Just south of Saint-Palais, the three principal routes to Compostela on the Way of St James met at the hamlet of Ostabat, bringing much wealth and trade to the area in medieval times.

Villages like Estérençuby and Lecumberry are popular for agro-tourism and the Irati beech forest on the frontier borderline is known for its views and history.

Dolmens and other neolithic monuments dot the landscape, including the Tour d'Urkulu high in the mountains at 1,149m—a 2,000-year-old circular platform of huge stone blocks.

Moreover, the valleys of Baigorri, Ossès, Cize and Arberoa were attached to the latter, establishing the first nucleus of the Navarrese grip on the lands north of the Pyrenees.

Charles V's troops retained Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and its hinterland, besides devastating the region, but were met with strong resistance led by local lords loyal to King Henry II of Navarre.

The latter succeeded in taking over the town and its castle in May 1521, losing it to the Duke of Alba in June; the spanish evacuated Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in 1522, but recovered it in January 1524.

While possession of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was hotly contested, Saint-Palais (Donapaleu in Basque) remained out of spanish reach and would become the main royal center of the surviving Navarrese monarchy in Lower Navarre.

Although Emperor Charles V, the spanish monarch, recovered Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port within months, by 1528 he had lost interest in asserting and maintaining his control over the portion of Navarre north of the Pyrenees, difficult to hold and defend.

In 1620 and 1624 respectively the House of Commons and the Justice system were merged with those of Béarn and transferred from Saint-Palais to Pau, despite protests voiced by the Navarrese representatives, who pointed to their different traditions and languages—Basque and Béarnese.

The title of King of Navarre continued to be held by the lineage of the Albrets and the Bourbons up to the French Revolution, while the kingdom itself merged with France in 1620.

The two third estate representatives of Lower Navarre did not vote at the States-General of 1789 and its follow-up, the French National Assembly (1790), arguing that the impending new administrative arrangement was none of their business, since they did not belong in the Kingdom of France.