For fifteen years, Hondarribia ceased attending the General Juntas of Guipúzcoa and attempted to manage them under Navarrese authority. Gorosabel recounts this incident, highlighting the town’s recurring sense of Navarrese identity:
“Hardly had it obtained the title of city in 1638 when it stopped attending the general and particular Juntas of the province under various pretexts; but the true reason for its absence soon became clear. It claimed that its representatives should occupy the first seat at the Juntas, vote first, and that in the convocations the title of 'city' should precede that of 'towns.' In short, it wanted to assert its prerogatives over all other towns, to the detriment of those more advanced in importance and therefore higher in the tax-based ranking. Since the province did not yield to such irregular demands, Fuenterrabía preferred to stop attending the Juntas rather than occupy a seat it considered beneath its new status.”
The defense of the town was not only by its own inhabitants but also by troops and tercios from other towns, as the siege history s. Therefore, it was just that the city receive the honorary title of “very valiant city” and that its citizens who distinguished themselves be rewarded. However, it was not just for the glories of other Guipuzcoans to be overshadowed, nor proper that they be denied honors after shedding their blood and making sacrifices for the town’s defense.
The province understood this, expressing its discontent at Fuenterrabía’s behavior, adding that the town was attempting to join the Kingdom of Navarre, separating from Guipúzcoa.
According to a report presented to the Navarrese Cortes in October 1795 (published by Idoate): “Having its own port to promote internal and external trade of Navarre has always been a primary concern of its General Cortes. In 1644, an agreement was made our National Congress and the secular chapter of Fuenterrabía, a population of King Don Sancho, to restore absolute, reciprocal, and free trade Navarre and the city, which had existed from time immemorial until disrupted in 1521 by the bloody war Charles V and Francis I of France, when the French seized Fuenterrabía and the castle and city of Pamplona, diverting trade to Bayonne, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and Ciboure.”
The conferences examined the pros and cons of restoring that trade, highlighting Fuenterrabía’s eagerness for mutual commerce with Navarre and for making the Bidasoa navigable. Already in 1642, it had been agreed to issue letters of favor to the town of Rentería regarding its port, in the interest of the kingdom, and that the Diputación undertake all necessary measures with the king and viceroy to include the jurisdiction of the port of Pasage-Rentería within the Kingdom of Navarre. The project went no further than discussion until the Cortes of 1702.
Faced with Hondarribia’s refusal to reintegrate into Guipúzcoa, the Guipuzcoan Juntas officially decided to separate the town. Gorosabel states: “The resolution, drafted in harsh terms, was adopted at the General Juntas held in Tolosa in April 1651, ordering that no further discussion take place. From then on, Fuenterrabía was considered a town foreign to the province, and in its place, the representation of the University of Irun was admitted, which had not participated in this separation.”
At the General Juntas in Elgoibar in May 1653, Fuenterrabía rendered its obedience and submission to the province, formally renouncing its previous claims, and after fifteen years of separation, it rejoined the Guipúzcoa fraternity with the same seat it had held previously.