Editing Simancas (section)

====History of the “Tribute of the Seven Maidens”====
[[File:Doncellasypaloteo.jpg|thumb|right|''Doncellas y paloteo'', a historical festival of Simancas.]]

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 of Asturias|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 6 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 commemorates the historical Battle of Simancas where the Christian troops destroyed the army of [[Abd al-Rahman III]], and the subsequent pledge of the king to never again use the young women of Simancas as currency in the face of Moorish demands.

The Oath is the end of the legendary cycle for these brave maidens, seven young women who in the ceremony abandon the role they assumed a year before to make way, on August 6, for the women after them. Seven new girls will wear rainbow-colored medieval dresses for the ''Requerimiento'' (“Summoning”)-- the town mayor summons each girl at her home, in an act of tradition that brings the people out into the streets, thus enabling the cycle to begin anew. In this way Simancas revitalizes itself, year after year, in “a beautiful tradition whose base is in Astur-leonese legend, with a historical background, but which the town enriches in its own way,” said Teresa Salvador, the director of the Asociación El Zancón and organizer of the festival. 

While the “Summoning” of the seven young women has been celebrated since 1988, according to a project presented to the local government by Salvador, the Oath which marks the end of the story is only twelve years old.