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Galería Hispánica: Tales and
Images from the Spanish-Speaking
World
Volume 6: El Cid and The
Reconquest of Spain
Modern Spain is composed of 13
historic geographic regions, the
most renown of which is
Castilla. There have been two
different Castillas in Spain
throughout history: Castilla La
Vieja (Old Castile) and Castilla
La Nueva (New Castile). These
days, they are more properly
known as Castilla-León and
Castilla-La Mancha, respectively.
These are the two largest
regions in Spain and they
comprise most of the middle
section of Spain. The term
“Castilla” pretty much says it
all: the land of the castles.
One doesn’t have to travel far
within Spain to find a perfectly
preserved medieval castle,
around which one also finds a
perfectly preserved medieval
town. I’ve presented a couple
of them in this series already:
El Alcázar de Toledo and El
Alcázar de Segovia. There are
MANY others to be found, not
only within Castilla, but all
over the Spanish landscape.
This is the gothic-style castle
at Manzanares El Real near
Madrid and it dates from the 10th
century. Castles like these
were built and rebuilt, refined
and adorned by the monarchs and
knights that took them over
during the reconquest of Spain
from the Moors.
During the middle ages, the
Moorish stronghold was in the
south of Spain, especially in
Andalucía, while the fleeing
Christians grew stronger and
stronger in the North. The
Muslim cities of the south with
their vibrant economies, common
culture, and superior armed
forces were able to hold onto
the Iberian Peninsula for seven
centuries due to the inability
of the Christian kingdoms of the
north to pull together as a
single entity and fight a common
enemy. The story of El Cid
epitomizes the Christian
struggle against two enemies:
the Moors, and the Christians
themselves.
This is an image of El Cid,
Rodrigo Díaz de Vívar, Campeador
de Castilla. Rodrigo Díaz was
born in 1043 in a small village
north of Burgos, the ancient
capital of Castilla-León. The
ruins of the home of El Cid at
Vívar are still there.
In 1065, the king of Castilla,
Fernando I, died. He left behind
5 heirs to his holdings; 3 sons
and 2 daughters. El Cid
(an Arabic title of respect
meaning “lord”, given to Rodrigo
by his Moorish enemies) would
forever be immortalized as the
Campeador,
champion knight of Castilla,
whereas the children of Fernando
were to be epitomized as the
original dysfunctional Spanish
family. Sancho, the eldest of
Fernando’s sons, would be the
heir to the throne of Castilla
and the other two boys would
each have their own kingdoms of
León and Galicia. The two
sisters, Elvira and Urraca, were
each given a city-state to
govern. Sancho, now Sancho I of
Castilla, believed that he was
the rightful heir to ALL of his
father’s possessions and
therefore he wasted little time
in turning his armies loose on
his siblings.
The father of El Cid, Diego
Laínez, served in the court of
Fernando I, and also fought in
several battles in the service
of Fernando. After the death of
Diego, Fernando I kept Diego’s
son, Rodrigo, at court where he
raised him and educated him.
King Fernando was the monarch
who ministered knighthood onto
Rodrigo Díaz. Rodrigo even
served the heir apparent Sancho
before and after he became
king. Don Diego was a respected
courtier and out of that respect
Rodrigo Díaz gained favor at
court. Eventually, Rodrigo
would be named Campeador de
Castilla, champion knight of
Castile, the Spanish term for
the arabic term alferez,
or commander. Rodrigo Díaz de
Vívar, Campeador de Castilla,
would then be in a position to
lead Sancho’s army to plunder
and take the kingdoms and lands
of his brothers and sisters.
Sancho was more ruthless,
conniving, and ambitious than
his two brothers; therefore he
assumed that it wouldn’t take
much effort to seize their
kingdoms for his own. He was
partly correct in his assumption.
His expeditionary forces met
resistance when attacking León
and Galicia, so much so that he
had to summon the main forces
under Rodrigo Díaz to finish the
job, first in León and second in
Galicia. Next, Sancho went
after the city-states of Toro
and Zamora that belonged to his
sisters Elvira and Urraca. The
city of Toro was taken first and
without much difficulty, however
at Zamora, Sancho would meet his
match in his sister Urraca.
Sancho, having taken León by
force, made enemies out of a
sufficient number of Leonese
noblemen who by that time had
allied themselves with Urraca at
Zamora. The year was 1072. One
of these disenfranchized
noblemen, Vellido Dolfos,
pretended to be a traitor and
desserter to Urraca, and tricked
Sancho into a secret night
meeting at the gates of Zamora,
then under seige by Sancho. The
plan of Vellido Dolfos was to
pretend to point out to Sancho
the weaknesses in the defenses
of Zamora. That night, Vellido
succeeded in separating Sancho
from his main guard and killed
him with a spear. Castilla was
without a monarch.
The door of Castilla was then
reopened for the dethroned
brothers of Sancho, Alfonso of
León, and García of Galicia, to
seize for themselves. Alfonso
had lived his exile in the
Moorish stronghold of Toledo,
while Garcia had retired to the
Moorish city of Sevilla,
purchasing his freedom from his
brother, Sancho, after the
battle at Santarem. Alfonso and
his sister, Urraca, were always
very close, some would say
unnaturally close. As a result,
Alfonso would always be
suspected of having a hand in
the death of Sancho. Alfonso
took quick advantage of the void
left by the death of Sancho,
departed exile and claimed for
himself Galicia, his former
kingdom of León, and Castilla.
The problems began because the
gallegos and the
castellanos did not want a
Leonese king, especially the
castellanos because of the
suspicion they had of Alfonso in
the death of Sancho. In order
to pull off this coup, Alfonso
would have to abide by the codes
of chivalry and swear an oath of
his innocence in the murder of
Sancho. This was to be the
exact request put to Alfonso by
the nobility in the court of
Castilla. That was the type of
request that was usually asked
by a monarch of his subjects,
and not vice versa. That oath
would be a bitter pill to
swallow for Alfonso, but he was
backed into a corner. None of
the nobility, however, wanted to
be the one that administered the
oath. The nobility would act as
a group in requesting the oath,
but no individual would step
forward to actually perform it.
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, Campeador
de Castilla to Kings Fernando
and Sancho, would step forward
and be the one to execute the
oath.
This is the statue of El Cid at
the entrance to the ancient
capital of Castilla at Burgos.
Alfonso presented himself, along
with 12 of his most important
knights, at the St. Gadea church
in Burgos, capital of Castilla.
In front of the assembled
nobility and knights, Alfonso
was confronted by El Cid and
asked to swear this oath:
“Don Alfonso, I call upon thee
to swear and also the 12 knights
with thee, before these people,
that thou hast not had any
concern in the death of thy
brother Don Sancho, that thou
has not killed him with thine
own hand, nor yet caused him to
be killed.” * At that
moment, Alfonso and his knights
swore that they had not had a
concern in the death of Sancho.
El Cid continued: “Thou has
sworn an oath, Don Alfonso. If
thy word prove to be a false one,
and the blood of Don Sancho be
upon thy soul, then I will call
this curse upon thee, that thy
death also come to thee by a
traitor’s hand.”* Alfonso
turned red with anger and pride
and did not respond to the words
of El Cid, therefore the Cid
spoke the words two more times
until Alfonso affirmed that his
oath was true. The Cid then
fell to one knee and swore
allegiance to his new king. As
a result, Alfonso was pronounced
king of Castilla, Galicia and
of León. By this act and on
that day the legend of El Cid,
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, grew even
larger. He was becoming larger
than life itself. He was brave
in battle, wise in consultation,
loyal to his king, and he drove
fear into his enemies. One enemy
was then certain to cause the
Cid grief many times over:
Alfonso.
For centuries, the Christian
kingdoms seemed to be fighting
themselves in civil wars from
within, or at war with each
other externally. Consolidation
was not gained for the purpose
of fighting a common enemy, the
Moors, rather to selfishly
acquire the kingdoms of siblings
or of other non-Arabs. Not until
the 15th century
would Christian unity
materialize enough to put the
finishing touches on the
reconquest of Spain.
*See EL CANTAR DE MIO CID, the
epic poem of the life of El Cid.
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