Battle of Roncesvalles

…the traditional site of the Battle of Roncesvalles (August 15, 778), in which the Basques ambushed and totally wiped out the rear guard of the Frankish army as it was returning across the mountains to Aquitaine after Charlemagne, campaigning against the Muslims in Spain, ravaged several towns south of the…

…destroyed his rear guard at Roncesvalles (778), an event which is celebrated in the great medieval epic The Song of Roland. The Franks had to be content with occupying the upper valleys of the Pyrenees. The Frankish advance ended with the Muslim seizure of Girona (Jerunda) in 785, Barcelona (Barjelūnah)…