NAVARRE, a province of northern Spain, and formerly a kingdom which included part of France. The province is bounded on the north by France (Basses Pyrenees) and Guipuzcoa, east by Huesca and Saragossa, south by Saragossa and Logrolio and west by Alava. It is traversed from east to west by the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains. Pop. 345,883. From Navarre there are only three practicable roads for carriages into France—those by the Puerta de Vera, the Puerta de Maya and Roncesvalles. The highest summit is the Monte Adi feet). The chief river flowing towards the Atlantic is the Bidasoa, which rises near the Puerta de Maya. After flowing southwards through the valley of Baztan it takes a north-easterly course, and for a short distance above its outfall at Fuenterrabia constitutes the frontier between France and Spain (Guipuzcoa) ; by far the larger portion of Navarre is drained to the Mediterranean through the Ebro, which flows along the western frontier and crosses the extreme south of the province. The hilly districts consist almost entirely of forest and pasture, the most common trees being the pine, beech, oak and chestnut. Much of the lower ground yields grain; the principal fruit is the apple, from which cider is made in some districts; hemp, flax and oil are also produced, and mul berries are cultivated for silkworms. Navarre is one of the richest provinces of Spain in live stock. Game is plentiful.
The Ebro Valley railway traverses southern Navarre and skirts the western frontier. It has several branch lines. Besides Pam plona (q.v.), the capital, the only towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants are Baztan (9,680), Corella (5,676), Estella (5,972) and Tafalla (5,870).
The kingdom of Navarre was formed out of a part of the territory occupied by the Vascones, i.e., the Basques and Gascons, who occupied the southern slope of the western Pyrenees and part of the shore of the Bay of Biscay. In the course of the 6th century there was a considerable emigration of Basques to the north of the Pyrenees. The cause is supposed to have been the pressure put upon them by the attacks of the Visigoth kings in Spain. The name of Navarre is derived by etymologists from
"nava" a flat valley surrounded by hills and "erri" a region or country. It began to appear as the name of part of Vasconia towards the end of the Visigoth epoch in Spain in the 7th century. Its early history is more than obscure. The first historic king of Navarre was Sancho Garcia, who ruled at Pamplona in the early years of the loth century. Under him and his immediate suc cessors Navarre reached the height of its power and its exten sion (see SPAIN : History, for the reign of Sancho el Mayor, and the establishment of the Navarrese line as kings of Castile and Leon, and of Aragon). When the kingdom was at its height it in cluded all the modern province of the name; the northern slope of the western Pyrenees called by the Spaniards the "Ultra puertos" or country beyond the passes, and now known as French Navarre; the Basque provinces; the Bureba, the valley between the Basque Mountains and the Montes de Oca to the north of Burgos; the Rioja and Tarazona in the upper valley of the Ebro. In the 12th century the kings of Castile gradually annexed the Rioja and Alava. While Navarre was reunited to Aragon-1076– I134—(see SPAIN : History) it was saved from aggression on the east, but did not recover the territory taken by Castile. About the year 1200 Alfonso VIII. of Castile annexed the other two Basque provinces, Biscay (Vizcaya) and Guipuzcoa. Tarazona remained in possession of Aragon. After 1234 Navarre, though the crown was claimed by the kings of Aragon, passed by marriage to a succession of French rulers. In 1516 Spanish Navarre was finally annexed by Ferdinand the Catholic. French Navarre survived as an independent little kingdom till it was united to the crown of France by Henry IV., founder of the Bourbon dynasty. From 1510 until 1833, when it was fully incorporated with Spain, Navarre was a viceroyalty.
See Don J. M. Yanguas, Historia Compendiada de Navarra (San Sebastian, 1832) ; J. F. Blade, Les comtes carolingiens de Bigorre et les premiers rois de Navarre (1895-97).