This translates into the shared enjoyment of an undivided property. This joint management by the Basques is considered to be at the origin of the parish assemblies, which form the basis of the deliberative institutions of the Basque Country. During the 1st millennium CE , under Roman influence, the region now encompassing Labourd , Lower Navarre , and Soule underwent its initial organizational evolution toward greater democracy.
Through the feudal era , these provinces experienced varying fortunes, influenced by Navarrese , French , or English dynasties.
Despite efforts to impose centralized or elitist authority, a significant social leveling emerged. Territorial management practices, such as Soule's kayolars , which persist today, originated during this time. The most unique of these assemblies, due to the exclusion of the nobility and clergy from decision-making bodies, was the Biltzar [ fr ] of Labourd, in comparison to the Souletin Cour d'ordre and the General Estates of Lower Navarre.
The institutions of the three provinces managed, to varying degrees, to preserve part of their privileges until the Revolution ; these privileges were regularly renewed through royal letters patent from various suzerains to account for the region's economic poverty, the military devastation caused by repeated Spanish incursions, the maintenance of a significant local militia, and the demonstrated loyalty of the civilian populations to the reigning Crown through their armed mobilization in defense of the borders.
Until the end, Lower Navarre maintained and defended a special status as a frontier kingdom, which was acknowledged at the beginning of each new reign by a respectful and protective oath from the new French suzerain. Despite strong opposition, unanimously shared by the three estates [ fr ] β the nobility, the clergy, and the commoners β the local institutions of the three provinces were definitively replaced by the rules established by the night of August 4, Although the French Basque Country has a rich history, often closely intertwined with that of Aquitaine and even France, its collective ways of life constitute a uniqueness that clearly distinguishes it.
