Roland's death
Landscape - Death of Roland in 778 © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Gérard Blot Date of publication: December 2019 Historical background The myth of Roncesvalles The only famous episode in the reign of Charlemagne which does not directly implicate the future emperor of the West, death Tragique de Roland au Col de Roncesvalles is a prolific literary and then pictorial subject, but a historically very uncertain event: its exact location, even its existence, is still debated.