El Cid is one of the most well-known figures of the Reconquista, and he’s regarded nowadays
as a Spanish national hero and champion of Christianity.
But during his life, he was more than just that: he was a knight, a mercenary, an outlaw,
and a warlord; he fought for both sides of the Reconquista, attacking the Moors when
they were weak, and helping them defend themselves when his relationship with the Christian kings
was sour.
At the end of his life, he had proven his military prowess and had become a legend,
inspiring with his tale one of the oldest Castilian epic poems of history.
Welcome to our video on the legend of two worlds - Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar.
When Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar was born in 1043, the Iberian Peninsula was in a period of great
change: the Caliphate of Cordoba was collapsing; dozens of little Muslim states, known as taifas,
were becoming independent; the Christian kingdoms were rapidly expanding and turning against
each other; and in the Castilian lands, a new state was rising.
Here’s where Rodrigo was born, in the burgeoning city of Burgos, amidst an illustrious family.
His father, Diego Lainez, was a Castilian knight of impressive bravery, fighting for
King Fernando the Great in the frontiers with the Kingdom of Navarre.
Through his campaigning, Diego conquered several settlements in Castille, including the towns
of Vivar and Uvierna, which he came to own and then left as inheritance for his son.
Upon his father’s death, Rodrigo was left a young and rich landlord that wanted to follow
in his footsteps, and to become a renowned knight just like him.
Prince Sancho the Strong, one of Fernando’s sons that governed the province of Castille,
saw the potential in Rodrigo and took him into his entourage to complete his military
education.
With Sancho, Rodrigo experienced his first military campaigns against the taifa of Zaragoza,
concluding with Emir Al-Muqtadir surrendering unconditionally and becoming a vassal of the
Castilian prince.
As his new vassal was also threatened by the Kingdom of Aragon, Sancho then took Rodrigo
to the city of Graus where the two Christian armies battled for the dominance of Zaragoza.
This was Rodrigo’s first battle, and the young knight fought with such braveness and
ferocity that Sancho honored him with a distinguished title for his service.
In 1065, King Fernando would die, dividing his realm amongst his sons and daughters,
and Sancho would become the first King of Castille as a result.
By this time, Rodrigo was already one of the most renowned warriors in the Iberian Peninsula,
and he was also a good friend to King Sancho, acting as his preferred knight and having
the honor of carrying the royal banner.
Because he thought himself the legitimate heir to King Fernando, Sancho attempted throughout
his reign to reunite the Spanish kingdoms under his name.
Consequently, he warred against his brothers, in particular against King Alfonso of Leon.
In these years, Rodrigo met Alfonso’s forces in several pitched battles, demonstrating
great courage and thus increasing his personal prestige.
The wars between the brothers culminated at the famous Battle of Golpejera, where the
forces of Castille and Leon clashed in a chaotic struggle for the dominance of both kingdoms.
Initially, the Leonese were expelled and had to retreat, but then King Alfonso reinforced
his army and led it back to meet the Castilians.
After a fierce fight, the Castilians were pushed back, and King Sancho barely managed
to escape alive.
But while they were retreating, Rodrigo stepped in and advised his king to turn back and counterattack
the Leonese army, thinking that Alfonso’s forces would still be celebrating their victory
with their guard down.
Led by Rodrigo, the Castilians attacked with such ferocity that the Leonese never knew
what hit them.
Alfonso was captured and exiled, and Sancho became King of Leon.
Rodrigo, meanwhile, became famous for his great victory and received the nickname “Campeador”,
which means “champion” or “master of the battlefield”.
With Leon and Galicia secured, the only realm left for Sancho to reunite was the lordship
of Zamora, under the hands of his sister Urraca.
During the Siege of Zamora, Rodrigo’s life would change forever as his friend and liege,
Sancho, would be severely injured by an astute soldier, ending the siege and the monarch’s
life.
For Nine months Alfonso had been living in exile at the taifa of Toledo when the news
of his brother’s death reached him; nine months after his greatest defeat at the hands
of Rodrigo; and now, the exiled King returned to Leon to inherit all the lands that Sancho
had strived in his lifetime to reunite.
Yet despite his resentment against Rodrigo, Alfonso was a wise king, and he knew that
it was better to maintain Rodrigo’s military expertise alongside him.
To keep Rodrigo in his service, Alfonso decided to marry him with Jimena Díaz, one of his
cousins.
Rodrigo’s relationship with Alfonso thus improved, and his marriage to Jimena was very
beneficial as well, bringing him very close to high nobility and having three children
with her.
Although Rodrigo and Alfonso were in better terms now, Rodrigo wouldn’t recover the
high position he enjoyed with Sancho; instead, King Alfonso’s preferred knight would be
García Ordoñez, count of Najera, which would develop a fierce rivalry with Rodrigo.
In 1079, Alfonso assembled his most trustworthy knights to collect tribute from his Moorish
vassals, as they had a vassalage contract of protection with the Leonese King in exchange
for annual tribute.
Rodrigo was among these knights, and he was sent to the taifa of Seville under the Emir
Al-Mu’tamid.
When Rodrigo arrived at Seville, Al-Mu’tamid was amidst an ongoing war with the taifa of
Granada, and so the Emir called Rodrigo to honor their contract and come in his defense.
Concurrently, the count of Najera had been sent to Granada with the same objective, and
he had been asked the same for the Emir of Granada, to which he gladly agreed.
Rodrigo tried, to no avail, to peacefully resolve the conflict between the two taifas,
but when the count of Najera invaded with a huge Moorish army, Rodrigo had no other
choice but to interfere.
At the castle of Cabra, he led the Sevillian army against that of Granada, and he won a
great victory, capturing his rival in battle and further increasing his prestige.
When he returned to Seville, Al-Mu’tamid happily paid his tribute and also offered
many gifts to Rodrigo for his bravery.
As he got back to Leon, even Alfonso praised his ferocity in battle, although the count
of Najera, now released from Rodrigo’s imprisonment, falsely accused him of stealing part of the
tribute for himself, which fell on the King’s deaf ears.
A year later however, the Emir of Toledo attacked the castle of Gormaz and was defeated by Rodrigo.
The Castilian knight decided to pursue his foe without the agreement of King Alfonso,
ransacking the countryside of Toledo as a result, which earned the ire of Alfonso, who
was convinced by envious count of Najera, and other enemies of Rodrigo, to exile him.
Saddened by the news, Rodrigo took his wife and children and left to seek employment elsewhere,
essentially working as a soldier of fortune.
In Zaragoza, the Emir Al-Muqtadir, old vassal of King Sancho, and an old acquaintance of
the Castilian knight, received him with open arms and trusted him with the defense of his
state.
But the Moor was very old and sick, and he would perish a few months later, dividing
his realm between his two sons, with Al-Mutaman receiving the taifa of Zaragoza and Al-Mundhir
receiving the taifa of Lerida.
Rodrigo would remain in the service of Al-Mutaman for four years, earning his trust and friendship,
and occupying a high position in the court of Zaragoza.
With his new patron, Rodrigo defended the Moorish realm from the armies of King Sancho
of Aragon, Count Berenguer of Barcelona, and even from Al-Mutaman’s brother, the Emir
of Lerida.
At the Battle of Almenar for instance, the combined forces of Lerida and Barcelona were
besieging the castle of Almenar with a huge army.
First, Rodrigo attempted to pay them off, but Count Berenguer noticed that his army
was bigger than that of Zaragoza, and so decided to refuse Al-Mutaman’s payment, mocking
him about Rodrigo’s chances and continuing the siege instead.
Irritated by his refusal, the knight ordered his men to arm themselves and started marching
into battle.
Thus, Berenguer’s forces were taken by surprise by the ferocious drive of Rodrigo’s army,
suffering huge casualties and the imprisonment of Count Berenguer himself.
Another important battle came in 1084, as Al-Mutaman sent Rodrigo to ransack Lerida’s
lands and to attempt to conquer a route into the sea.
This time, the Emir of Lerida managed to get an alliance with the King of Aragon, marching
together to Morella with the objective of repelling the Castilian outcast.
Rodrigo faced them with his smaller army, and after a grueling struggle, the Aragonese
forces retreated, with Rodrigo in pursuit.
The knight essentially destroyed his foe and captured more than 2000 men.
It’s probably in this great victory that Rodrigo was first called sīdi by his Moorish
soldiers, translated in Spanish into Cid, although there is no evidence of contemporary
use of this name.
That same year, Al-Mutaman would die of old age and would be succeeded by his son, Al-Musta'in,
whom El Cid continued to serve for some time.
But when the Almoravids entered into the Iberian Peninsula and defeated King Alfonso at the
Battle of Sagrajas, Rodrigo was recalled back into Leon and was pardoned by Alfonso, who
needed strong military men to face the Almoravid threat.
Now reconciled with his liege, El Cid departed Castille at the head of a small army to vassalize
the taifa of Valencia.
There, he managed to scare off the forces of the Count of Barcelona and those of Emir
Al-Qadir of Valencia, who then became a vassal to King Alfonso.
In 1088, the Almoravids returned to the Iberian Peninsula to wage war upon the Christian kingdoms.
Joined by the southern taifas, they laid siege to the castle of Aledo, to which Alfonso marched
to defend.
Naturally, Alfonso asked his best knights, including Rodrigo, to join him in this struggle,
but El Cid had a logistics problem, and he ended up waiting for his liege on a different
route to that which Alfonso had taken.
In the end, the Christians managed to win the day, although El Cid failed to join them
in battle.
For this, King Alfonso was very furious and, fueled by the count of Najera’s suspicions
that Rodrigo was a traitor, he ended up exiling him for a second time.
This time however, all of Rodrigo’s goods were taken, and his wife and children were
imprisoned.
Incensed by the actions of King Alfonso, El Cid marched to the Levante and established
himself as an independent warlord, sacking the taifa of Lerida and vassalizing the taifa
of Valencia.
For the second time, the Emir of Lerida and the Count of Barcelona felt threatened by
Rodrigo’s might, and so decided to join forces to oust him.
Being a good friend to El Cid, the Emir Al-Musta'in of Zaragoza pledged his support for Rodrigo
and alerted him of the impending attack.
El Cid then placed his forces atop mount Tevar, and sent mocking letters to Count Berenguer
with the objective of encouraging him to attack.
This was very effective, so the Count launched a surprise night assault, which managed to
encircle the army of Zaragoza.
Surrounded, El Cid used his wit to set up a ruse to divide Berenguer’s forces: he
sent several Moorish soldiers to act as deserters and inform the Count that Rodrigo was going
to escape throughout the mountains.
Berenguer believed this, and so he divided his forces to cover the escape routes.
There, the soldiers of Barcelona were ambushed and routed by Rodrigo’s men.
El Cid then reunited his forces and charged against the remaining soldiers of Berenguer.
After a fierce struggle, Rodrigo came out on top again, resulting in the Count being
imprisoned along with 50 of his finest knights.
Once the battle had concluded, the Castilian warlord treated them with great mercy and
agreed to set them free in exchange for a huge tribute.
The Count and El Cid would remain friends and would not fight each other ever again,
with Rodrigo becoming the most powerful man in the Levante and establishing a protectorate
over the taifas of Lerida, Albarracín, Alpuente and Valencia.
Using his newfound influence, El Cid brokered a peace between his friend Al-Musta'in and
the King of Aragon, he negotiated with King Alfonso for the release of his family, and
he even went so far as to raid the lands of the count of Najera, his long-time rival.
But in 1092, his dominance of the Levante was finally contested by the Almoravids, who
managed to depose and execute the Emir Al-Qadir of Valencia, taking control of the city and
the surrounding lands.
In response, El Cid gathered thousands of men and moved to the village of Cebolla to
prepare for the conquest of Valencia.
The siege of Valencia lasted almost nine months, and in the meantime, Rodrigo battled against
some of his rebellious Moorish vassals, such as the Emir of Albarracín.
In the end, the city had become depleted and had to concede defeat, opening the gates to
El Cid’s army.
Victorious, Rodrigo established a lordship over the city, self-styling himself as Prince
of Valencia.
Angered by this turn of events, the Almoravids sent a huge army to reconquer the city, making
camp at Cuarte to prepare for the siege.
For several days the Saracens laid siege to Rodrigo’s capital, howling and shooting
arrows against the walls of the city.
But on the tenth day, El Cid gathered the defenders and launched a surprise assault
against the Almoravid army.
During the night, Rodrigo secretly left the city with most of his men to place themselves
at the rear of the Almoravid camp at Cuarte; meanwhile, at dawn, a small Christian force
would exit the city through the western gate to draw the besieging army away from camp.
Once the Muslim vanguard was far away, El Cid charged against the Almoravid camp with
such strength and bravery that the Saracens were completely routed and quickly disbanded.
At the same time, the vanguard of the Almoravids saw their rearguard collapse and thought that
King Alfonso had come with reinforcements to lift the siege, so they also disbanded
and started to retreat.
Thus, El Cid won with his astute plan an amazing victory, securing his control over Valencia
and further solidifying his new state.
Around the same time, King Sancho of Aragon died and his son Pedro succeeded him.
As the young King feared an incoming attack by the Almoravids, he rapidly reached out
to El Cid with a proposition of friendship, to which Rodrigo agreed.
And so, in result, the Kingdom of Aragon and the Principality of Valencia formally entered
into an alliance.
The next year, Rodrigo campaigned around his state to conquer the castles of Olocau and
Serra, two Muslim strongholds, with the intention of safeguarding the surroundings of Valencia.
Yet in 1097, the Almoravids gathered a formidable army to reconquer Valencia and avenge their
previous defeat.
The alliance with Aragon came in handy, as King Pedro marched with his army and joined
El Cid at Valencia.
Together, the two combined armies would repel the attack of the Almoravids, who wouldn’t
dare to attack El Cid ever again.
Rodrigo would then conquer the Muslim strongholds of Almenara and Sagunto, finally consolidating
his dominion over the entire taifa of Valencia.
This success would be celebrated with the consecration of the old mosque of Valencia,
which was transformed into the Cathedral of Santa María.
Yet the joy wouldn’t last very long, as his son Diego would perish at the Battle of
Consuegra while in the service of King Alfonso.
The grief caused by the passing of his son, along with his old age, would take a heavy
toll on El Cid’s health.
In 1099, one of his last actions would be to marry his daughters with Count Ramón Berenguer
of Barcelona and with Lord Ramiro Sánchez of Pamplona, forging alliances with both of
them.
Consequently, El Cid would become an ancestor to many kings of Spain, and would leave his
state with powerful alliances capable of defending it after he was gone.
That same year, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known as El Cid Campeador, would die of old age
and would be buried at the Cathedral that he founded.
The state that he created was inherited by his wife, Jimena Díaz, who managed to maintain
its independence for three more years.
But in 1102, the Almoravids attacked with a huge army, and the city had to be abandoned.
Jimena then traveled back to Castille with the remains of her husband, and El Cid would
be finally buried at the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña.
Thus ended the life of one of the most fascinating heroes of the Middle Ages, who remained undefeated
throughout his life, who managed to create his own state and become an independent warlord,
and who fought for both Christians and Muslims alike as a true knight of two worlds.
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