Orreaga 778 ( the battle of Roncesvaux)
Guillermo Zubillaga
I almost Forgot this piece I did back in 1995 when I
was in College at SU.
"In the summer of 778 after a difficult campaign in Spain, Charlemagne and the whole of his Frankish army was retreating through a pass in the Pyrenees mountain. There his rearguard was cut down and massacred by Basques. Hundreds of years later the action at Roncesvalles was transformed into the XI century crusading propaganda and French classic epic poem " La chanson de Rolan"
The Latin Inscription Reads:
“Charlemagne went off
himself with the largest force he could muster to invade Spain. He marched over a pass across the
Pyrenees, while he was in the Pyrenean mountain range itself, Basques, of the
mountains, came rushing down on the last part of the baggage train and the
troops who were marching in support of the rearguard and so protecting the army
which have gone on ahead. The Basques forced them down into the valley beneath,
joined battle with them and killed them to the last man.” Einhard, secretary of the emperor Charlemagne.
Einhard Himself said that it was this battle the only
defeat in Charlemagne's life which he wasn't able to avenge and hunted him
until his end of days, who would have said it? The most powerful Empire of the
day vanquished by a Bunch of shepherds. The Embryo of what
later would become one of the oldest states of Europe; the Basque Kingdom of
Navarre.