The memories of Roncesvalles, therefore, are in no danger of being forgotten, but it has passed from knowledge that for a period of more than three hundred years the name of Roncesvalles was more familiar to the citizens of Westminster and London than to the dwellers in Pamplona and Bayonne. How it came about that an important religious house dedicated to Our Lady of Roncesvalles should have been established at Charing will best be understood if we consider the nature of the activities of the ancient Monastery in the Pass of Roncesvalles, the numbers of those on whom it conferred benefits, and the character of its benefactors in England. THE CONVENT OF ST. MARY RONCESVALLES IN NAVARRE. 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.