You will read again and again that there was never a Basque Country. Mostly people that opposes the self determination and eventual independence of the Basques will tell you that there should never be a Basque Country since there was never a Basque Country.
Well, I got a little surprise for them, for there was indeed a Basque Country, only that it was not called that way.
What was the name of this Basque political entity then?
Well, easy, it was called Navarre.
As in Navarre, one of the seven Basque provinces.
Here you have some info I found at Reference.com:
Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre traditionally evolved from the county of Pamplona, its traditional capital, when the Basque leader Eneko Aritza (Iñigo Arista in Spanish) was chosen King in Pamplona, traditionally in 824, and led a local revolt against the Franks.The kingdom of Pamplona and then Navarre formed part of the traditional territory of the Vascones -the Basques and Gascons- who occupied the southern slope of the western Pyrenees and part of the shore of the Bay of Biscay. Little is known of the earliest history of the country, but it is certain that neither the Romans nor the Visigoths nor the Arabs ever succeeded in permanently subjugating the inhabitants of the Western Pyrenees, who had always retained their own language. In the course of the 6th century there was a considerable emigration of Basques to the north of the Pyrenees, resulting from the pressure of attacks from the Visigoth kings to the west and south and responding to a power vacuum at the limits of Frankish control in Aquitaine. Thus the Basques maintained their independence. The population of northern and western province of Spanish Navarre is today largely of Basque stock, and the early history of the region is that of the Basques.
The name "Navarre" derives from nava a common name for a flat valley surrounded by hills (compare Las Navas de Tolosa) and Basque herri, a region or country. The name "Navarra" began to appear towards the end of the Visigoth epoch in Spain in the 7th century.
The pass of Roncesvalles in Navarrese territory was the scene of a minor defeat of Charlemagne's baggage train in 778, which features as an epic event in the Chanson de Roland. The pass of Roncesvalles, which leads from France to Navarre, made the region strategically important early in its history. The Basques defended themselves successfully against the Moorish invaders as well as against the Franks; the domination of Charlemagne, who conquered Navarre in 778, was short-lived. In 824 the Basque chieftain Iñigo Arista was chosen king of Pamplona, which was expanded under his successors and became known as the kingdom of Navarre.
The capture of Pamplona by Charlemagne in 778 was not a lasting victory: in the same year the Basques and Navarrese defeated him at the Pass of Roncesvalles. In 806 and 812, Pamplona seems to have been again taken by the Franks. When, however, the Frankish emperors, on account of difficulties at home, were no longer able to give their attention to the outlying borderlands of their empire, the country, little by little, entirely withdrew from their allegiance, and about this time began the formation of a Basque dynasty which soon became very powerful. The first King of Pamplona of this dynasty was Inigo Arista, his elder brother or kinsman, Garcia Jimenez, having received the Duchy of Vasconia, the original Navarre. After the death of Inigo Arista (852), the two territories were united and Jimeno Garcez, the son of the Count of Alava, was chosen king. In 860, the united Pamplonese and Navarrese gave the Crown to the son of Arista, Garcia II Iniguez, who zealously defended his country against the encroachments of Islam, but was killed at Ayhar (882) in a battle against the Emir of Cordova. He was succeeded by his eldest son Fortun Garcez, who was held a prisoner for fifteen years by the infidels, and who, after a reign of twenty-two years, became a monk at Leyra, the oldest convent in Navarre, to which no less than seventy-two other convents were subject.
The choice of the Navarrese now fell upon his kinsman Sancho I Garcez (905-925), who fought against the Moors with repeated success and joined Ultra-Puertos, or Basse-Navarre, to his own dominions, also extending its territory as far as Najera. As a thank-offering for his victories, he founded, in 924, the convent of Albelda. Before his death, all Moors had been driven from the country. His successor, Garcia Sanchez (925-70), who had the support, of his energetic and diplomatic mother (Teuda) Toda Aznarez of the royal branch of Larraun, likewise engaged in a number of conflicts with the Moors.
The first historic king of Navarre was his son Sancho II Garces, nicknamed Abarca, who ruled from Pamplona as king of Navarre and count of Aragon from 970 to 994. The valley of Aragon he had inherited from his mother. The Historia General de Navarra by Jaime del Burgo says that on the occasion of the donation of the villa of Alastue by the king of Pamplona to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña in 987, he titled himself "King of Navarre," the first time that title had been used. In many places he appears as the first King of Navarre and in others the third. However, he was at least the 6th king of Pamplona, and apparently the 9th.
Under Sancho and his immediate successors, Navarre reached the height of its power and its extension. Sanco III the Great (reigned 1000-1035) married the heiress of the county of Castile. The realm reached its zenith under Sancho III, who ruled over nearly all of Christian Spain. Under the sway of Sancho el Mayor, the country attained the greatest prosperity in its history. He seized the country of the Pisuerga and the Cea, which belonged to the Kingdom of Leon, conquered Castile, and ruled from the boundaries of Galicia to those of Barcelona.
On his death he divided his possessions among his four sons, so that one of them, Garcia of Najera, received Navarre, Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya, and small portions of Bearn and Bigorre; Castile and the lands between the Pisuerga and the Cea went to the eldest Fernando; to Gonzalo were given Sobrarbe and Ribagorza; the County of Aragon was allotted to the bastard son Ramiro. The realm was divided thus once more, into Navarre, Aragón, and Castile. The eldest legitimate son, Ferdinand I ruled as high king having Castile as his seat, and he enlarged his realm by various means. His Navarrese line ruled as kings of Castile and Leon.
The bastard son of Sancho III, Ramiro de Aragon founded the Navarrese line of Aragon.
An younger legitimate son of Sancho III, Garcia de Najera founded a new line of rulers of Navarre. The kingdom of Navarre then comprised the present province of Navarre, the Basque Provinces (which were later lost to Castile), and, north of the Pyrenees, the district called Lower Navarre, now a part of France. At its greatest extent the Kingdom of Navarre included all the modern Spanish province; the northern slope of the western Pyrenees called by the Spaniards the ultra puertos ("country beyond the mountain passes") or French Navarre; the Basque provinces of Spain and France; the Bureba, the valley between the Basque mountains and the Montes de Oca to the north of Burgos; the Rioja and Tarazona in the upper valley of the Ebro.
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