The legend of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar lived 1043 to 1099,
also known as the "The Cid",
is a challenging one because he was many persons,
The Champion of Castilian King Sancho III,
a vassal of Islamic leaders,
and a king in his own right, over Valencia.
Professor Stanley Payne describes him and his role in history in this manner,
"As Islamic Almoravid power grew,
it veered away from the strongly held Castilian center of the peninsula
toward the prosperous urban centers and irrigated fields of the East Coast.
There at Valencia, the greatest military figure of the new Hispania,
the legendary national hero,
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar,
known from the terminology of his Muslim subjects as the Cid,
had carved out an independent protectorate."
As far as known,
The Cid was a renowned Castilian knight.
That's why Alfonso VI banished from his native kingdom because of a misunderstanding.
He entered the military service at
the Emir of Zaragoza and gave more laurels in the eastern part of the peninsula.
As Almoravid danger grew,
he was accepted again into the service of the Leonese crown,
though Alfonso VI remained jealous and suspicious.
He was granted hereditary autonomous dominion under the crown of
Leon of all Muslim land he could conquer in the peninsula's east.
Between 1088 and 1092, The Cid carved out
a domaine reaching for the region of Lerida and Tortosa,
down to Valencia and proved a shrewd ruler as well as a clever and ruthless warrior.
Large tribute payments were exacted from
the Muslims in keeping with the Spano-Christian practice.
In 1092, the pro-Almoravid partying wealthy prompt Valencia rebelled against their Emir,
who is a vassal of the King of Leon.
Mobilizing his maximum force,
The Cid took advantage of civil strife in Valencia to add that city to his domain,
after a long siege that decimated the Muslim population.
Major Almoravid counter offenses to regain Valencia were twice defeated and
even the Muslims admitted
the extraordinary astuteness and military prowess of the new Valencian overlord.
The Cid combined some of
the prime characteristics of the new Hispanic Society of his time.
He represented that the growing initiative of Castile,
personified the ideal of the warrior overlord and prosecuted the Reconquests,
while demonstrating an understanding of Muslim psychology and
ability to treat with and govern Islamic people.
During the last decade of his career,
he cooperated with Leonese,
Aragonese and Catalan's, and the crucial struggle against the Almoravids.
After he died in 1099 however,
eleventeen regions could not be defended.
Alfonso VI drove off a Muslim force that besieged The Cid's widow in 1102,
but lacked the strength to do other than evacuate and burn Valencia.
The surrounding district was immediately seized by the Almoravids.
Bernard F. Riley adds,
"The legend and subsequent historiography have much exaggerated the role of El Cid,
even during the reign of Sancho II."
Menendez Pidal, often the most important study of El Cid,
himself draws back from the most obvious excesses of the legend.
Not withstanding, he's accepted so much of it,
on primarily literary grounds,
that some other reevaluations must preoccupy any historian of the epic.
To begin, the date of birth of Rodrigo Díaz is obscure,
which is not remarkable for the period.
Menendez Pidal places it at about 1043 which would seem generally
reasonable if that hero participated and was armed in the Battle of Graus in 1063,
as asserted by the historian [inaudible].
The same source goes on however to assert that El Cid was
the Alférez or military leader of the armies of Sancho II.
And this assertion, although hallowed by
subsequent repetition in epic literature, must be rejected.
In marked contrast, the contemporary documents of Alfonso VI and the Charters of Sancho
give no evidence of either of Mayordomo or Alférez and there [inaudible] of the latter.
This situation is probably yet
another indication of the smaller extent and more primitive organizations like Castilia.
In any event, the evidence of the contemporary documents is to be
preferred to the poet's account at least 80 years later.
Although as been noted,
Rodrigo Díaz confirmed some 60 percent of the charters of Sancho II.
His position in the Royal Court was most certainly of the second rank at best.
For a young man, perhaps 22 in 1066,
family influence would have been
an all important consideration until sheer ability can make itself felt.
El Cid's father, Diego Laínez,
was not a court figure.
There were being not one known document in which he
is found in the company of Fernando I or in the anywhere at all.
The paternal grandfather did confirm five documents of Fernando I.
The documentary evidence produced here suggest that
the court of the King Castile was dominated by the three great families of the Álvarez,
the Nuñez and the Lara.
The Great Wall signed to El Cid by
Menendez Pidal can only be sustained by ignoring the charters
of Sancho and giving full credit to much lighter assertions of legend and story.
