From very early Christian times a religious house, no doubt very small in its beginnings, was situated near the top of the pass through which runs the ancient road over the Pyrenees leading from Pamplona in Navarre, through the mountains by St. Jean Pied-de-Port, to Bayonne and Bordeaux. The religious community at this place received its most important support from Charlemagne himself, when he established a religious house intended to be a memorial of Roland and his comrades in arms. The original Convent of Charlemagne’s foundation was situated close to the village of Ibañeta, near the summit of the Pass and the site of the great battle. Of this house only insignificant and deserted ruins remain. After a destructive raid by the Moors under Abderramen, Caliph of Cordova, in 921, the community removed to the present site of the Monastery in the village of Roncesvalles, two or three kilometres farther south. The removal of the Convent to this site is said to have been determined by various miraculous signs, among others by the discovery of an image of the Holy Virgin, and it was clearly to the advantage of the community that its permanent settlement should be in the comparatively sheltered southern approaches of the Pass rather than on the exposed summit.
The Order of Roncesvalles thus became established on a firmer basis, and at first had distinct military as well as religious purposes. The members of the community consisted of knights and companions, as well as the brothers and sisters, who all bore the badge of the Order. The duties which they had to fulfil were military, for the Knights of Roncesvalles were in frequent conflict with the Moors, and religious, for not only did the brethren serve their Church, but one of the earliest and most important duties of the community was to establish a hospital in the Pass for wayfarers in this wild region.
In the course of time the members of this military-religious community received the Augustinian Rule, but they retained much of their independence, the memories of their original order, and especially held to the traditions of hospitality and charitable succour to pilgrims and to those in distress. The Convent and its Hospital gradually acquired wide renown on account of the good works carried on by the Canons. Their house was on the main road between France and Spain. The military expeditions so frequently traversing the frontiers marched along the highway passing its doors, pilgrims visiting the shrine of St. James at Compostella must have halted there on their way to and from the south, and the road through the Pass was the chief highway for peaceful travellers of every kind. The community, therefore, increased in importance and in wealth by gifts from princes, nobles, knights, and the common folk, and came to possess property not only in Spain, but also in Portugal, Italy and in France, and, as the records show, in England and Wales, in Ireland, and in Scotland. It is stated that at the height of its prosperity the Convent distributed annually from 25,000 to 30,000 rations, each consisting of a loaf of 16 oz., half a pint of wine, with sufficient soup and meat, or fish on days of fast. Those who were infirm had chicken broth and mutton. The Hospital had a staff consisting of the physicians, with whom were associated surgeons and an apothecary, and one of the distinguishing features of the Order at a very early period was that it included sisters. In the case of patients dying while in hospital, free interment was given after the celebration of masses in due form. It is expressly stated that the daughter house in England, with its possessions in that country, in Ireland, and in Scotland, remitted annually the sum of 4,000 ducats for the support of the Mother House at Roncesvalles.[[3]]
[3]. Cf. Reseña histórica de la Real Casa de nuestra Señora de Roncesvalles; por D. Hilario Sarasa, Pamplona, 1878; a review was published by Wentworth Webster in the “Academy,” 1879, xvi, p. 135-6.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the community of Roncesvalles fell on evil days. The march of events deprived them of their property abroad, while laxity in the observance of their Rule and the continually disturbed state of the Franco-Spanish frontier brought about the loss of the greater part of their accumulated possessions and wealth. Unfortunately the ancient records of the Monastery have nearly all been destroyed; but there remains in the library an unpublished manuscript giving the history of the Order and the Convent, written by Don Juan Huarte, about the middle of the seventeenth century, which incorporates information received from a certain Don Francisco Olastro[[4]] (who is stated to have been an ambassador from England in Madrid) respecting the history of their daughter house in London. But even at the time when this document was written, many statements it contains appear to have acquired the characteristics of tradition and can be accepted only after careful collation and criticism. We have, therefore, to depend almost entirely on the English records for the history of the House of Roncesvalles in London.
[4]. ? Francis Oliver.
The Convent of Saint Mary Roncevall at Charing.
To understand how it was possible that a religious house in the Pyrenees could hold possessions scattered throughout so many different lands, it must be clearly borne in mind that in the Middle Ages the rule exercised by the Church took very little cognizance of State limits. The ecclesiastical power was much stronger than the national influences of the time, and the Church drew its revenues from all Christian countries, quite irrespective of political boundaries. At the time when the House of Roncesvalles at Charing was founded, the overlordship of the Pope had been felt in England and in France in a very real manner. In addition to this ecclesiastical bond, the political relationships between England, France and Northern Spain were of the most intimate character, so that the all-pervading power of the Church could be exercised with the greater ease in these countries. During the period of the Norman, and even more so during the Angevin dynasty, the English barons experienced the greatest difficulty in detaching themselves from the influences exerted on them by their foreign relationships, even if they had the desire to do so. In many cases they seem to have frankly regarded their insular possessions as sources of revenue and power to be made use of in order to promote their Continental interests. In this respect they followed the example set in such unmistakable fashion by kings such as Richard and John. The Church acted in the same manner, and many foreign convents were able, by their powerful influence, to obtain possession of, and to exploit, the rich lands of England for their own support. It was not until the close of the reign of John and during the reign of Henry III that the separate destinies of England and France became apparent to the more sagacious of the English statesmen of that period. It is very instructive, therefore, to note as evidence of the complicated and distracting political and social influences still felt by the English magnates, that the noble family which perhaps most of all by its example and advice sought to uphold the political independence of England as apart from France, was nevertheless impelled to become one of the great benefactors of a foreign religious house.
Fig. 3. Fig. 4.
Figs. 3 and 4.—Front and profile views of the effigy in the Temple
Church of William Marshall, sen., Earl of Pembroke (ob. 1219).