Pyrenean

The Pyrenean group includes the Gascons, Basques and Aragonese. Basque is unrelated to the Romance speech around it, and the Basques long kept their own laws, called fueros, in remote valleys. The Aragonese held the southern slopes in the Kingdom of Aragon.

Between them lay the Kingdom of Navarre, a Basque-led realm astride the passes. Ferdinand of Aragon conquered Upper Navarre in 1512, while the northern part stayed independent and passed to the French crown with Henry IV in 1589. The English held Gascony as part of Aquitaine until 1453, when it fell to France after the Battle of Castillon.