Editing Simancas (section)

==History==
[[File:Fundación Joaquín Díaz - Castillo. Archivo Histórico General - Simancas (Valladolid) (3).jpg|thumb|left|The [[Castle of Simancas]] at the beginning of the 20th century.]]

On the outskirts of Simancas lies the [[megalithic]] tomb of Los Zumacales, a [[cromlech]]-type funerary monument of the [[Neolithic period]]. In the Roman era the city was known as Septimanca in the territory of the Vaccaei.

A medieval bridge sits over the [[Pisuerga]] river, constructed after the previous Roman one. Until the 12th century Simancas was, together with Cabezón, the most important town of Valladolid province. It was occupied by the army of Alfonso I in 753 and definitively conquered by Alfonso III in 883. 

The legend of the Tribute of the Seven Maidens holds that in the time of [[Abd al-Rahman II]] there existed a tribute named for the seven Simancan maidens who were handed over each year to Arab chieftains. However, on one occasion when the women were to be turned in, each one cut off one hand in an act of rebellion. The king Ramiro then uttered the phrase that would later give its name to the town: “Si mancas me las dais, mancas no las quiero” (“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 of León| Ramiro II]] and the Muslim caliph [[Abd al-Rahman III]].

Around the middle of the 18th century the place was described as follows:

{{quote|The town has three principal buildings, the first the fortress or [[General Archive of Simancas|Royal Archive]], carved in ashlar masonry, where the Kings of Spain have their archive of all papers which belong to the Crown, and to all the kingdom; just as they do of the royal patronage, like those of the knights of Spain, Naples, Sicily. Across the river there is another grand palace with an excellent view, and in it was born the emperor Ferdinand, brother of Charles V; here he was then when his grandfather the Catholic King passed; and to this place came the embassy of Burgos to surrender itself to him as the history of Charles V attests, written by Prudencio de Sandoval his chronicler. And in the middle of the village is the Church of the Savior, with beautiful and magnificent marble architecture and a vault of stone as evidenced by the same factory.|Taken from the manuscript of Manuel Bachiller (1755)
}}

In 1812 there was a new Battle of Simancas between the [[Peninsular War|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]].