500 YEARS: TRIBUTE TO THE DEFENDERS OF AMAIUR, LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS FOR FREEDOM

by: Iñaki Lopez de Luzuriaga

A milestone in the history of the Basques, 500 years have gone by since the Battle of Amaiur in the Basque Country. The last defenders of the sovereign Kingdom of Navarre made a stand in the fortress of Amaiur, Baztan, in July 1522. Most of the kingdom had been occupied in 1512. Now, the emperor Charles V, king of Castile and Aragon, approached the Navarrese fortress, a stronghold on top of a hill, with over 5,000 combatants. 200 ill-equipped Navarrese volunteers and lords awaited them, willing to give their lives for an ideal, their homeland and the centuries-old Navarrese liberties. The veteran Jakue Velaz de Medrano stood out as commander of them all. The lord of Xabier, Migel Jatsu, brother of the young Frantses/ Francis, later to be declared a saint, stood up in arms with him. 

The Spanish expedition against the free Navarrese was managed by Giovanni Rena, an able administrator and vicar of Pamplona, appointed by the emperor to suit his colonial goals. No, most of the combatants in the assailant expedition were not Castilians; they were Navarrese and other Basques. The Navarrese were just pushed to the imperial venture by the legal provisions of the Navarrese fueros, the appellitum, or compulsory service in period of war within the kingdom. The fueros remained in place, ever more diminished since most of Navarre’s 1512 occupation. Opposing conscription just meant civil death, destitution and exile for a regular Navarrese man and his family. Other western Basques had been called to compulsory war against the sovereign Navarrese by their lords and the urban elites.

The lord of Urtsua from Baztan had sided with the emperor’s ambitions to suppress the independence of Navarre. He had taken over Francis Xabier’s family and mother Maria Azpilkueta’s holdings in Jauregizarre, now stripped of most of their possessions. She signed as “the sad Maria”. The lord of Urtsua watched out in the outer surroundings of Baztan to push out any reinforcement forces that could assist the besieged Navarrese fighters. On July 12, 1522 tension came to a head, the besiegers attacked the fortress for a week with cannons and other assault devices; the defenders of the fortress stood their ground bravely. However, on July 19, the assailants ripped open a hole on the foundations of the ramparts. Hope of resistance vanished and despite the determination of some, talks with other Navarrese among the assailant troops paved the way towards a capitulation.The symbolic Navarrese position was sadly lost. 39 defenders of the fortress were taken still alive as prisoners; they saved their lives for the moment. They were transferred to Iruñea, and imprisoned. Not for long, Velaz de Medrano and his son were poisoned while in custody, but Migel Jatsu managed to escape, apparently disguised in woman garments. They joined the combined French and Navarrese force resisting in Hondarribia, the last trace of Navarrese sovereignty right at the tip of the Bortuak, the Pyrenees, before sinking to the ocean. Charles V gathered the support of the Gipuzkoans and western Basques to expel “the French” from Hondarribia, going on to become a pivotal force on the pursuit against the invested position. But that is another story. As the monolith in Amaiur goes, “Napar askatasunaren alde Amaiurko etxarrian borroka egin zuten gizonai, betiko argia”, ethernal light to the men who fought for the Navarrese freedoms in the stronghold of Amaiur.   

Posted July, 2022

about inaki Lopez de Luzuriaga

Iñaki is a Basque Wikimedians Group member and translator. He has authored the long essay Euskaldunak eta karolingiar iraultza; Akitania eta Baskonian barrena on medieval Basques (2016, Basque Summer University) and the chronicle of the 1199-1200 invasion of Navarre Nafarroako Erresumaren inbasioa 1199-1200 (2021, Nabarralde) in Basque, and other Wikipedia, history and language-related presentations and articles. He is presently working on a collaborative project on the History of the Basques with the Nevada University Press, due out next year.