For six and a half centuries, a peculiar ceremony has been held every July 13 at the Ernaz pass and the San Martín stone, a mountain pass in the Pyrenees that serves as a border point between the Foral Community of Navarra (Spain) and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department (France).
The event consists of the delivery of three cows by the French neighbors to the Spanish as a gesture of peace, commemorating an agreement reached in the Middle Ages, considered the oldest treaty in Europe still in force. In 2011, the Government of Navarra declared it an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Interest. One hypothesis traces its origin to the passage of the Cimbri through Hispania in ancient times.
The pass is located at an altitude of 1,766 meters, with the closest towns being the Spanish Isaba and the French Arette (which gives its name to the ski resort that crowns the site, Arette-Pierre-Saint-Martin). The former belongs to the Navarrese valley of Roncal, and the latter to the Béarnese valley of Barétous, which today are connected by a road they financed together, but in the 14th century were rival territories. At that time, their respective countries did not yet exist as unified states: Roncal belonged to the Kingdom of Navarre, and Béarn to the Duchy of Gascony (although only nominally because it was independent de facto).
For this reason, attendees at the event, from the six municipalities of the Barétous valley (Arette, Ance, Aramits, Féas, Issor, and Lanne-en-Barétous) and the seven from the Roncal valley (Isaba, Garde, Urzainqui, Uztárroz, Burgui, Vidángoz, and Roncal), wear their traditional attire and carry out a picturesque reenactment. However, it has full legal validity despite the passage of time: the enforcement of the arbitration ruling from October 16, 1375, issued at the Church of San Pedro in the town of Ansó (Huesca) by the representatives of the Roncal councils and the hombres buenos (good men) of Barétous, gathered with the permission of Charles, King of Navarre, and Gaston III of Foix, Viscount of Béarn.
At that meeting, which was also attended by the mayor of Ansó and five local residents as arbitros arbitradores (arbitrating judges) and amigables componedores (amicable mediators)—among many other attendees—they committed to finding a peaceful solution to an ancient dispute: determining the exact boundary between the two valleys, which was not a trivial matter as it included rights to pastures and springs. In summer, water is scarce in Barétous, with the nearest spring located on the Spanish side of Pico Arlas, at a time when livestock farming was the foundation of the local economy.
Thus, the appointed attendees determined the boundaries and permissions for access to the said pastures and water, both for the residents and their livestock, first for those of Arette and then for those of Roncal.
Penalties were also established for those who unjustly called the apellido (i.e., a call to arms): fines of three hundred morlan sols (the morlan was a Béarnese coin), with carneramiento (seizure of property) if they could not pay.
Likewise, mutual prisoners were released, a truce was established for “one hundred and one years” (essentially perpetually), and four officials from each side were appointed to carry out the seizures.
But the most curious aspect is the reference to an ancient tradition: the symbolic delivery by the Béarnese of three two-year-old cows, of the same coat, with the same type of horns, and without blemishes or wounds; two for Isaba and the third, on a rotating basis each year, for the towns that helped:
Because we truly find by the said depositions or reports from the said testimonies and trustworthy persons, that the said Béarnese always used and customarily gave three cows every two years without blemish on the fourth day after the feast of the Seven Brothers (…), we pronounce and order by sentence that the said Béarnese give and pay annually from here on perpetually, the said three cows every two years without blemish… to the said San Martín stone…
The text indicates that giving those animals was not something new but rather referred to an earlier time, for which there is no quorum among historians, as we will see later. It is known that in 1321 the so-called Battle of Beotivar took place, a violent altercation that resulted in twelve deaths, and in 1335, another one occurred with thirty-five deaths. These clashes led Charles IV of France (who had also inherited the crown of Navarre) to record in a document that the conflict had started over the use of springs, and he tried to seek a peaceful solution, although the persistence of the issue forced him to send troops. The monarch, incidentally, considered that the mountain passes were Navarrese, not Béarnais.
In any case, despite other reconciliation attempts made by the bishops of Pamplona, Jaca, Oloron-Saint-Marie, and Bayonne, continuous disputes continued, culminating in 1373 in an episode where it is difficult to separate history from legend. In a dispute over the right to water their respective herds at the Pescamon spring, Pedro Karrika from Isaba in the Roncal Valley killed Pierre Sansoler from Areta in Béarn, and the latter’s family took revenge by murdering Karrika’s pregnant wife. In turn, the widower gathered several neighbors and killed the Sansoler family, sparking a real war between their towns.
Fantasy enters the story with a captain of Agote ethnicity who had four ears and whose death in battle tipped the scales in favor of the Navarrese. However, that did not mark the end of hostilities, as the Battle of Aguincea still had to be fought, resulting in more than fifty Roncalese casualties compared to two hundred enemy deaths, as several towns got involved in the fight. That massacre led to the arbitration recorded in the 1375 peace charter in Ansó. As often happens, peace was not without obstacles, occasionally leading to new disputes, though no longer on such a large scale.
This required drafting a supplementary agreement in 1389, appointing representatives from both sides to resolve conflicts. Unfortunately, the original documents were destroyed in a fire in the church where they had been stored, leaving only copies. In 1450, there was a new crisis, but at least instead of fighting, they resorted to mutual livestock seizures. Shortly after, the marriage of Catherine of Foix to John III of Albret allowed for the unification of the two territories, and in 1512, Navarre was conquered by Ferdinand the Catholic, who honored the treaty.
In 1612, the Roncalese rejected two of the cows for being older than the stipulated age and having defects. Fortunately, reason prevailed, and proposals to go to war again were dismissed in favor of arbitration; since Ansó was not suitable for this because of a dispute with that town as well, it was suggested to send a petition to Queen Anne of Austria. The wife of Louis XIII, king of France but also of Navarre (Charles V had abandoned that kingdom, considering it difficult to defend), was Spanish (daughter of Philip III), so her mediation could be expected. However, in the end, everything was resolved through direct negotiation between the parties involved.
From 1635 onwards, the Thirty Years’ War affected the valleys, interrupting the delivery of the three cows and leading to livestock seizures, which was more important than it might seem because, for example, it is estimated that there were about six thousand cattle and one hundred thousand sheep in Roncal. Although the conflict lasted until 1648, for the valleys, it ended six years earlier when the return to the 1375 peace charter was agreed upon, exempting the Béarnais from paying what they had not done since 1630 and compensating for damages.
That omission of cow deliveries did not recur during the War of Succession, but in 1755, a cow was again rejected, described as “blemished, small with poor fur and other defects.” Some progress had been made since that did not lead to conflict. However, there was an interruption in 1793 when the War of the Convention broke out between Spain and France, though relatively speaking, because although the prescribed meeting between the parties did not take place, the Béarnais left the animals tied to the Stone of San Martín to fulfill their obligation.
There were more problems during the War of Independence, but especially in 1895, when the possibility of instituting payment in money instead of animals began to be debated, and the news reached the French press. The press considered the elements of the ceremony (having to bow to the people of Roncal, advancing toward them with a white flag, being unarmed) a humiliation to their country. This was due to ignorance, as despite the event being called the Tribute of the Three Cows, there is no actual tribute since that concept implies vassalage, which wasn’t the case.
Afterward, there was only one time when the delivery did not take place: in 1944, during World War II, with France occupied by the Germans, who kept the border with Spain closed. However, the Béarnais later compensated for the omission by adding a cow each year, though the last one was pardoned. By then, the Stone of San Martín no longer existed, having been replaced in 1856 by marker 262, which still stands today next to the chasm of the same name. Since 2014, by the way, the celebration has also been part of France’s Intangible Cultural Heritage and attracts many curious onlookers from both countries.
Here we need to revisit the question of the uncertain origins of the Tribute of the Three Cows. We have seen that as we go further back in time, outbreaks of violence become increasingly severe. But what was the first? When did the custom of giving a trio of animals as a peace agreement begin? In documents, 1375, but let’s remember that the Compromise of Ansó spoke of recovering an old custom; and, as mentioned earlier, historians can only make hypotheses without reaching a consensus.
Some we’ve already reviewed, but without a doubt, the boldest one traces back to Antiquity, to the 2nd century BC, no less. It was then that the Cimbri, a Germanic people from Jutland who had begun migrating after their coastal lands were flooded, arrived in Gaul, defeated the Romans at the Battle of Arausio, and then moved into Hispania in 125 BC. It is believed that they entered through the Isaba passes, in the Baretous Valley, where the natives joined them.
However, even as they advanced along the Cantabrian coast searching for a good place to settle, the Hispano tribes continually harassed them, ultimately forcing their departure from the Iberian Peninsula back to Gaul. A failed attempt at settlement there dissuaded them, and they embarked on an invasion of Italy alongside the Teutons, raising alarms in Rome.
That’s another story, but some believe the event at Roncal was actually a war tribute imposed on the inhabitants of the Barétous Valley for their support of the Cimbri.
The original tribute would have been in horses instead of cows (also three, with white legs and a white spot on their foreheads), though when and why the change occurred is unknown. There is also no way to verify the truth of this story. Luckily, today everything remains in the realm of folklore and civility: after the delivery of the trio of bovines, selected from a group of fifteen, the mayors of both sides join hands over the marker and say Pax avant, pax avant, pax avant (Peace henceforth, peace henceforth, peace henceforth), before beginning the celebration; additionally, Isaba and Arette are twinned.
And by the way, since the mad cow disease epidemic of the 1990s, the animals return to their town, and their value is left in money; viruses imposed their rule.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on October 6, 2023: El Tributo de las Tres Vacas, el tratado en vigor más antiguo de Europa, pudo empezar como sanción por el apoyo a la invasión de los cimbrios en el 125 a.C.
SOURCES
Jesús María Usunáriz Garayoa, Historia breve de Navarra
José María Domench García, Navarra y sus tradiciones
Francisco García del Junco, Eso no estaba en mi libro de Historia de España
Francisco García Campa, Cayo Mario. El Tercer Fundador de Roma
Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia, Isaba. Tributo de las Tres Vacas
Wikipedia, Tributo de las Tres Vacas
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