Battle of Roncevaux Pass

With the rise of the Carolingians and Pepin the Short's war on Aquitaine, the Duchy of Aquitaine led by Waifer was defeated and the Franks encroached farther into the duchy. The Basques (Vascones, Wascones) of the Duchy of Vasconia, one of the mainstays of the Aquitanian army, submitted to Pepin in 766 and 769, but the territory south of the Garonne remained largely unscathed and self-governed. However, as of 778 Charlemagne expanded Frankish takeover of Aquitaine to present-day Gascony, by appointing trusted Franks, Burgundians, and Church officials in key regional positions and establishing counties, such as Fezensac, Bordeaux, and Toulouse, on the left bank of the Garonne. Sulayman al-Arabi, the pro-Abbasid Wali (governor) of Barcelona and Girona, sent a delegation to Charlemagne, Master of the Franks in Paderborn, offering his submission, along with the allegiance of Husayn of Zaragoza and Abu Taur of Huesca in return for military aid. Their Lords had been cornered in the Iberian peninsula by Abd ar-Rahman I, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba. The three rulers also conveyed that the caliph of Baghdad, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was preparing an invasion force against Abd ar-Rahman. Charlemagne marched across the Pyrenees in 778 "at the head of all the forces he could muster". Charlemagne led the Neustrian army over Vasconia into the Western Pyrenees, while the Austrasians, Lombards, and Burgundians passed over the Eastern Pyrenees through Catalonia. His troops were welcomed in Barcelona and Girona by Sulayman al-Arabi. As he moved towards Zaragoza, the troops of Charlemagne were joined by troops led by al-Arabi, before eventually putting the city under siege. Abd ar-Rahman of Córdoba sent his most trusted general, Thalaba Ibn Obeid, to take control of the possibly rebellious city and to prevent the Frankish invasion. Husayn and Ibn Obeid clashed repeatedly; eventually Husayn managed to defeat and to imprison Ibn Obeid. Reinforced in his autonomous position, Husayn became reluctant to yield his new privileged status to the Frankish monarch and refused to surrender the city to Charlemagne, claiming that he had never promised Charlemagne his allegiance. He seems to have tried to appease Charlemagne by giving him the prisoner General Ibn Obeid and a large tribute of gold, but Charlemagne was not easily satisfied, putting Sulayman al-Arabi in chains. Meanwhile, the force sent by the Baghdad caliphate seems to have been stopped near Barcelona. Though Charlemagne's forces initially held the upper hand, the siege of Zaragoza dragged on for over a month. Eventually a deal was struck between Charlemagne and Husayn. The latter would pay gold and the release of several prisoners, while the Franks in return would withdraw their siege. == Battle ==

depicting an idealized vision of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass Before leaving the Iberian Peninsula, Charlemagne decided to further secure his hold on the Basque territory (Wasconia). Garrisons and military outposts were placed throughout the territory, and there were accounts of the Franks' harsh treatment of the Basques during their occupation. As Charlemagne tried to regroup and evacuate his army, Roland and the others held for a considerable length of time before the Basques finally massacred them completely. Though killed to the last man, the rearguard nonetheless succeeded in allowing Charlemagne and his army to continue to safety. The Basques then looted the baggage that was left behind and took advantage of the darkness to flee, leaving no trace for the Franks to follow the following morning. Basque army One of the principal units of the Vascones was the guerrilla army of the Basques. A typical Basque mountain warrior was armed with two short spears and a knife or short sword as his main weapons, and bows or javelins for missile weapons. He would not normally wear armour. Pierre de Marca, a Béarnese author, suggests that the attackers were a reduced number of mostly local Low Navarrese, Souletines, and Baztanese, whose main motivation may have been plunder. The accounts of Einhard and Pierre de Marca suggest that the perpetrator of the attack was Lupo II of Gascony. He held the territory of the Pyrenees, making him responsible for the tragedy that happened in his realm. Regions surrounding his kingdom such as Bordeaux were under the control of the Carolingians. While the Duke did pay homage to Charlemagne by offering Hunald II (a rebel leader and a possible heir to Waiofar) and his wife to him, there were disputes over the trans-Pyrenean Basque lands ruled by Lupo and those under Carolingian suzerainty. Location to Benearnum and meets Burdigala. ==Aftermath==

Charlemagne biographer Einhard stated that the men in the rear were "massacred to the last man." The Vita Karoli mentions the names of the most important lords killed such as Eggihard, Roland, and Anselmus, the count palatine. The battle caused numerous losses among the Frankish troops, including several of the most important aristocrats and the sack of the baggage, probably with all the gold given by the Muslims at Zaragoza. While the skirmish was a small setback, Charlemagne did lose huge quantities of treasure and good men. Never again would Charlemagne take it upon himself to lead an army to battle in Spain, having to rely instead on his generals for future campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula. Zaragoza, however, remained a Muslim city and capital of the Upper March, and later of an independent emirate until the 11th century. Pamplona itself would remain in the hands of the Muslims until a rebellion in 798–801 expelled them as well. The Vascones would finally consolidate the Banu Qasi realm and eventually the constitution of the independent Kingdom of Pamplona in 824 after the birth of a new resistance to Carolingian rule. In that same year, the Basque army defeated another Carolingian army in the same mountain pass. The second Battle of Roncevaux Pass was almost identical to the first, with the Basques again taking advantage of the terrain, but against a much larger Frankish force. Unlike the first battle in which Charlemagne's army managed to escape, the Carolingians led by Count Aeblus were trapped and routed, and a larger number of their men were slaughtered than those of Charlemagne. ==Legacy==

, Navarre, Spain. Over the years, this battle was romanticized by oral tradition into a major conflict between Christians and Muslims although in fact, the Basques of the period were mainly pagans and Charlemagne had been allied to some of the Muslims. In the tradition, the Basques are replaced by a force of 400,000 Saracens, and mythical objects such as Durendal and Oliphant were also added. The Song of Roland, which commemorates the battle, was written by an unknown poet of the 11th century. It is the earliest surviving of the chansons de geste or epic poems of medieval France written in Old French. Together with the Knights of the Round Table in Britain, the story of Roland and the paladins have become the archetypal icons of chivalry in Europe; greatly influencing knightly culture and inspiring many Christian warriors that came after. During the Battle of Hastings in 1066, knights and soldiers under William the Conqueror, chanted the poem to inspire themselves before their fight with the Anglo-Saxons. The English expression, "to give a Roland for an Oliver", meaning either to offer a quid pro quo or to give as good as one gets, which is referenced directly from the companionship of Roland and Oliver during the battle. One example was said during the Combat of the Thirty in 1351; a judicial combat between two groups of knights during the Breton War of Succession. The knights were described by the French author Jean Froissart as "if they had been all Rolands and Olivers," which admired their honor and companionship in battle. Memorials have also been erected to commemorate the battle, such as the Roncesvalles Pass Monument in Navarre, Spain. Roland's Breach, situated in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, is a gap thought to have been caused by Roland while fighting. At the summit of the Roncevaux Pass are the remains of an early chapel of San Salvador also known as Charlemagne's Chapel and the Charlemagne Monument built in 1934; both built to commemorate the Emperor's campaign in the region. The battle is also referenced in the song "Roncevaux" by Van der Graaf Generator, originally recorded in 1972 but only released in rather rough form many years later on the album Time Vaults. The battle and Orlando's sacrifice inspired several composers, amongst whom were Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel, who composed an Italian-language opera with Orlando. Modern adaptations of the battle drew heavily on the romanticized versions. A 1978 French film La chanson de Roland features an adaptation of the Song of Roland and features the battle as depicted in the poem. The battle is also featured minimally in the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, in which Roland is named Orlando, an amalgamation of fictional characters that were named Roland and Orlando. ==See also==