BRINGING HERITAGE CLOSER. THE BAZTAN VALLEY: MEN, ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE

19 September 2006

From the village to the Court
Dr. José María Imízcoz Beunza. University of the Basque Country

The "eighteenth century Navarrese hour" was not an isolated event. It was the result of the meeting between certain family groups, mostly from the valleys of northern Navarre, and the more general movement that took place in the Spanish monarchy with the advent of the Bourbons. This renewal at the top of the monarchy opened up considerable political and economic space that facilitated the elevation of numerous families of northern noblemen to the highest political and honorary positions. The most striking case, due to its intensity and issue, is that of the several hundred people from Baztan who, throughout the 18th century, made careers and businesses in the Court, the High Administration, the hierarchy of the Army and the Navy, the high clergy, royal finances and peninsular and colonial trade.

From an initial instructions , the policy of these families was based on the systematic placement of their sons in trade and royal administration, thanks to the sponsorship of their collateral relatives. Very soon, after the successes of the first generation of the "eighteenth hour", a number of families established themselves in a conscious and systematic policy of giving certain careers to their sons. This policy relied on family relations introduced into the business and institutions of the monarchy and required an educational and economic investment. Children learned Spanish and how to read, write and count. They could then attend various courses programs of study. The costs of this Education were borne by the relatives who were responsible for placing them. In addition, those who had prospered in the Monarchy's Structures created and financed schools of first letters in the towns in order to provide this Education for their relatives and countrymen.

Between the relatives established at the Court and in the empire and their families in Baztan, a powerful Economics of communicating vessels was established. A wealth of resources flowed through it, especially if we compare it with the limited possibilities of the traditional rural Economics . The families who took part in this process rebuilt their houses, giving them volume and prestige, improved their farms, bought land, founded censuses, received dowries to marry off their daughters in good marriages or to enter a convent, etc. Money came not only through inheritance or donations, but also regularly through monthly pensions.

The families whose sons rose to prominence in "the time of the 18th century" also rose to prominence in Baztan society. The careers of their sons in the Monarchy brought them economic, honorary and political benefits that largely fuelled their rise within the peasant community. They became the leading families in the Valley, took charge of local government, represented their prestige through material and honorary elements, practised a paternalistic policy through a very abundant patronage and acted as useful mediators between the outside world and the needs of the peasant society.