ABSTRACT
Jimeno Jurío links the foundation of the kingdom of Pamplona at the beginning of the tenth century to the self-defense needs of the local lords, who sought a unitary military commander to face the pressure coming both from the north, by the Carolingians, and from the south, by the Muslims. The emergence of the new kingdom, later known as the kingdom of Navarre, changed the geopolitics of the area. In the tenth century the kingdom achieved internal cohesion and expanded territorially. Under the rule of Sancho the Great in the eleventh century, the western lands of Vasconia became part of the kingdom of Navarre, although maintaining their own powers.5 This was the only time when most of what we know as the Basque Country combined as a unitary political entity under a single ruler. Nonetheless, the influence of the kingdom of Navarre over the western Basque territories was not stable. The powerful kingdom south of the Basque
land, Castile, was expanding its influence and territory and entered into competition with Navarre. The eleventh and twelfth centuries were a period of alternation of both kingdoms’ influence over Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Bizkaia, which had fixed their territorial limits, as they are today, by the middle of the twelfth century.6 As for the territories’ names, the first mentions of Araba and Bizkaia date back to the end of the ninth century, and Gipuzkoa was first named at the beginning of the eleventh century.7
