Summary
Abstract
This chapter discusses in detail the development of the military expedition of 778 against the Basques with emphasis on the events that took place in Pamplona and Zaragoza between spring and summer of that year. The author provides a detailed description of the itinerary of the two Frankish armies that entered the Iberian Peninsula and the chronology of the march from April to August 778. This chapter is divided into four sections. The march on Vasconia by the Carolingian army at the beginning of the campaign in the spring of 778, the siege and capture of the city of Pamplona in June 778, the infructuous siege of Zaragoza in July and the final retreat and destruction of Pamplona by King Charles in August 778.
Keywords: Charlemagne, 778, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Islam
Vasconia was a vast territory enclosed between the courses of the rivers Garonne in the north and Ebro in the south. The research of the toponymy carried out to the present day confirms that within the limits of the most inaccessible areas of the Pyrenees, Vasconia extended to the river Noguera in Ribagorza and the episode of Uthman ibn Naissa (Munuza) in 732 shows that the area of influence of the Basques went as deep as to Cerdanya. Unfortunately, the historical sources did not identify the leaders who defeated the Frankish army, but the first king of Pamplona, Eneko Aritza (c. 770-852), was count of Bigorre and Sobrarbe, which confirms the presence of Basque warlords in Ribagorza before the beginning of the ninth century.
However, this immense territory bound by cultural and linguistic ties was not unified under a single central power directly linked to one princeps vasconum but was rather composed of various territories ruled by warlords united by shared interests and common enemies (foederati), which explains the crystallization of various political units after the coronation of the first king of Pamplona in 824. Basque cities also had their own administration linked by federative ties to the rest of Vasconia.
As consigned by the Frankish chronicles, Lupus II was the princeps vasconum for a peaceful period of between ten and thirty years, from c. 767 or 769 to c. 778, or even 801. There is no mention in the chronicles of any princeps vasconum until 801, when the chronicles make reference to the son of Lupus II, Sancho I Lupus, as taking part in the siege of Barcelona.
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- Charlemagne’s Defeat in the PyreneesThe Battle of Rencesvals, pp. 37 - 70Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021