(“If maimed you give them to me, maimed I want them not”). In the year 939 the Battle of Simancas was fought before the walls of the city between the Christian troops of Ramiro II and the Muslim caliph Abd al-Rahman III. Around the middle of the 18th century the place was described as follows: In 1812 there was a new Battle of Simancas between the Coalition troops (Spanish, English and Portuguese) commanded by the Duke of Wellington, against the army of Napoleon, which had retreated after the Battle of Salamanca. Culture Folklore History of the “Tribute of the Seven Maidens” In the year 783, Mauregatus (the bastard son of Alfonso I of Asturias) took the Asturian throne with the help of Abd al-Rahman I, to whom he pledged the tribute payment of one hundred maidens for his assistance. In the year 788, the counts Don Arias and Don Oveco rebelled against Mauregatus and slew him as vengeance for enacting this tribute to the Moors. King Bermudo I, his successor, wished to cease the tribute, substituting for it a monetary payment. Bermudo was succeeded by Alfonso II the Chaste who, rejecting the tribute in gold as well, fought the Moors victoriously in the Battle of Lutos, killing the Moorish captain and ceasing the practice. Later Abd al-Rahman II, during the reign of King Ramiro I, attempted to restart the tradition of the hundred maidens. Ramiro found himself in a weak position and agreed to pay the tribute once more. With the tribute in force again, there arose the legend that the people of Simancas sent in their required seven maidens; however, their hands had been cut off. It is said that the young women, in an act of great courage, decided to cut off one hand each to avoid their fate, and according to legend proceeded to do so. As a consequence the Christians then went to battle the Moors, which resulted in the Battle of Clavijo. The Moors were then defeated and the tribute of the hundred maidens ended, and the Christians established the Voto of Santiago in gratitude. The patron festival of the Savior is celebrated on the 6th of August, which commemorates the history of the maidens of Simancas. Each year in the middle of July, since the establishment of the tradition in 1994, forty-one people have reenacted the Oath of King Ramiro II de León. It