In 778, Roland, the warden of the Breton March, had accompanied Charlemagne on his campaign into the Iberian peninsula across the Western Pyrenees.

[2] According to Einhard, Eggihard, the King's steward; Anselm ("Anshelmus"), Count Palatine; and Roland ("Hruodlandus"), Governor of the March of Brittany, with very many others, lost their lives during that ambush.

The battle resulted in the defeat of the Carolingian military expedition and the capture of its commanders Aeblus and Aznar Sánchez in 824.

The clash was to have further reaching consequences than those of the 778 engagement: the immediate establishment of the independent Kingdom of Pamplona, a landmark in Basque history.

On 25 July 1813, a battle between French Napoleonic troops and Anglo-Portuguese forces took place at the Roncesvalles Pass[5] during the Peninsular War (1808–1814).