End of Basque home rule in France

The end of Basque home rule or foruak/fors in France was an event putting an end to the secular Basque native institutional and legal system during the French revolutionary period (1790-1795). The final violent dissolution of the semi-autonomous Basque institutional and legal system was coupled with the arrival of French troops to the Basque Country within the War of the Pyrenees and a deliberate terror on the Basque population centred in Labourd.

It resulted in the abrupt suppression of all native governmental and jurisdictional organs and the establishment of the departement of the Lower Pyrenees (Basses-Pyrénées), as well as the departement administrative system, as everywhere in France.

Although gradually curtailed starting 1620, the Basques in the Kingdom of France maintained a semi-autonomous status favoured by their peripheral location and common bonds with their peer Basque districts in Spain, ruled by a similar self-empowerment system. However, each district held a different governmental and legal jurisdiction, whose representatives attended the parliament of Gascony in Bordeaux (Labourd), and Navarre in Pau (Lower Navarre, Soule).

Labourd was the most dynamic French Basque district, showing total autonomy in its fiscal system during the mid-18th century, but also a declining fishing industry, half-hearted trade routes with the Americas, and lack of products with added value capable of enticing trade. Its decision making body was the Biltzar, or Assembly of Labourd, a highly participatory, democratic body. The weight of the nobility was remarkably low.

...
Wikipedia