Viscounty of Béarn

Viscounty of Béarn
Vicomitatus Benearniens (Latin) Vescomtat de Bearn (Occitan) Vicomté de Béarn (French)
9th century–1620
Flag Coat of arms
Gascony and Bearn ca.1150
Capital		Lescar (up to ca.841) Morlans (10th–12th centuries) Ortès (12th–15th centuries) Pau
Languages		Medieval Latin Old Occitan then Bearnès
Religion		Roman Catholicism (up to the 16th century) Calvinism (up to 1620)
Government		Monarchy
Viscount or Prince
•	9th century	Centolh-Lop
•	1610–20	Loïs I
Historical era		Middle Ages and Renaissance
•	Established	9th century
•	Independence declared by Gaston III Fèbus	25 September 1347
•	Enric II became King of France	27 February 1594
•	Integrated by France	October 1620
Succeeded by Kingdom of France

The Viscounty, later Principality, of Béarn (Gascon: Bearn or Biarn) was a medieval lordship in the far south of France, part of the Duchy of Gascony from the late ninth century. In 1347 the viscount refused to acknowledge the suzerainty of the French king and declared Béarn an independent principality. It later entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Navarre in 1479 and with France in 1589. In 1620 the prince (who was also the king) formally incorporated Béarn as a province of France.

The citation of a certain "Gaston [son] of Centule, viscount of Béarn" (Gasto Centuli vicecomes Bearnensis) is the first attestation of a specific regional organization in the late 860s/early 870s. The viscounty was named after Lescar, former Benearnum, last cited in 673. Its first parliamentary body, the Cour Major, was formed in 1080.

A mint was established at Morlaàs under Viscount Centule V, who was also Count of Bigorre (1058–88). Centule sold the magisterium sectionis cognorum (right to mint coins) to a private moneyer. The mint continued operating under his successors, always minting coins bearing Centule's name. It was at the time the most productive mint in Gascony.

Gascony was united to the Duchy of Aquitaine in 1053. Béarn, as a part of Gascony, became subject to the dukes of Aquitaine and, in 1152, passed to the Kings of England through the Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Béarn passed to the House of Foix in 1290.

The independence of Béarn from France came about as a result of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) between France and England. In 1347, on the heels of English victory at the battle of Crécy (1346), the Viscount Gaston III Fébus paid homage to the king of France for his the county of Foix, but refused to give homage for Béarn, which he claimed held from no one but God. After the English victory at Poitiers in 1356, Gaston refused to attend the Estates General of France.