EUROPEAN UNIFORMITY and EUROPEAN DIVERSITY CHARLEMAGNE and ENEKO ARITZA

Europe in the 7th century After the Fall of the Roman Empire and the settlement of the Germanic peoples.

The 8th century The Duchy of Vasconia between the Carolingian Empire and the Emirate of Cordoba

Europe in the 8th century The Carolingian Empire

Who was Charlemagne?? He was born in 742 in Liege and died in 814 in Aachen.

He was King of the Franks from 768 until his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. He conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in 800.

Three Battles of Roncesvaux: 778, 812, 824.

First Battle of Roncesvaux The first and best known battle of Roncesvaux, Orreaga, in 778 was one of the major defeats of the great Emperor of the Franks. Charles had started an expedition to take Barcelona and Zaragoza from the Muslims. He had no problem in Barcelona, which became the capital of the newly formed Hispanic Mark. But he failed in Zaragoza, where Charles and his army could not capture the walls of the city. In the return, he dared to destroy the protective walls of Iruñea -Pamplona the only place witch an access to Zaragoza. After the aggression, the Basque clans organized an ambush in the mountain pass of Orreaga –Roncesvaux.

So when the main part of the Roland army had crossed the passage, the rearguard, formed by some of the best Frankish knights, was ambushed and annihilated by soldiers of the Basque army. So when Charlemagne could turn back and reach the place of the combat, he could only find the bodies of his soldiers and horses.

These clans from both sides of the Pyrenees were probably led by the leader of the Ximeno clan, Eneko Ximeno. But there were another two battles in the area of Roncesvaux fought by the Basques who had started to be called Navarres by the Frankissh chronicles to distinguish them from the Vascones under the Carolingian domain. After the third battle in 824 the Basques elected a king among their leaders of the Pyrenees: Eneko Enekones Aritza, son of Eneko Ximeno, leader of the Basques in the first battle of 778. It was 10 years after the death of Charlemagne

Who was Eneko Aritza?? When Charlemagne died, Eneko was 37. He was born in 790 and he died in 851. He was probably son of Eneko Ximeno, a leader of the Pyrenees and one of the leaders of the resistance to the Carolingian expansion into Vasconia, who might have been the ruler of Iruñea during the first battle of Roncesvaux. Aritza was his surname. It means oak. Eneko Aritza was the first king of the independent Vascones of the Kingdom of Pamplona, later Navarre.

CONCLUSION two different european heroes Here we have two historical figures who might well represent two visions of Europe. A unified Europe under the rule of a central continental power and, another, the Europe of the peoples. Charlemagne was the founder of a empire ruled from Aachen that was called the Holy Roman Empire because he meant to be the heir of the Roman emperors. Eneko Aritza was the founder of a smaller kingdom which united the Basque peoples who still remain independent from the Emirate of Cordova in the south, the Visigoths of Asturias in the west and the Franks in the north. This initially called Kingdom of Pamplona continued to be called Kingdom of Navarre in the 13th century. The Franks and the descendants of the Visigoths of Leon and Castilla kept on attacking the independent kingdom throughout the centuries: in 1054 (Bureba), 1076 (Rioja and part of Biscay), 1200 (Durango, Araba, Gipuzkoa), 1512 (Upper Navarre), 1620 (Lower Navarre) until 1841 when the Kingdom of Navarre becomes a Spanish province.

Made by: Ane, Ane, Leire, Oihane, Jone, Rafke, Anne & Veerle