. 417.

Also in 1808, the French Empire imposed on the Duchy of Warsaw the Convention of Bayonne to buy from France the debts owed to it by Prussia.

Trade was the wealth of the city in the 18th century but suffered greatly in the 19th century, severely sanctioned by Peninsular War, its historic trading partner in the region.p. 24. The Siege of Bayonne marked the end of the period with the surrender of the Napoleonic troops of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult who were defeated by the coalition led by Wellington on 5 May 1814.p. 418.

The Treaty of Bayonne was concluded on 2 December 1856. It overcame the disputes in fixing the Franco-Spanish border in the area extending from the mouth of the Bidassoa to the border between Navarre and Aragon.The city built three light railway lines to connect to Biarritz at the beginning of the 20th century. The most direct line, that of the Tramway Bayonne-Lycée–Biarritz was operated from 1888 to 1948. In addition, a line further north served Anglet, operated by the Chemin de fer Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz company from 1877 to 1953. Finally, a line following the Adour to its mouth and to the Atlantic Ocean by the bar in Anglet, was operated by VFDM réseau basque from 1919 to 1948.

On the morning of 23 December 1933, sub-prefect Anthelme received Gustave Tissier, the director of the Crédit Municipal de Bayonne. He responded well, with some astonishment, to his persistent interview. It did not surprise him to see the man unpacking what became the scam of the century.

"Tissier, director of the Crédit Municipal, was arrested and imprisoned under suspicion of forgery and misappropriation of public funds. He had issued thousands of false bonds in the name of Crédit Municipal ..."It was in these terms that the newspaper Le Courrier de Bayonne recounted the event a few days later.

This was the beginning of the Stavisky Affair which, together with other scandals and political crises, led to the Paris riots of 6 February 1934.In The week in Basque Country, T. Laxalt, February 1996. Claude Duhau, Mayors and Councilors of Bayonne (1831–2001), 1999, p. 80 .