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The pass was defended by the British 4th Division commanded by Major-General Galbraith Lowry Cole and was helped by the Portuguese 4/10 brigade. The French attacked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port advancing in two columns either side of the pass. Clausel on the Altobiscar and Reille on the Linduz.
In 778, Roland, the warden of the Breton March, had accompanied Charlemagne on his campaign into the Iberian peninsula across the Western Pyrenees. Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, mentions in his Vita Karoli Magni a fatal event involving Vasconian raiders who laid an ambush by hiding in the woods on top of a high mountain while Frankish troops were crossing the mountain pass.
The battle is said to have been fought in the valley known as Valcarlos, which is now occupied by a hamlet bearing the same name, and in the adjoining pass of Ibañeta (Roncevaux Pass). Both of these are traversed by the main road leading north from Roncesvalles to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, in the French Basque Country.
The Battle of Roncevaux Pass (French and English spelling, Roncesvalles in Spanish, Orreaga in Basque) in 778 saw a large force of Basques ambush a part of Charlemagne's army in Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on the present border between France and Spain, after his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
Roland holds Durendal while blowing his olifant to summon help at the Battle of Roncevaux, as described in the Chanson de Roland; painting by Wolf von Bibra (1862–1922). Durendal , also spelled Durandal , is the sword of Roland , a legendary paladin and partially historical officer of Charlemagne in French epic literature.
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In the 11th century Matter of France, Ganelon (US: / ˌ ɡ æ n ə ˈ l oʊ n /, [1] French: [ɡan(ə)lɔ̃]) [needs Old French IPA] is the knight who betrayed Charlemagne's army to the Saracens, leading to the 778 Battle of Roncevaux Pass. His name is said to derive from the Italian word inganno, meaning fraud or deception. [2]
This fragment depicts the Battle of Roncevaux in 778, when Roland, retainer of Charlemagne, fought King Marsile of Saragossa for control of Spain. The story is taken from the Song of Roland, an epic French poem frequently used to rally the troops.