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Lower Navarre (Traditional province, France)

Basse-Navarre

Last modified: 2009-10-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: basse-navarre | lower navarre | chain (yellow) |
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Navarre

Flag of Lower Navarre - Image by Pierre Gay, 28 August 1997


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Presentation of Lower Navarre

When the southernmost part of the Kingdom of Navarre was annexed by Spain (1515), the legitimate heirs of the Navarre royal family retained the title and withdrew to the Lower Navarre territory, north of the Pyrenees. They ruled a kingdom united with neighbouring Béarn. When King Henry III of Navarre was crowned King of France as Hanry IV, he took the title of "King of France and Navarre", kept by his successors until the French Revolution.
Lower Navarre is also one of the three provinces of Iparralde, the Northern Basque Country (located in France).

Ivan Sache, 13 September 2009


Flag of Lower Navarre

The flag of Lower Navarre is red with the chains taken from the coat of arms of Navarre.
The chains of Navarre are traditionally explained" by the legend of a king who cut and tied up with his sword the chains protecting a Moors' camp and, subsequently placed them on his red shield.

Pascal Vagnat, 28 August 1997


Simplified flag of Navarre

Navarre

Simplified flag of Navarre - Image by Ivan Sache, 12 July 2009

Stage 9 of Tour de France (Saint-Gaudens-Tarbes, 160 km) crossed on 12 July the legendary Col du Tourmalet (2,115 m asl). As usual in the Pyrenees, most supporters' flags came from neighbouring Spain, indeed very few Spanish national flags but bunches of Basque, Asturian and Catalan flags.
A flag displayed close to the top of Tourmalet looks like a simplified, stylized version of the flag of Navarre, that is with the chains replaced by lines.

Ivan Sache, 12 July 2009