Bernardo del Carpio In medieval Spanish legend, hero who fought against Charlemagne, appearing in many Spanish ballads.
Bernardo del Carpio was the illegitimate son of Doña Ximena, sister of King Alfonso II, who came to the Visigoth throne about 795. The king, known as the Chaste because he did not have intercourse with his wife, had Ximena locked up in a convent for giving birth illegitimately, and the father of her son, Sancho Diaz, count of Saldana, was imprisoned and blinded. (Some Spanish chroniclers gloss over the cruel incident, alleging that a private marriage took place between the lovers.)
When Bernardo was grown, Alfonso, according to the Spanish chronicles, invited the emperor Charlemagne into Spain to eventually become king of Spain, Alfonso being childless. The Spanish nobility, headed by Bernardo, opposed the alliance, and the king finally gave in to their wishes. Charlemagne, however, came to Spain to expel the Moors and found that Alfonso had united with the Moors against him. A battle took place at Roncesvalles in which the French were defeated and the hero Roland was slain. The victory, which in the Chanson de Roland is credited to the Moors, was chiefly due to Bernardo del Carpio.
A Spanish ballad, The March of Bernardo del Carpio, describes the enthusiasm among his men when Bernardo first raised the standard to oppose Charlemagne’s army.
“Free were we born,—” ’tis thus they cry—“though to our King we own
The homage and the fealty behind his crest to go;
By God’s behest our aid he shares, but God did ne’er command
That we should leave our children heirs of an enslaved land” (John Gibson Lockhart translation).
Another Spanish ballad, The Complaint of the Count of Saldana, narrates the imprisonment of Don Sancho, Bernardo’s father; another, The Funeral of the Count of Saldana, narrates the gruesome death of Don Sancho, who was mounted on his horse after his death and sent to his son, who did not know his father had been killed at the orders of King Alfonso. When Bernardo saw his father he cried out:
“Go up, go up, thou blessed ghost, into the hands of God;
Go, fear not lest revenge be lost, when Carpio’s blood hath flowed;
The steel that drank the blood of France, the arm thy foe that shielded,
Still, father, thirsts that burning lance, and still thy son can wield it” (John Gibson Lockhart translation).
A ballad titled Bernardo and Alfonso recounts events taking place after the funeral of Bernardo’s father. Bernardo argues with King Alfonso and leaves the court, going over to the Moors. The actual end of Bernardo del Carpio, however, is not known. Bernardo de Balbuena wrote an epic poem, El Bernardo, la Victoria de Roncesvalles, in which Bernardo is the main hero. The poem is an imitation of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. Balbuena was born in Spain but went to Mexico as a child. He was made bishop of Puerto Rico in 1620.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante