« Navarre shall be the wonder of the world: Our court shall be a little Academ, still and contemplative in living art » (William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's lost, I, 1. 1595.) ...But that dream did not come true. Navarre (in Basque Nafarroa, in Spanish Navarra) was an independent kingdom through the Middle Ages, until Spain conquered it in 1512. The Basqueness of Navarre is highly debated now. The main parties there are quite anti-Basque, but the Basque language (called Lingua Navarrorum in medieval records) holds firmly in the northern region of the province. The Basque-speaking Navarrese considere themselves as Basque as Navarrese. Nowadays, Navarre is an autonomous region within the Spanish regime. Officially it is called the Foral Community of Navarre.
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