Vestiges of a lost kingdom: The documents from the Navarre’s kingdom preserved at the Departmental Archives of the Atlantic Pyrenees

Abstract

From the fifty summaries of existing documents in Pau castle, which the 16th century inventory gathers under the epigraph «Navarre», the authors intend to ascertain certain matters. Could they be identified as the documents of the Albret monarchs’ flight in the face of the imminent arrival of the Castilian troops? The comparative study of this selection with the currently existing documents at the archives in Pau (ADPA) and in Pamplona (AGN) tries to illustrate not only the context in which this selection was carried out but, above all, the circumstances that conditioned the documents transfer from Navarre to Pau. Who, when and why are the questions set to be answered through the analysis of each of the entries compiled in this 16th century inventory, as well as the eloquent absences of other documents.