t (_tierra
apartada_). Their juntas acted to some extent in common; and although no
written federal pact is known to have existed, they employed, as the symbol
of their unity, a seal with the word _Iruracbat_, "The Three One," engraved
upon it. They preserved their own laws, customs, _fueros_ (see BASQUES),
which the Spanish kings swore to observe and maintain. Unless countersigned
by the juntas the decrees of Cortes and Spanish legislation or royal orders
had no force in the Provinces. In the junta of 1481 Guipuzcoa alone
proposed a treaty of friendship, peace and free trade for ten years with
England, and this was signed in Westminster, on the 9th of March 1482 (see
Rymer, _Foedera_). The Basques still made their own treaties with England
and France and are mentioned apart from Spain in the treaty of Utrecht
(1713). They still preserved in their municipal institutions the old style
of _republicas_ derived from the _civitates_ and _respublicae_ of ancient
Rome. This kind of independence and autonomy lasted unchallenged until the
death of Ferdinand VII. in 1833, when, in default of male heirs, his
brother Don Carlos claimed the throne, confirmed the Basque _fueros_, and
raised the standard of revolt against his niece, Isabel II. A seven years'
war followed, in which an English legion under Sir George de Lacy Evans and
a naval force under Lord John Hay took part. It was ended by the Convenio
de Vergara (August 31st, 1839) in which the concession and modification of
the _fueros_ was demanded. The troubled period which followed the expulsion
of Isabel II. in 1868 gave opportunity for a second Carlist war from 1872
to 1876. This ended, unlike the former one, in the utter defeat of the
Carlist forces, and left the Provinces at the mercy of the government,
without terms or agreement. In general government and legislation the
Provinces were then assimilated to the rest of the nation. After 1876, the
Provincial parliaments (_diputaciones_) were elected like the other
provincial councils of Spain, deprived of many privileges and subjected to
the ordinary interference of the civil governors. But their
representatives, assisted by the senators and deputies of the Basque
Provinces in the Cortes, negotiated successive pacts, each lasting several
years, securing for the three Provinces their municipal and provincial
self-government, and the assessment, distribution and collection of their
principal taxes and octroi duties, on the unders