Battle of Albelda (851)
The first Battle of Albelda took place near
Musa ibn Musa, chief of the Banu Qasi and governor of Tudela on behalf of the Emirate of Córdoba, and an army of the Franks and Gascons from France, probably allies of the Christian Kingdom of Asturias, inveterate enemy of Musa. The Muslims, who were probably the aggressors, were victorious. The battle is usually connected with a campaign of Ordoño I of Asturias to suppress a Basque revolt, and may be related also to the capture of certain Frankish and Gascon leaders. In the past it has been conflated with the Battle of Monte Laturce
, also near Albelda, which occurred in 859 or 860.
According to
Kingdom of Pamplona
, Gascony's southern neighbour.
In 851, the year after he succeeded to the throne, Ordoño I of Asturias suppressed a revolt of his Basque subjects. This done he marched to the other side of the
Velasco the Gascon, and the Gascons in times of rebellion may have sought out Asturian aid, even Asturian suzerainty, as an Aragonese charter of 867 may indicate.[1]
The Chronicle records that, after the battle of Albelda in 851, and partly by means of war, partly by treachery, Musa captured two Frankish leaders,
Frankish king Charles the Bald, which Ordoño's soldiers found in the camp of Musa at Monte Laturce, may have been the ransom
paid for Sancho and Emenon, in which case their capture occurred prior to 859.
Notes
- García Íñiguez in Pamplona". The exact region implied by the Iberian use of Gallia Comata has been debated, cf. review in Jesús María Alday Otxoa de Olano, "¿Un santo alavés desconocido? San Sancho mártir", Sancho el sabio: Revista de cultura e investigación vasca, 19:189–218. It may have indicated Gascony or instead have encompassed a larger area including the Asturian domains of the western Basque country.) The charter has some suspicious characteristics, but it is not a complete fabrication.
- ^ In the Chronicle, read "Emenonem" for "Epulonem".
References
- Pérez de Urbel, Justo. 1954. "Lo viejo y lo nuevo sobre el origen del Reino de Pamplona". Al-Andalus, 19:1–42, especially 20–6.