Being in a transition zone also produces a highly variable climate, with summers that are a mix of cooler spells and heat waves, and winters that are mild for the latitude.

The first documented use of a name resembling Navarra, Nafarroa, or Naparroa is a reference to navarros, in Eginhard's early-9th-century chronicle of the feats of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, describing his intrusion to the Ebro river.

[6] That kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of Sancho III, comprising most of the Christian realms to the south of the Pyrenees, and even a short overlordship of Gascony (in the early 11th century).

[8] It never fully recovered its political power, while its commercial importance increased as traders and pilgrims (the Francs) poured into the kingdom via the Way of Saint James.

The death of Queen Blanche I (1441) inaugurated a civil war period between the Beaumont and Agramont confederacies with the intervention of the Castilian-Aragonese House of Trastámara in Navarre's internal affairs.

Except for a small faction (the so-called Alfonsinos), all parties in Navarre agreed on the need for a new political framework based on home rule within the Laurak Bat, the Basque districts in Spain.

Among these, the Carlists stood out, who politically dominated the province, and resented an increased string of rulings and laws passed by Madrid, as well as left leaning influences.

In 1932, a Basque Country's separate statute failed to take off over disagreements on the centrality of Catholicism, a scene of political radicalisation ensued dividing the leftist and rightist forces during the 2nd Spanish Republic (1931 – 1939).

[15] The most reactionary and clerical Carlists came to prominence, ideologues such as Víctor Pradera, and an understanding with General Mola paved the way to the Spanish Nationalist uprising in Pamplona (18 July 1936).

The triumphant military revolt was followed by a terror campaign in the rearguard against blacklisted individuals considered to be progressive ("reds"), mildly republican, or just inconvenient.

[16] The purge especially affected southern Navarre along the Ebro banks, and counted on the active complicity of the clergy, who adopted the fascist salute and even involved in murderous tasks.

[20] The bleak post-war years were shaken by shortage, famine, and smuggling, with the economy relying on agriculture (wheat, vineyards, olive, barley), and a negative migration balance.

The victors came to cluster around two main factions, Carlists and Falangists,[21] while the totalitarian ultra-Catholic environment provided fertile grounds for another religious group, the Opus Dei, to found their University of Navarre (1952), ever more influential in Pamplona.

A continuation of the institutional framework inherited from the dictatorship and its accommodation into the Spanish democracy was guaranteed by the Betterment ("Amejoramiento"), a Navarre-only solution considered 'an upgrade' of its former status issued from the (remains of the) charters.

The community ceremonies, education, and social services, together with housing, urban development, and environment protection policies are under the responsibility of Navarre's political institutions.

Parties on the pro-Basque spectrum demand further sovereignty in internal affairs of Navarre and closer relationship with the districts of the Basque Autonomous Community.

[24][25] By November 2012, the PSN—UPN's standing ally in Navarre up to that point—backed down on its support of UPN, but refused to impeach Yolanda Barcina or search new political alliances, leaving a deadlocked government.

The Justice secretary in Madrid Alberto Ruiz Gallardón in turn stated that "the worst political error is not corruption" but getting along with Bildu (a Basque pro-independence coalition).

June 2019 elections, however, turned the tide, when rightist forces reunited in the platform Navarra Suma, made up of UPN, PP and Ciudadanos, and garnered 20 MPs, 40% of the seats in the Parliament of Navarre, although both Geroa Bai and EH Bildu increased their vote share.

[31][32] In December 2017, the Navarrese parliament passed a law splitting teachers aspiring to work in the state-run education network into two different professional categories, one for those qualified in Basque and Spanish, and another for Spanish monolinguals, so thwarting with the vote of Izquierda-Ezkerra (integrated in the regional government) the new progressive government's plan to have just one; the latter echoes a long-running demand of education unions.

[35] In October 2019, the High Court of Navarre ruled against the public use of bilingual signalling and institutional announcements in Mixed-Speaking and Non-Basque Speaking areas, also proscribing the consideration of Basque as a merit in job positions, unless strictly needed; the judgement sparked an uproar among some parties in the coalition government of Navarre, as well as EH Bildu, but was saluted by the PSN and Navarra Suma.

Despite its relatively small size, Navarre features stark contrasts in geography, from the Pyrenees mountain range that dominates the territory to the plains of the Ebro river valley in the south.

It was a part of the Roman Empire, inhabited by the Vascones, later controlled on its southern fringes by the Muslim Banu Qasi, whose authority was taken over by the taifa kingdom of Tudela in the 11th century.

During the Reconquista, Navarre gained little ground at the expense of the Muslims, since its southern boundary had already been established by the time of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.

Gascons and Occitans from beyond the Pyrenees (called Franks) received self-government and other privileges to foster settlement in Navarrese towns, and they brought their crafts, culture and Romance languages.

Navarre is one of the wealthiest regions in Spain per capita, with a diversified economy primarily focused on the energy sector, healthcare services and manufacturing.

By 2004, 61% of the region's electricity was generated by renewable sources consisting of 43.6% from 28 wind farms, 12% from over 100 small-scale water turbines, and 5.3% from 2 biomass and 2 biogas plants.

[48] In the midst of contemporary scholarly debates on the existence of Navarre and its laws prior to the king's authority, the Navarrese author Garcia de Gongora states as follows in 1626:Two languages are spoken across the kingdom, Basque and Romance, but most properly the Cantabric [language] Basque, the original and most ancient, brought along by its creator, the patriarch Tubal, devoid of mingling with others; it has always been preserved there, except in the Ribera and the bordering areas of Castile and Aragon, where Romance is spoken.José Moret, chronicler of the kingdom, called Navarre and its bordering provinces "the lands of Basque", claiming also that Tubal founded the Kingdom of Navarre.

[49] However, Basque underwent a gradual erosion, accelerated following the conquest of the kingdom in the early 16th century due to the homogenizing push of the new Castilian authorities and the neglect of its own elites, among other reasons.

On the east of the Pyrenees in Navarre, the Roncalese and Salazarese dialects of Basque used to be spoken in the valleys of Roncal and Salazar, but they disappeared near the end of the twentieth century; the last person who spoke the Roncalese dialect died in 1991 and in Salazar the language also disappeared because the last person who spoke it fluently died during the first years of the twenty-first century.