Lower Navarre (; &lt;a href="Gascon%20dialect"&gt;Gascon/Bearnese&lt;/a&gt;: "Navarra Baisha"; ; ) is a traditional region of the present-day French "département" of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It corresponds to the northernmost "merindad" of the Kingdom of Navarre during the Middle Ages. After the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre (1512–24), this "merindad" was restored to the rule of the native king, Henry II. Its capitals were Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Saint-Palais. In the extreme north there was the little sovereign Principality of Bidache, with an area of and a decreasing population of 44,450 (in 1901), 25,356 (in 1990).