Mauléon

Mauléon lies in Soule, a Basque province in the western Pyrenees. A castle above the Saison valley gave the medieval settlement a strategic position on a route toward Spain. A wooden stronghold was replaced by a stronger castle in the thirteenth century, and the last viscount of Soule, Auger de Mauléon, surrendered it to King Edward I of England.

The medieval upper town developed as a bastide where fairs and exchange brought people together. Nearby Licharre, a separate community, was the seat of Soule's jurisdiction. The town also suffered during the French Wars of Religion; the poet Jean de Sponde, born in Mauléon in the sixteenth century, lived through those conflicts.