Soubestre

The Soubestre (or Saubestre) is today a soil of the North-East of the Yrénées-Atlantiques, in the north of the Béarn.

History

Primarily wooded area in the middle of the medieval time, its settlement and the exploitation of its grounds started at the end of Xesiècle and the beginning of XIe century, following important clearings undertaken by the monks of the abbey of Larreule who have just settled there.

In XIIe century, Soubestre is one of the five Archidiaconé S of the évêché of Lescar. The archdeacon resides at Garos and the responsibility for Paroisse S pertaining to the Vicomté of Béarn, to the Vicomté of Louvigny and to the Vicomté of Marsan. Religious divisions and policies thus do not coincide between them.

In 1790, this difference politico-nun grows blurred since the near total of this territory is integrated into the department of the the Low-Pyrenees which has just been created.

Not having religious existence nor legal with the courses of XIXe and XXe centuries, the term of Soubestre is not employed practically any more in the everyday usage and the literature. Its handing-over with the honor intervenes after the creation of the Communauté of communes of the canton of Arzacq in 1994, although this community corresponds only partially to the Soubestre of the Old Mode.

Etymology and terminology

The term of Soubestre would come from Latin (Pagus) Silvestris , i.e. " the territory boisé" or " the covered territory of forêts". The historical sources oldest mentioning this soil date from the end of Xe century:

Pagus Vasconiae which dicitur Silvestrensis (towards 980, cartulaire of Larreule, " the territory of Vascons which is called by its boisement" )
Silvestrum (towards 982, cartulaire of Saint-Sever)
Archidiaconatus Silvestrensis (according to the cartulaire of Lescar of 1101 mentioned by Pierre de Marca)
Saubeste (1188, fors of Béarn)
Soubeste (1409, fors of Béarn, E2622)
Sobeste (1576, roles of Investigations. B2267)

Two terms are essential today: Soubestre or Saubestre . In fact, there is a geographical segregation in the use of one or the other orthography: Saubestre today is especially used in trade and associative descriptions of the surroundings of Arthez-with-Béarn, while Soubestre gets busy in a quasi-systematic way in the canton of Arzacq-Arraziguet. The terminology in Occitan (or inhabitant of Béarn) is Seuvestre .

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