 According to legend, owing primarily to the "Liber peregrinationis" of Aymeric Picaud, the cross was planted by Charlemagne when he first crossed the Pyrenees on his way to Zaragoza in 778.He reportedly said a prayer to Saint James at the site, thus inaugurating the cult of James in Spain some thirty six years before his relics were rediscovered.The first reference to a cross named after Charles is in an episcopal charter of Bayonne, dated 980.