Prehistory In the absence of accurate objective data there is some credence to the probable existence of a fishing village on the site in a period prior to
ancient times. Numerous traces of human occupation have been found in the Bayonne region from the
Middle Paleolithic especially in the discoveries at
Saint-Pierre-d'Irube, a neighbouring locality. On the other hand, the presence of a mound about high has been detected in the current Cathedral Quarter overlooking the Nive, which formed a natural protection and a usable port on the left bank of the Nive. At the time, the mound was surrounded north and west by the Adour swamps. At its foot lies the famous "Bayonne Sea"—the junction of the two rivers—which may have been about wide between Saint-Esprit and the Grand Bayonne and totally covered the current location of Bourg-Neuf (in the district of Petit Bayonne). To the south, the last bend of the Nive widens near the Saint-Léon hills. Despite this, the narrowing of the Adour valley allows easier crossing than anywhere else along the entire length of the estuary. In conclusion, the strategic importance of this height was so obvious it must be presumed that it has always been inhabited. The archaeological discoveries of October and November 1995 provided a shred of evidence to support this projection. In the four layers of sub-soil along the foundation of the Gothic cathedral (in the "apse of the cathedral" area), a 2-metre depth was found of old objects from the end of the 1st century—in particular sigillated Gallic ceramics from
Montans imitating Italian styles, thin-walled bowls, and fragments of
amphorae. In the "southern sector" near the cloister door, there were objects from the second half of the 1st century as well as coins from the first half of the 3rd century. A very high probability of human presence, not solely military, seems to provisionally confirm the occupation of the site at least around the third century. A Roman
castrum dating to the end of the 4th century has been proven as a fortified place of
Novempopulania. Named
Lapurdum, the name became the name of the province of
Labourd. According to Eugene Goyheneche, the name
Baiona designated the city, the port, and the cathedral while that of
Lapurdum was only a territorial designation. This Roman settlement was strategic as it allowed the monitoring of the trans-Pyrenean roads and of local people rebellious to the Roman power. The construction covered 6 to 10 hectares according to several authors.
Middle Ages The geographical location of the locality at the crossroads of a river system oriented from east to west and the road network connecting Europe to the
Iberian Peninsula from north to south, predisposed the site to the double role of fortress and port. The city, after being Roman, alternated between the
Vascones and the English for three centuries from the 12th to the 15th century. The Romans left the city in the 4th century and the Basques, who had always been present, dominated the former Novempopulania province between the
Garonne, the Ocean, and the Pyrénées. Novempopulania was renamed
Vasconia and then Gascony after a Germanic deformation (resulting from the
Visigoth and
Frankish invasions). Basquisation of the plains region was too weak against the advance of romanization. From the mixture between the Basque and Latin language
Gascon was created. Documentation on Bayonne for the period from the
High Middle Ages are virtually nonexistent, with the exception of two Norman intrusions: one questionable in 844 and a second attested in 892. When Labourd was created in 1023, Bayonne was the capital and the Viscount resided there. The history of Bayonne proper started in 1056 when Raymond II the Younger, Bishop of Bazas, had the mission to build the Church of Bayonne In 1130, the King of Aragon
Alfonso the Battler besieged the city without success. Bayonne became an
Angevin possession when
Eleanor of Aquitaine married
Henry Plantagenet, the future king of England, in 1152. This alliance gave Bayonne many commercial privileges. The Bayonnaises became carriers of Bordeaux wines and other south-western products like resin, ham, and
woad to England. Bayonne was then an important military base. In 1177, King Richard separated the Viscounty of Labourd whose capital then became
Ustaritz. Like many cities at the time, in 1215 Bayonne obtained the award of a municipal charter and was emancipated from feudal powers. The official publication, in 1273, of a
Coutume unique to the city, remained in force for five centuries until the separation of Bayonne from Labourd. In 1371
Constance of Castile daughter of the murdered King
Pedro the Cruel took refuge with the English in Bayonne, leading to her marriage to
John of Gaunt and his
claim to the Castilian throne. Bayonnaise industry at that time was dominated by shipbuilding: wood (
oak,
beech,
chestnut from the Pyrenees, and
pine from
Landes) being overabundant. There was also maritime activity in providing crews for
whaling, commercial marine or, and it was often so at a time when it was easy to turn any merchant ship into a warship, the English
Royal Navy.
Renaissance and modern times on the Redoubt, restored in 2005
Jean de Dunois – a former companion at arms of
Joan of Arc—captured the city on 20 August 1451 and annexed it to the Crown "without making too many victims", but at the cost of a war indemnity of 40,000 gold
Écus payable in a year,—thanks to the opportunism of the bishop who claimed to have seen "a large white cross surmounted by a crown which turns into a fleur-de-lis in the sky" to dissuade Bayonne from fighting against the royal troops. The city continued to be fortified by the kings of France to protect it from danger from the Spanish border. In 1454,
Charles VII created a separate judicial district: the
Seneschal of Lannes a "single subdivision of
Guyenne during the English period" which had jurisdiction over a wide area including Bayonne,
Dax and
Saint-Sever and which exercised civil justice, criminal jurisdiction within the competence of the district councilors. Over time, the "Seneschal of the Sword", which was at Dax, lost any role other than protocol, and Bayonne, along with Dax and Saint-Sever, became the de facto seat of a separate Seneschal under the authority of a "lieutenant-general of the Seneschal". In May 1462, King
Louis XI authorized the holding of two annual fairs by letters patent after signing the Treaty of Bayonne after which it was confirmed by the coutoumes of the inhabitants in July 1472 following the death of
Charles de Valois, Duke de Berry, the king's brother. At the time the
Spanish Inquisition raged in the Iberian Peninsula,
Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled Spain and also later, Portugal, then settled in Southern France, including in
Saint-Esprit (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), a northern district of Bayonne located along the northern bank of the
Adour river. They brought with them
chocolate and the recipe for its preparation. In 1750, the Jewish population in
Saint-Esprit (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is estimated to have reached about 3,500 people. The golden age of the city ended in the 15th century with the loss of trade with England and the silting of the port of Bayonne created by the movement of the course of the Adour to the north. At the beginning of the 16th century
Labourd suffered the emergence of the
plague. Its path can be tracked by reading the
Registers. In July 1515, the city of Bayonne was "prohibited to welcome people from plague-stricken places" and on 21 October, "we inhibit and prohibit all peasants and residents of this city [...] to go Parish Bidart [...] because of the contagion of the plague". On 11 April 1518, the plague raged in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz and the city of Bayonne "inhibited and prohibited for all peasants and city inhabitants and other foreigners to maintain relationships at the location and Parish of Saint-Jean-de-Luz where people have died of the plague". On 11 November 1518, the plague was present in Bayonne to the point that in 1519 the city council moved to the district of Brindos (Berindos at the time) in
Anglet. In 1523, Marshal
Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec resisted the Spaniards under
Philibert of Chalon in the service of
Charles V and lifted the siege of Bayonne. It was at Château-Vieux that the ransom demand for the release of Francis I, taken prisoner after his defeat at the
Battle of Pavia, was gathered. The meeting in 1565 between
Catherine de Medici and the envoy of
Philip II: the Duke of Alba, is known as the
Interview of Bayonne. At the time that
Catholics and
Protestants tore each other apart in parts of the kingdom of France, Bayonne seemed relatively untouched by these troubles. An iron fist from the city leaders did not appear to be unknown. In fact, they never hesitated to use violence and criminal sanctions for keeping order in the name of the "public good". Two brothers, Saubat and Johannes Sorhaindo who were both lieutenants of the mayor of Bayonne in the second half of the 16th century, perfectly embody this period. They often wavered between Catholicism and Protestantism but always wanted to ensure the unity and prestige of the city. In the 16th century, the king's engineers, under the direction of Louis de Foix, were dispatched to rearrange the course of the Adour by creating an estuary to maintain the river bed. The river discharged in the right place to the Ocean on 28 October 1578. The port of Bayonne then attained a greater level of activity. Fishing for
cod and
whale ensured the wealth of fishermen and shipowners. From 1611 to 1612, the college Principal of Bayonne was a man of 26 years old with a future:
Cornelius Jansen known as
Jansénius, the future
Bishop of Ypres. Bayonne became the birthplace of
Jansenism, an austere science which strongly disrupted the monarchy of
Louis XIV. During the sporadic conflicts that troubled the French countryside from the mid 17th century, Bayonne peasants were short of powder and projectiles. They attached the long hunting knives in the barrels of their muskets and that way they fashioned makeshift spears later called
bayonets. In that same century,
Vauban was charged by
Louis XIV to fortify the city. He added a citadel built on a hill overlooking the district of
San Espirit Cap deou do Punt.
French Revolution and Empire Activity in Bayonne peaked in the 18th century. The Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1726. Trade with Spain, the Netherlands, the
Antilles, the cod fishery off the shores of
Newfoundland, and construction sites maintained a high level of activity in the port. In 1792, the district of Saint-Esprit (that revolutionaries renamed
Port-de-la-Montagne) located on the right bank of the Adour, was separated from the city and renamed
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was reunited with Bayonne on 1 June 1857. For 65 years, the autonomous commune was part of the department of
Landes. In 1808, at the
Château of Marracq, the act of abdication of the Spanish king
Charles IV in favour of
Napoleon was signed under the "friendly pressure" of the Emperor. In the process, the
Bayonne Statute was initialed as the first Spanish constitution. Also in 1808, the French Empire imposed on the
Duchy of Warsaw the Convention of Bayonne to buy from France the debts owed to it by
Prussia. The debt, amounting to more than 43 million
francs in gold, was bought at a discounted rate of 21 million francs. The
Siege of Bayonne marked the end of the period with the surrender of the Napoleonic troops of Marshal
Jean-de-Dieu Soult who were defeated by the coalition led by
Wellington on 5 May 1814.
19th and 20th centuries In 1854, the railway arrived from Paris bringing many tourists eager to enjoy the beaches of
Biarritz. Bayonne turned instead to the
steel industry with the forges of the Adour. The Port took on an industrial look but its slow decline seemed inexorable in the 19th century. The discovery of the Lacq gas field restored a certain dynamism. The Treaty of Bayonne was concluded on 2 December 1856. It overcame the disputes in fixing the Franco-Spanish border in the area extending from the mouth of the
Bidassoa to the border between
Navarre and
Aragon.The city built three light railway lines to connect to Biarritz at the beginning of the 20th century. The most direct line, that of the
Tramway Bayonne-Lycée–Biarritz was operated from 1888 to 1948. In addition, a line further north served Anglet, operated by the
Chemin de fer Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz company from 1877 to 1953. Finally, a line following the Adour to its mouth and to the Atlantic Ocean by the bar in Anglet, was operated by
VFDM réseau basque from 1919 to 1948. , photographed here in the 1930s On the morning of 23 December 1933, sub-prefect Anthelme received Gustave Tissier, the director of the
Crédit Municipal de Bayonne. He responded well, with some astonishment, to his persistent interview. It did not surprise him to see the man unpacking what became the scam of the century. "Tissier, director of the
Crédit Municipal, was arrested and imprisoned under suspicion of forgery and misappropriation of public funds. He had issued thousands of false bonds in the name of
Crédit Municipal [...]" This was the beginning of the
Stavisky Affair which, together with other scandals and political crises, led to the Paris riots of 6 February 1934.
The World Wars The 249th Infantry Regiment, created from the 49th Infantry Regiment, was engaged in operations in the
First World War, including action at
Chemin des Dames, especially on the plateau of
Craonne. 700 Bayonnaises perished in the conflict. A centre for engagement of foreign volunteers was established in August 1914, in Bayonne. Many nationalities were represented, particularly the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Czechs, and the Poles. During the
Second World War, Bayonne was occupied by the
3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf from 27 June 1940 to 23 August 1944. On 5 April 1942, the Allies made a landing attempt in Bayonne but after a barge penetrated the Adour with great difficulty, the operation was cancelled. On 21 August 1944, after blowing up twenty ships in port, German troops withdrew. On the 22nd, a final convoy of five vehicles passed through the city. It transported Gestapo Customs agents and some elements of the
Feldgendarmerie. One or more Germans opened fire with machine guns killing three people. On the 23rd, there was an informal and immediate installation of a "special municipal delegation" by the young deputy prefect Guy Lamassoure representing the
Provisional Government of the French Republic which had been established in
Algiers since 27 June. ==Policy and administration==