Auñamendi Eusko EntziklopediaFund Bernardo Estornés Lasa

The Mauleón site has been inhabited since ancient times. This is evidenced by the protohistoric settlement on which the castle was later built (elevation 216) and the moat of a Neolithic settlement at a place known as Benta.

Seat of the Viscountcy of Zuberoa

The Viscounts of Zuberoa built their castle on this site; the first known holder of the title was Guillaume Fort de Lavedan, a vassal of Sancho VI Guillem, Duke of Gascony, who in turn was a vassal of Sancho III the Great, King of Navarre. The Viscountcy of Zuberoa was thus established in 1023, linked to the Crown of Navarre, with which it would remain associated until passing into English hands in the 12th century. Mauléon Castle served as the nucleus for the foundation of the town of the same name. In September 1213, Ramón Guillem, Viscount of Sola, served as governor of this castle. (Archive of Loose Papal Documents, fol. 179, no. 1).

In October 1234, Ramón Guillem, Viscount of Sola, acknowledged himself a vassal of Theobald I, except for the vassalage he owed to the King of England, in return for an annual rent of 60 pounds, transferable to whichever of his heirs held Mauléon Castle. In a document from 1237 in the Comptos, Ramón Guillem admits to having received from Theobald I 1,910 sueldos mollenses and 180 sueldos turonenses, undertaking to repay them by the feast of Saint Martin and, should he fail to do so, promising to hand over his castle of Mauléon until the debt has been settled.

Ownership of Mauléon Castle was contested by the Dukes of Aquitaine, who were also kings of England. In 1257, García Arnaud, Lord of Sault, Laguingue and Navailles, attacked the castle on behalf of the English monarch Edward I. During the siege, Ramón Guillem, the viscount, died; his widow subsequently swore allegiance to the seneschal of Gascony, but his son, Aujer, remained loyal to Navarre and in 1299 styled himself ‘Viscount of Zuberoa by the Grace of God’.

In 1307, whilst Aujer de Miramont was in charge of the castle, the King of Navarre, the future Louis X of France, handed it over to the English. To this end, he ceded to the viscount the castle of Rada, the towns of Mélida, Abaiz, Berbinzana, Cahues, Azterain and Zabaiza, plus the forest of Bidarri, on the Lacunza hill, in exchange for the castle of Mauléon and other castles and towns in the viscounty of Sola.

The King of England became ‘Viscount and sole Lord High Justice’ of Zuberoa. Carlos Mauléon, son of Aujer de Mauléon, married Inés de Cleves, and Queen Blanche granted them the villages of Orcoyen, Atondo, Murco and Erroz as a dowry; Aujer de Mauléon added the estates of Etayo and Oco to this dowry; these estates later passed into the hands of Don Fernando de Baquedano.

English administration

Mauléon subsequently became a castellany or governorship under the King of England. Originally appointed by the English kings, the ‘Castilian captain’ of Mauléon—who was later designated ‘governor of Zuberoa’—was an official vested with the powers of captain, magistrate, judge and tax collector, acting on behalf of the king. It fell to him to preside over the Cour d’Ordre or Assembly of the Estates – composed of the grand corps (gentlemen) and representatives of the popular Silviet – in his capacity as provost, and to conduct the judicial proceedings of the Cour de Licharre. This official is thought to have left Mauléon in the 14th century, being replaced by a lieutenant. The commune appears to have been governed by burghers (jurats) according to the Gascon Roles, thus following the general municipalist trend of the time and place.

Incorporation into France

Towards the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the French king Charles VII tightened his siege on Guyenne. Gaston de Foix, Viscount of Béarn and his lieutenant general, laid siege to Mauléon in 1449, having secured the support of the Gramonts. As the King of Navarre was the sovereign of the town’s castle, he sent an army to relieve the besieged. The English cause was lost, and the Navarrese had no alternative but to make a pact with the Viscount of Foix. The town surrendered; the Lord of Luxe, in the service of the English, paid homage with 600 of his men on behalf of Zuberoa.

In 1461, the first president of the Parliament of Toulouse and a treasurer of France took possession, on behalf of the King of France, of Mauléon Castle. Three years later, on 24 May 1463, the French king ceded Zuberoa to the House of Foix, a county of the Navarrese crown. Its formal incorporation into the French crown dates from 1510. During March 1521, contingents of Béarnese troops gathered in Mauléon at the disposal of Henri d’Albret, with a view to launching the reconquest of Navarre, an undertaking that was to take place in May of that same year.

Religious Wars

It has been ed ad nauseam that, in the mid-16th century, the Calvinist Bishop of Oloron, Gérard Roussel, came to preach at the church in Mauléon, an event which is said to have provoked a violent reaction from the Catholics. Pierre de Maytie, a prominent figure on the Catholic side, is said to have split the seat on which the preacher was sitting with a blow from an axe, and Roussel is said to have been so badly injured in the fall that he died shortly afterwards. This legend is completely false. See Zuberoa.

During the religious wars of the 16th century, Mauléon Castle was taken by Charles de Luxe, a Catholic rebel. It was defended by Jean de Belsunce, his brother-in-law, captain and castellan of the town since 1560. He tried by various means to recover it peacefully, but failing to do so, he raised a small army and in 1587 drove out Charles de Luxe, regaining his post.

The 1661 Uprising

During the reign of Louis XIV, the royal estates of Zuberoa – including the communal lands and Mauléon Castle – were acquired by the Count of Troisvilles. The peasant uprising led by the priest Bernard de Goyenetche, known as ‘Matalas’, besieged Mauléon Castle and persecuted the Protestants, but withdrew following the mediation of the Bishop of Oloron, Maytie, thus sparing the castle from the fire with which ‘Matalas’ had threatened it. The castellan, Armand de Belzunce, had refused to hand over the castle to the men of Troisvilles, making common cause with the Estates of Zuberoa.

Royal castellany once more

As a result of the centralising measures of the French Monarchy, the ancient Court of Licharre was abolished in 1776. The ‘royal castellany of Soule’ was transferred to Mauléon.

Convocation of the Estates General

The convocation was organised by the seneschalships, which is why the Cour d’Ordre of Zuberoa was not taken into account, even though it should have been the body responsible for adopting the relevant agreements. The three estates of Soule therefore met in the Capuchin church in Mauléon and elected the Bishop of Oloron for the clergy; the Marquis of Uhart for the nobility; and the Mayor of Mauléon, Arraing, and the notary Descuret-Laborde for the Third Estate. A ‘Book of Grievances’ would record the complaints of the people of Zuberoa regarding excessive taxation and the erosion of their local freedoms.

The Revolution of 1789

At first it was greeted with enthusiasm, particularly by the bourgeoisie, who were the main beneficiaries of the revolution. In 1790, the departments were created, including that of the Lower Pyrenees, with Pau, in Béarn, as its capital, as well as the districts, including that of Mauléon, which encompassed the entire territory of Zuberoa. During the period of the revolutionary government, churches were closed and various imprisonments took place in Mauléon, all of short duration. However, the Reign of Terror claimed one victim, the young Ambroise d’Arthez, a former canon, accused of having placed restrictions on his oath of allegiance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. On 30 January 1794, he was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court of Pau, despite the vehement protests of all the young people of Mauléon who tried to save him. The inhabitants of Mauléon played an active part in the war against Spain, and a military hospital and a cemetery for the soldiers who fell in this war were established in the town. A special army corps was also formed: Les chasseurs basques (The Basque Hunters).

Under the Consulate, Mauléon was designated sub-prefecture of the district comprising Zuberoa and Lower Navarre, comprising 145 municipalities and 63,688 inhabitants. Mr Stanislas Detchepare was appointed the first sub-prefect of Mauléon on 11 April 1800. Worship resumed in the churches and the council decided to restore them.

The Napoleonic Wars

As a border area, it faced constant danger during this and the previous war. In February 1814, the National Guard took defensive measures, and their colonel even proposed blowing up the bridge; shortly afterwards, the Anglo-Portuguese fleet was advancing towards the town.

On 21 February 1814, the first English soldiers entered Mauléon, closely followed by the Spanish forces of Mina.

With the Restoration, the Duchess of Berry visited Mauléon on 26 July 1828. Two years later, a popular uprising overthrew King Charles X and brought Louis-Philippe to the throne. In the 1831 elections, the district of Mauléon elected General Harispe, former battalion commander of the ‘Basque Hunters’ and Count of the Empire, as its deputy. He thus emerged from the retirement imposed on him by Napoleon’s abdication.

On 19 March 1841, the municipalities of Mauléon and Licharre merged. In 1845, hailstorms and floods ruined the harvests, causing severe hardship which led to a popular uprising in the market at Mauléon. Elections continued to be held by census suffrage. In the 1846 legislative elections, the district of Mauléon had 155 electors

The Second Republic

In 1848, Mauléon set an example of support for the republican government on behalf of the Department of the Lower Pyrenees. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held for the first time in France by universal suffrage... but only for men. Two candidates from the district of Mauléon were elected: Michel Renaud, a left-wing Catholic, and Hector Etcheverry, a right-wing Catholic.

In the presidential elections by universal suffrage, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte won 75% of the votes in the Mauléon district, whilst Ledru-Rollin, the left-wing candidate, achieved the best result in the department, with 11.25% of the votes. In the legislative elections of May 1849, Mauléon gave 1,027 votes to Augustin Chaho, 962 to Renaud, 946 to Saint-Gaudens (a Republican) and 200 to the right. Along with the canton of Tardets, Mauléon was the most ‘red’ in the department. In the 1851 plebiscite, there were 2,481 votes in Mauléon in favour of Louis-Napoléon and 29 against, out of a total of 2,515 voters.

Emigration

From 1832 onwards, Basques and Bearnese began emigrating to La Plata, but it was the district of Mauléon (Zuberoa and Lower Navarre) that provided the largest contingents from the department, as follows:

• 1832–1835 (4 years) 828
• 1836–1845 (10 years) 10,162
• 1846–1855 (10 years) 16,111
• 1856–1864 (9 years) 12,833
• 1865–1874 (10 years) 17,750

These figures refer solely to official emigration, as the authorities refused to issue passports to young men who were required to perform military service. The main cause of this emigration was precisely the aversion to military service, which lasted seven years and was performed only by the poor. Other reasons cited include economic factors, such as the grain shortage of 1847 or the vine diseases of 1856, but the main reason lay in the Basque of inheritance, which favoured the eldest son, forcing younger sons to seek their fortune elsewhere. For a long time, Spain was the preferred destination for expatriate Souletins. By the mid-19th century, Uruguay and Argentina had become the favoured destinations for emigration. In the Americas, the Souletins were mainly employed as cattle farmers.

The cholera epidemic

In 1855, a cholera epidemic originating in Navarre broke out. The first case was recorded in Sainte-Engrâce with the death of a young seminarian from Pamplona. The number of victims was considerable in Zuberoa, including the former MP Hector Etcheverry. In Mauléon, there were 120 and 130 deaths caused by the epidemic.

The Second Empire

In 1857, Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, cousin of Napoleon III and an eminent linguist, visited Mauléon. He was an enthusiast of the Basque language (euskera), which he had been introduced to by Antoine d’Abbadie, a native of Arrast in Zuberoa, whom he had met in England. He is the author of the book: Le verbe basque en tableaux (The Basque Verb in Tables).

In 1851, the public school in Mauléon began operating, and in 1857 the Dominican convent, founded by nuns from Nay, was inaugurated.

The Second Empire was a period of prosperity, urban planning and construction. In 1860, the foundation stone was laid for Mauléon-Licharre Town Hall, which was completed in 1962.

On 8 May 1870, a plebiscite was held to approve the Empire’s liberal orientation. In the district of Mauléon, there were 13,958 votes in favour and 151 against, of which 9 were in the town of Mauléon. Months later, on 15 September 1870, following the disaster of the Battle of Sedan, the Empire collapsed and the Municipal Council of Mauléon fully aligned itself with Gambetta’s new Government of National Defence.

The Third Republic

The new parish church was completed in 1884, and the churches of Saint-Jean-de-Berraute and Licharre were closed. On 17 April 1887, grand celebrations were held to mark the opening of the Puyoô-Mauléon railway line, although the first train had already arrived at Mauléon station on 29 March. This line, which brought great joy to the local population, was closed in 1969 and replaced by SNCF (French National Railway Company) buses.

In the 20th century, the population was decimated by the First World War and the Spanish flu. With the development of the espadrille industry, Spanish workers, both from Aragon and Navarre, accounted for a third of the town’s population at the start of the century. In 1926, the sub-prefecture of Mauléon was abolished, and from then on the town came under the administrative jurisdiction of Oloron.

In the Vichy zone

During the Second World War, following the German occupation of much of French territory under the terms of the armistice signed on 20 June 1940, Mauléon lay to the east of the demarcation line and was therefore within the zone administered by the Vichy government until 1943. In the final years of the war, the Mauléon maquis was formed in the vicinity of this town, initially consisting of only about fifteen people supplied from Aezkoa via Çaro-Lecumberry to Saint-Just-Oskix and Musculdy. The supplies were transported by mule-back by smugglers on both sides of the border, who in turn established contact the British Consulate in San Sebastián and the Maquis. See Maquis.

The Liberation

On 10 and 11 August 1944, the inhabitants of Mauléon liberated their town, which had been bombed by the Germans. On 11 November 1948, the town of Mauléon was awarded the Croix de Guerre with a citation that began as follows: “A town that ed particular resilience throughout the occupation, it organised itself with its own inhabitants to fight against the enemy...”

Post-war elections

1958 General Council elections (20 April): Elissabide (independent): 3,824 votes; Hégoburu (Socialist): 1,442 votes; Blasquiz (Communist): 348 votes. The referendum of 28 September 1958 was decided as follows: Yes: 1,885 votes. No: 424. In the municipal elections of 8–13 March 1959, there were 2,318 registered voters and 2,220 voters. The coalition of the outgoing mayor, Champo, obtained 1,800 votes against 600 for independent candidates. Result of the referendum on 8 January 1961: Yes: 1,806 votes. No: 354.

Aberri Eguna 1972

Organised by the nationalist movement Enbata, the event was held in this town on Easter Sunday (Aberri Eguna), 2 April 1972, attended by around 1,500 people from across Iparralde. The gathering had been banned by Prefect Gabriel Gilly but went ahead regardless. The procession of participants began at 11.30 am with the singing of ‘Agur Xiberua’ and an aurresku. This was followed by a gathering at the Croix-Blanche crossroads in memory of Father Matalas, for whom a minute’s silence was observed, followed by the singing of ‘Eusko Gudariak’ after the reading of the letter from Itxassou. In the afternoon, clashes broke out demonstrators and gendarmes, and a sit-in took place during which the songs ‘Agur Xiberua’, ‘Ez gal gure odol beroa’, ‘Gauria da’, ‘Elosegi’, ‘Eskualduna naiz’, ‘Gu gira Euzkadiko’ and ‘Eusko gudariak’ were sung. At the same time, a folklore strike took place across the rest of Iparralde. It was near Mauléon where, two years earlier, Eugenio Beihl, the German consul in San Sebastián, had been hidden after being kidnapped by ETA in December 1970 during the famous Burgos Trial.

Élections

Kontuan izan behar da abstentzioa izan zela alderdi politiko guztien kontsigna, nahiz eta europeisten aldekoak izan, gaulismoak proposatutako europar komunitate motarekin bat ez zetozela.

1981eko maiatzaren 10eko bigarren itzulian, Mitterrandek 1.466 boto irabazi zituen 1.098ko aurka.

Maiatzaren 8an egindako bigarren itzulian, Mitterrandek 1.337 eta 1.000 irabazi zion Chirac-i. (Bozketa ondoko egunetako "Sud-Ouest" erreferentzia).