Whether the Vascones spread significantly north of the Pyrenees is disputed,[3] but the ruling Goths and Franks referred to the area between the Garonne and the Atlantic as Vasconia.

After taking the throne, Leovigild launched a series of military campaigns around the Iberian Peninsula, taking control from the Vascones ("partes Vasconiae") in the upper reaches of the Ebro (present-day Álava, possibly up to the north of Castile), and founded a fortress called Victoriacum (dubiously Vitoria-Gasteiz, possibly Iruña-Veleia).

This military push from a stronger centralized authority in Toledo placed more pressure on the Vascones to leave the Ebro's rich farmland.

The boundary area of Vasconia (or Wasconia) was created with the purpose of controlling the Basques in Novempopulania, but it extended at this stage to the lands south and around the axis provided by the river Garonne between Bordeaux and Toulouse.

Around this period Duke Francio is reported to have vowed allegiance to the Franks in Cantabria, an area inhabited by the Basques, but c. 612, the Gothic king Sisebut seems to have conquered the territory.

[6]: 97  From 589 to 684, the Bishop of Pamplona was absent from the Visigothic Councils of Toledo, which is interpreted by some as a result of this city being under Basque or Frankish control.

Independent dukes Lupus, Odo the Great, Hunald and Waifer succeeded Felix in sequence, with the last three belonging to the same lineage.

Only by Odo submitting to the authority of his Frankish archrival, the mayor Charles Martel, could the Christians of Western Europe achieve the military unity necessary to decisively defeat the Umayyad invaders, which they finally accomplished at the Battle of Tours.

[7]: 22 Odo's realm passed to his son Hunald, who, desiring the former independence which had been his father's, attacked Martel's successors, starting a war which lasted for two generations.

Most famous is the Battle of Roncevaux in 778, during which Basques ambushed and slaughtered Charlemagne's rearguard after the Franks destroyed the walls of Pamplona.

In 806, Pamplona, still under Cordovan rule, was attacked by the Franks, and the Pamplonese, led by a certain Velasco, pledged allegiance to Charlemagne again, but his tenure proved short-lived.

Northern Basques, organized in the Duchy of Vasconia, collaborated with Franks during campaigns such as the capture of Barcelona in 799 but after the death of Charlemagne in 814, uprisings started anew.

The revolt in Pamplona crossed the Pyrenees north and in 816 Louis the Pious deposed the Basque Duke Seguin of Bordeaux for failing to suppress or sympathising with the rebellion.

This started a widespread revolt, led by García Jiménez (according to late traditions, a near-kinsman of Íñigo Arista, to be the first monarch of Pamplona) and newly appointed duke Lupus Centullo (c. 820).

[6]: 137 The dukes had to face Viking inroads and unrest for over a century, an instability that brought about the destruction of existing monasteries in Gascony and a decayed urban life.

[6]: 181–182 While the gradual decay of the Carolingian dynasty would have been expected to pave the way for a reassertion of its regional identity, new borders, a more rigid structure derived from feudalization, and internal Basque divergences of culture, interest and language stopped that process.

[6]: 179  Dukes parcelled out the duchy as appanages for their sons — the power of decision was gradually transferred in the 9th and 10th centuries to Gascony's smaller constituent counties, such as Béarn, Armagnac, Bigorre, Comminges, Nébouzan, Labourd, etc.

By the 11th-12th centuries, the Basque language is believed to have extended on the north-east up to the upper reaches of the Adour river, far short of its extension 300 years before.

The ducal title was reemployed by Edward Longshanks and it formed a base of support for the English during the Hundred Years' War.

It is possible, however, that the notices in the cartulary of Saint-Seurin, which both elevate that religious house and at the same time distance the dukes of Gascony from any French vassalage, were forged in the late 12th century to advance the cause of the Plantagenets.

[11] Frankish Wasconia comprised the former Roman province of Novempopulania and, at least in some periods, also the lands south of the Pyrenees centred on Pamplona.

In 628, the Frankish king Dagobert I made arrangements for his brother Charibert II to rule over the territories between the Loire and the Pyrenees (limes Spaniae) 'in the general area of Vasconia', including Saintes, Perigueux, Cahors, Agenais, etc.

Moreover, they were absent, and dukes are mentioned as the main figures of the Basques, immediately followed on the hierarchy by tribal chiefs and families, at least until the rise of the Carolingian dynasty.

One example: the Basque name Otsoa (meaning "wolf") was literally translated Lop in Gascon, Lupus in Latin, Loup in French, and Lobo in Spanish.

For example, Garsinde leading to Garsean, Gendolf or Centulf to Centule, Aginald or Hunnald to Enneko (in Flanders, and Frisian, still a short form of the first two frank names), Aginard to Aznar, Belasgytta or Wallagotha to Velasquita, Belasgutho to Velasco, Arnoald to Arnau, Theuda to Toda, Theudahilda to Dadildis or Dedadils.

On his accession to the throne in 1272, the title was reunited with the kingdom of England and treated as another name for the Duchy of Aquitaine, generally inclusive of Guyenne.