This book examines the events that took place in the Pyrenean pass of Errozabal (Rencesvals) on August 15, 778. Not only a mere battle, Errozabal is also the most dramatic episode of a historical event that affected Vasconia, the land of the Basques, for almost the entire eighth century. Indeed, the battle was not an isolated military incident but part of a complex military and political process that began after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and culminated with the creation of the Kingdom of Pamplona in 824.

Following the penetration of Islam into Europe, the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo—the traditional rival of Vasconia since its formation in the early sixth century—suddenly disappeared in the early eighth century, giving rise to a new political landscape. Indeed, when Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Iberian Peninsula, the Visigoth King Rodrigo was in the vicinity of Pamplona leading a new campaign to punish the Basques. Therefore, the Basques viewed the collapse of the Visigothic order with caution, but not without a certain satisfaction and even optimism.

The course of the eighth century would pit Vasconia between East and West, forcing its rulers and people to cope with the ambitions of the Christian kings of the north and the impetuous expansionism of the Caliphate of Damascus in the south. Between 714 and 732 Franks and Basques allied against Islam, but after the defeat at Poitiers the situation changed.