Power of the Frankish army. One of the most powerful armies Europe has ever known is launched. Hispaniam quam maximum poterat belli apparatu aggreditur. (Eginhard, Vita Magni, ad ann. 778). ...Hispania which he attacks with the maximum war apparatus at his disposal. His innumerabilibus legionibus all Hispania contremuit. (Ann. Mettenses prior.). All Hispania trembled before the countless legions. ...congregans Karolus rex exercitum magnum, ingressus is in Spain. (An. Anian.). ...King Charles gathering a powerful army, penetrated into Hispania. Charlemagne had mobilized all the forces of his kingdoms, including the recently subdued Lombards, the Aquitanians, under Hunald, and the Bavarians, who were anything but reliable people. The distribution of the army into two large expeditions allowed him to reach Zaragoza from both ends of the kingdom. There has been speculation about the number of combatants in the Frankish army. The famous Pilgrims' Guide (12th century) states that forty thousand Christians and Muslims died in the Battle of Roncesvalles. The historical fraud of the Chanson de Roland, which substituted Muslims for Basques, is well known. Other authors estimate that the entire Frankish army, in campaign form, always numbered a minimum of 10,000 combatants. In this case, we are talking about two armies composed of the militias of France and those of the subjugated foreign peoples: the Bavarians, Aquitanians, Septimians, Provençals, Lombards, and others. It is therefore difficult to calculate the strength of the two armies assembled before Zaragoza and later at Roncesvalles. In any case, Charles, in the prime of his youth, 36 years old, was fully developing his Empire and commanding such a powerful army.