There are few places so renowned in the early literature of the Romance
languages as the pass through the Western Pyrenees, at the southern
extremity of which lies the village of Roncesvalles. The Song of Roland
handed down the memories of Roncesvalles from the early Middle Ages; but
this famous poem (dating in its present form from the latter part of the
eleventh century) must be regarded only as the final and successful
effort to collect the traditions which form the foundations of French
and Spanish history. The traditions find their earliest record in the
legends and “chansons de geste,” which, in the first instance, served to
commemorate the successful rising of the people of Spain to expel an
invader, Charlemagne, the Emperor of the North. The rearguard of his
retreating host, consisting chiefly of Frankish subjects of the Emperor
under the leadership of the Count Roland, Captain-General of the Breton
March, the Emperor’s nephew, was overwhelmed and annihilated, while
traversing the Pass on their retreat from Spain in the year 778. The
ancient history of Eginhard, telling of the Spaniards, says very
suggestively “usque ad unum omnes interficiunt ac ... summa cum
celeritate in diversa disperguntur.” Even “li gentilz quens” did not
escape the massacre. The Chanson de Roland gives the French version of
this tradition, which was accepted by the Normans in England; the
Spanish legend of the hero Bernardo del Carpio gives, as it is to be
expected, a very different account of the overthrow of the Emperor.
In the course of the succeeding centuries the Pass of Roncesvalles
occupies on more than one occasion a prominent place in British history.
One of the most picturesque passages in Froissart tells how the army of
Edward the Black Prince traversed the Pass in the ill-omened invasion of
Spain that led to his fatal illness. His remarkable victory at Navarrete
scarcely relieves the gloomy record of this adventure. Little more than
one hundred years have elapsed since Roncesvalles and the neighbouring
defiles once more saw the advance of war-worn British soldiery. In the
defence of these passes against the advance of the French under Soult,
so nearly successful in overwhelming Wellington’s right flank, and in
the subsequent pursuit of the retreating French armies, some of the most
remarkable of the feats of arms which distinguished the Peninsular War
took place. British military history contains few more stirring episodes
than the combats between the French and the allied troops in the Passes
of Maya and Roncesvalles.
[Illustration:
FIG. 2.
_Stanfords Geog^. Estab^. London._
A chart of the Western Pyrenees, showing the roads through the passes
and the position of Roncesvalles and Ibañeta.
]
The memories of Roncesvalles, therefore, are in no danger of being
forgotten, but it has passed from knowledge that for a period of more
than three hundred years the name of Roncesvalles was more familiar to
the citizens of Westminster and London than to the dwellers in Pamplona
and Bayonne. How it came about that an important religious house
dedicated to Our Lady of Roncesvalles should have been established at
Charing will best be understood if we consider the nature of the
activities of the ancient Monastery in the Pass of Roncesvalles, the
numbers of those on whom it conferred benefits, and the character of its
benefactors in England.