Eudes Boggis’ son Eudes was practically an independent monarch in Aquitaine. He had defeated attempts by the Moors from Spain, lead by Abd-al-Rahman-al-Ghafiki, to invade Gascony earlier in his reign in 718 by throwing them back under the walls of Toulouse in 720. But he had backed Chilperic II, the King of Neustria, against Charles Martel (Martel = hammer), his Palace Mayor. Chiperic was the first Merovingian king, since his grandfather Clovis II, to have a backbone but Charles defeated Eudes in 719, who was fighting on too many fronts & forgave him on the understanding that he recognised Chilperic (now practically a prisoner & firmly under Charles' control) as King of all the Franks. But Chilperic died in 720.

Cerdagne

Although by all accounts, a great general, having defeated a previous Moorish incursion into France outside Toulouse in 721, Eudes was getting old. The Moors invaded Aquitaine in force in 731 & he no longer had sufficient power to defeat them again. In 731, he married his daughter Lampagie off to Othman Ibn Abu-Nusa, Wali of Cerdagne, previously Emir de Cordova, who controlled some of the Pyrenean passes. Cerdagne is a high valley surrounded by high mountains & with easily defended entry points. This would have solved that problem had the Moorish King of Spain, Abd-al-Rahman-al-Ghafiki not immediately defeated & slain Abu-Nusa & sent Lampagie off to Damascus as a trophy.

His duchy overrun by Moors, Eudes had to call in Charles Martel, who turned the Moors back forever at the battle of Tours in 732, where Abd-al-Rahman-al-Ghafiki was killed. This gave Charles, the son of Pepin the Fat & great-grandson of Pepin of Landen, carte blanche to interfere in Gascon affairs & establish the power of France there. Eudes was murdered in 735. His family tree is complicated by cousin marriages i.e Branulphe I was his great-great-grandfather twice & also his great-great-great-grandfather but Robert Brian Stewart reckons Branulphe I was not the father of Branulphe II but his brother Gondolfus, Bishop of Tongres was .

According to some sources, Eudes allegedly married twice:-

(1) to St. Adela (? - 24/12/735), the great-grand-daughter of the first Dagobert, via his son Sigibert III King of Austrasia from 638 (634 - 656) and Inechilde (various spellings!) of Burgundy (?625 - ?670) & their son Dagobert II (652 - 23/12/679), who married an English princess, Matilda. Dagobert II is the one all the legends surround. He was usurped & murdered by Pepin the Fat, with the connivance of the church because of his anti-clerical tendencies but. as he is not a Delaforce, that is another story.

(2) to Valtrude of Verdun, daughter of Walchigise, Count of Verdun (611 - ?) & Valtrude. She is the Delaforce ancestor. Valtrude’s Verdun is the one where the World War I battle was fought, not the Delaforce Verdun-sur-Garonne.

Walchigise was the son of St. Arnulf Bishop of Metz (583 - 641) & Clothilde de Saxe (?583 - ?612). St Arnulf was born in Heristal, now a suburb of Liège but both Metz & Heristal were in Austrasia. This is the same Arnulf who worked with (& on) Clothaire II. Working back through Valtrude's male line took us to that Clodion, King of Cologne who was the great-grandfather of Clovis the Great.

Adalric's family includes two Delaforce lines, stemming from his son Loup Centule, who seems to be frequently confused in published family trees with Lope Sancho, his cousin. His daughter married Aznar of Aragon, the scion of Ximen or Jimenez of Aragon, who's father, Galind carried a very traditional Gothic name. See chapter 50. It was Charlemagne who appointed Aznar Galindez as Count of the various lands South of the Pyrenees & Aznar eventaully had to flee North because of excessive loyalty to the Carolingians. With a name half-Basque and half-Goth, he should have known better.

Lope Centule's son Donat Loupa, married Faquila of the rich county of Bigorre beneath the Pyrenees.

So, what had Loup II done to upset Charlemagne? This was not difficult but we will consult, without taking it too seriously, the most famous ballad in French history, Le Chanson de Roland. The original is now in the Bodleian library. This and other versions have produced a story of a glorious defeat against overwhelming Saracen odds. The viewpoint of the winners has never been presented before.

Charlemagne's armies had swept into Spain through the Pyrenean passes of SIZERGATE (Port de SIZER), and the pilgrim route to St. James of Compostella of St. Jean Pied de Port through the Roncevaux (Roncesvalles) pass to Pampeluna.

More than 30 of the old remote Kings and Queens of Navarre are buried in the old Benedictine monastery, Santa Maria la Real, in Najera: Garcia and his wife Istaphania de Foix, Sancho of Navarre, Clara of Normandy, Sanche the Valiant and Beatrice, Sanche the Noble and Blanche, all monarchs of a far off distant day.

The road from Pamplona to Roncesvalles is twenty eight miles of unexpected Swiss beauty: fountains, and small streams, green meadows, cows with cow-bells, chalets, pine trees, wild flowers everywhere. The road climbs steadily into the mountains to a plateau with farms and cornfields and it follows the pass, winds, twists and contorts itself until the enormous mountain peaks appear, bare, barren and lonely - the way to Roncesvalles! Now it is a small bleak village near the large gloomy monastery where SANCHO the Strong and Clemencia his wife are buried. As Tallifer wrote and sang of Roncesvalles "high are its hills, and its valleys dark, the rocks are black and the country strange and fearful". The winter ghosts are always there, The French battle cry of 'MONJOIE' can still be heard. Perhaps too the unbroken sword DURANDEL lies rusting in a mountain stream. The modern pass road summit is 4km West of the ambush site.

The old pass route today

On his return from his campaign in Spain, almost casually, Charlemagne 'rasa les murs de Pampelune', the capital of Vasconia and Navarre. This so enraged the Gascons that Duke LUPUS II plotted with INIGO GARCIAS, King of Navarre, to lay a most substantial ambush and thus obtain revenge. (Patrick suggested that his father-in-law FRUELA, King of Asturias may have been involved but some sources say he died in 765. It was probably his wife's cousin, Fruela the Cruel, who was involved). The Chanson's detailed account of the Saracen King MARSILION plotting with the handsome, treacherous, ill-fated Count GANELON (Roland's step-father) was mostly troubador nonsense!

ROLAND, RODLANZ, or more correctly HRUODLAND, "le prefet de la marche de Bretagne" - one of Charlemagne's twelve regional governors - was one of three commanders of the rear-guard. In 770 he was allowed to strike his own coinage with CARLUS (Charlemagne) on one side and RODLAN on the other. So he was a noble of some substance in the Marches of Bretagne! He was also a thoroughly poor military commander. 'Le Senechal EGGINHARD maitre d'hotel du ROI' and 'le comte Paladin du palace ANSELME' also certainly had substantial rank. The Chanson's fighting Bishop TURPIN was a hero, as indeed was Roland's friend Oliver. The famous 12 nobles in the Chanson were possibly fictitious:

GERIN and GERIER, IVES and IVOR, OTHON and BERENGER, ANSEIS and SANS ON. However GERARD of ROUSSILLON, ENGELBERT the Gascon of Bordeaux and Count ACELIN (perhaps GARSIAS) of Gascony, may have been substantiated.

The leaders of the ‘enemy’ in battle were documented in the Chanson, but almost certainly without much substance. Still they did have splendid names - BALIGANT, CLIMBORIN, VALDABRUN, GRANDOYNE and MALQUIANT, CLARIN of BALAGATE, ESTRAMARIN and EUDOPRIN (PRINCE EUDES?), GARLON LONGBEARD, PRIAMON, RACHINER and uncle NATTHAY, JOHUN of OUTREMER, MALABAYN, BLANCANDRIN and ADELROTH, King Marsile's nephew.

Loup had a significant brother Adelric and a son, Lope Sancho. The Chanson may be referring to Adalric, who was King INIGO GARCIAS' nephew by marriage.

By the time Charlemagne's advance guard had reached VALCARLOS (valley of Charles) on 15th August 778, Roland as the leader of the rearguard had just reached RONCEVAUX, eighteen kilometres away. A long, thin straggling army just asking for trouble from the wolves in the hills. RONCEVAUX is 3960 feet above sea level, and the attacking Gascons and Basques found it easy to hurl boulders down the slopes onto the Frankish army.

This sums the man up neatly and succinctly. Too proud to stay close to Charlemagne’s main army, and then only when the battle was won and lost did he blow his famous great horn OLIVANT (olifant, elephant's ivory tusk). At the third blast the horn broke in two but Charlemagne heard, and returned.

There was no possibility of rescue. "Dieu, que le son du cor est triste au fond des bois". (A. de Vigny). So with his horse VEILANTIF killed from under him, and his sword DURANDEL useless by his side, his friends slain beside him, Roland lay dead under a large tree surrounded by dead Gascons.

No wonder the Gascons sang their national hymn over the corpse of Roland, as they set to work and "pillés les bagages de l'armée". The loot from the slain Francs with the rich trophies of their war in southern Spain must have been considerable. The troubadors spoke of 20,000 being slain in the rearguard alone. A more probable figure is that of 1,500 to 2,000. Loup II and the Kingdoms of Navarre and Asturias had probably assembled about 2-3,000 troops. The Francs were heavily laden with spoil, thinly spread out and the existing fir tree forests probably gave sufficient cover to the attackers for the ambuscade to succeed.

The French historians called the ambush 'PERFIDIE des GASCONS'. But in reality it was revenge for the sack of Pamplona by Charlemagne. Roland's body was later buried at Blaye, in the church of Saint Romain.

The French Charte d'ALAON records that Charlemagne pursued, caught, and hung Loup II for his part in that day's work at Roncevalles. Another reference is LOUBENS "Histoire ancienne Province de Gascoigne" pp.155-7.

After the conquest of Spain in 781 AD, Charlemagne created the Kingdom of the two Aquitaines for his son Louis. They comprised the Languedoc, Toulouse, Gascony, Guienne and Navarre. Louis (Le Debonnaire) appointed two regents to rule in Aquitaine, ARNOULD and MEGINARIUS or AMALGINUS.

Despite Loup II's undignified end, his brother Alaric, Adalric or Adalrius was awarded by Charlemagne vast lands west and northwest of Toulouse. Initially in 781 he was given FEZENSAC, of which ARMAGNAC was a small part, but later in 801 AD the lands of GIMOEZ, TERRIDES and VERDUN-sur-Garonne were added.

Charlemagne was very much interested in southwest France. He had founded the river port town of LA REOLE in 771 and visited Bazas and Bordeaux in 800 AD.

In 790 ADALRIC captured CHORSO, Comte de Toulouse & made him swear allegeance

Adalric & Loup II's descendants include several lines which we must follow but only after examining the line of the horrible Charlemagne.