Roland

Roland was military governor of the Breton March under Charlemagne, tasked with holding Francia's frontier against the Bretons. On 15 August 778, he rode with the Frankish rearguard through the Pyrenees at Roncevaux Pass, where Basques struck in retribution and killed him. Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni recorded the death in a single line. Three centuries later, the 11th-century Chanson de Roland transformed the border skirmish into high tragedy, and the dead officer into an epic hero paired forever with his sword Durendal, his horse Veillantif, and his oliphant horn. Italian Renaissance poets pushed further from fact: Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, along with Pulci's Morgante, wove him into sprawling romance cycles that had little to do with the Pyrenees. In 1685, Jean-Baptiste Lully staged an opera in his name. The man governed a march; the myth became the Matter of France.