Editing Fuero (section)

===Relations with the crown and rise of absolutism===
[[File:Fuero de Vizcaya.png|thumb|upright|''Fuero'' or law compilation of Biscay (16th century)]]
[[File:Fueros y Actos de las Cortes de Tarazona de 1592.jpg|thumb|upright|Compilation of the Fueros and Acts of Aragon (1592)]]
[[Image:Mapa político de España, 1850.jpg|thumb|220px|Spain in 1850, with the colors representing the different [[bailiwick]]s]]

[[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] [[Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre|conquered and annexed Navarre]] between 1512 and 1528 (up to the [[Pyrenees]]). In order to gain Navarrese loyalty, the Spanish Crown represented by the Aragonese Fernando upheld the kingdom's specific laws (''fueros'') allowing the region to continue to function under its historic laws,<ref name="ConqNavarre">{{cite book | author1 = Monreal, Gregorio| author2 = Jimeno, Roldan|year = 2012 | title = Conquista e Incorporación de Navarra a Castilla| publisher = Pamiela | location=Pamplona-Iruña| isbn = 978-84-7681-736-0}}</ref>{{rp|36–39, 44}} while [[Lower Navarre]] remained independent, but increasingly tied to [[France]], a process completed after [[Henry IV of France|King Henry III of Navarre and IV of France]] died. [[Louis XIII of France]] failed to respect his father's will to keep Navarre and France separate. All specific relevant legal provisions and institutions (Parliament, Courts of Justice, etc.) [[Lower Navarre#History|were devalued in 1620–1624]], and critical powers transferred to the French Crown.

Since the high Middle Ages, many [[History of the Basque people#Modern Period|Basques]] had been born into the ''[[hidalgo (Spanish nobility)|hidalgo]] nobility''. The Basques had no uniform legal corpus of laws, which varied between valleys and seigneuries. Early on (14th century) all [[Gipuzkoa]]ns were granted noble status, several Navarrese valleys ([[Salazar Valley|Salazar]], [[Roncal – Erronkari|Roncal]], [[Baztan (river)|Baztan]], etc.) followed suit, and [[Biscay]]nes saw their universal nobility confirmed in 1525. [[Álava]]'s distribution of nobility was patchy but less widespread, since the Basque specific nobility only took hold in northern areas ([[Ayala/Aiara|Ayala]], etc.). [[Biscay]]nes,<ref>Note that ''Biscayne'' during this period holds an ambiguous meaning, it often refers to the Basques in general.</ref> as nobles, were theoretically excluded from torture and from the need to serve in the Spanish army, unless called for the defence of their own territory (''[[Don Quixote]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s character, [[Sancho Panza]], remarked humorously that writing and reading and being ''Biscayne'' was enough to be secretary to the emperor). Other Basque regions had similar provisions.
The reach of the {{lang|es|fuero}} was not limited by the territory.
Biscayans in other parts of the [[Crown of Castile]] had [[extraterritoriality]].
They could take the [[appellation]]s in cases involving them to the {{lang|es|Sala de Vizcaya}} ("Biscay Hall") at the top court of Castile, the [[Real Audiencia y Chancillería de Valladolid|Chancillería de Valladolid]] ("Court of last resort ({{lit|"[[chancery (medieval office)|chancery]]}}) of [[Valladolid]]").<ref name="Camazón">{{cite news |last1=Camazón |first1=Alba |title=Un ratón, una denuncia por injurias y la justicia exclusiva para vizcaínos: uno de los pleitos de la Chancillería de Valladolid |url=https://www.eldiario.es/castilla-y-leon/cultura/raton-denuncia-injurias-justicia-exclusiva-vizcainos-pleitos-chancilleria-valladolid-eus_1_11541236.html |access-date=6 August 2024 |work=ElDiario.es |date=5 August 2024 |language=es-ES}}</ref><ref name="Emperador">{{cite journal |last1=Emperador |first1=Cristina |title=El archivo de la Real Chancilleria de Valladolid y la Sala de Vizcaya: fondos documentales producidos por una sala de justicia en el Antiguo Régimen |journal=Clío & Crímen: Revista del Centro de Historia del Crimen de Durango |date=2013 |issue=10 |pages=13–34 |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oKLZsYY72uA7w3_CNLXppjUvsGAEVIRO/view |access-date=6 August 2024 |trans-title=The Archive of the Royal Chancellery of Valladolid and the Hall of Biscay: Documentary Funds Produced by a Justice Court in the Ancient Regime |language=es-ES |issn=1698-4374}}</ref>

The Castilian kings took an oath to comply with the Basque laws in the different provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. These provinces and Navarre kept their self-governing bodies and their own parliaments, i.e. the ''diputaciones'' and the [[Juntas Generales|territorial councils]]/[[Parliament of Navarre]]. However, the prevailing Castilian rule prioritized the king's will.<ref name="ConqNavarre"/>{{rp|39–43}} In addition, the ever more centralizing absolutism, especially after the accession to the throne of the [[Bourbon Reforms|Bourbons]], increasingly devalued the laws specific to regions and realms—Basque provinces and the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon—sparking uprisings (Matalaz's uprising in [[Soule]] 1660,<ref name=Collins1990>{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Roger|title=The Basques|year=1990|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=0631175652|edition=2nd}}</ref>{{rp|267}} regular ''Matxinada'' revolts in the 17-18th centuries) and mounting tensions between the territorial governments and the Spanish central government of [[Charles III of Spain|Charles III]] and [[Charles IV of Spain|Charles IV]], to the point of considering the [[Parliament of Navarre]] dangerous to the royal authority and condemning "its spirit of independence and liberties."<ref name=InstitucionesNav>{{cite journal |last1=Usunáriz Garayoa |first1=Jesús M. |year=2001 |title=Las Instituciones del Reino de Navarra durante la Edad Moderna (1512-1808) |journal=Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos |volume=2 |issue=46 |publisher=Eusko Ikaskuntza |url=http://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.org/es/publicaciones/colecciones/riev/publicacion.php?o=1273 |access-date=14 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112002250/http://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.org/es/publicaciones/colecciones/riev/publicacion.php?o=1273 |archive-date=12 November 2013 }}</ref>{{rp|716–717}}

Despite vowing loyalty to the crown, the Pyrenean Aragonese and Catalans kept their separate specific laws too, the "King of the Spains" represented a crown tying together different realms and peoples, as claimed by the Navarrese ''diputación'', as well as the [[Parliament of Navarre]]'s last trustee.<ref name="ConqNavarre"/>{{rp|45}} The Aragonese ''fueros'' were an obstacle for [[Philip II of Spain#Domestic policy|Philip II]] when his former secretary [[Antonio Pérez (statesman)|Antonio Pérez]] escaped the death penalty by fleeing to Aragon. The king's only means to enforce the sentence was the [[Spanish Inquisition]], the only cross-kingdom tribunal of his domains. There were frequent conflicts of jurisdiction between the Spanish Inquisition and regional civil authorities and bishops.<ref name="Auñamendi Inquisición">''[http://www.euskomedia.org/aunamendi/74536 Inquisición]'' at the [[Auñamendi Encyclopedia]].</ref> Pérez escaped to France, but Philip's army invaded Aragon and executed its authorities.

In 1714 the Catalan and Aragonese specific laws and self-government [[Nueva Planta decrees|were violently suppressed]]. The Aragonese [[count of Robres]], one strongly opposing the abolition, put it down to Castilian centralism, stating that the royal prime minister, the [[House of Olivares|Count-Duke of Olivares]], had at last a free rein "for the kings of Spain to be independent of all laws save those of their own conscience."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kamen|first1=Henry|date=2001 |title=Philip V of Spain: The King who Reigned Twice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htkqJr0SThsC&q=Philip+V+of+Spain%3A+The+King+who+Reigned+Twice+kamen&pg=PP4|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-30008-718-7 |access-date=16 November 2013}}, p. 222</ref>

The Basques managed to retain their specific status for a few years after 1714, as they had supported the claimant who became [[Philip V of Spain]], a king hailing from the lineage of [[Henry III of Navarre]]. However, they could not escape the king's attempts (using military force) at centralization (1719–1723). In the run-up to the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the relations between the absolutist Spanish Crown and the Basque governing institutions were at breaking point. By the beginning of the [[War of the Pyrenees]], [[Manuel Godoy]] took office as Prime Minister in Spain, and went on to take a tough approach on the Basque self-government and specific laws. Both fear and anger spread among the Basques at his uncompromising stance.