Cid, El

Cid, El (lord, master) In medieval Spanish legend, a hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Bivar (1040– 1099), whose victories over the Moors inspired ballads, chronicles, and the national epic poem, Poema del Cid (Cantar de mio Cid). There are some 200 Spanish ballads that treat El Cid’s legend, forming, as it were, an introduction to the epic.

Rodrigo, also called El Campeador (the champion), was a young man when he avenged an insult to his father, Don Diego Laynez, by Don Gómez. The young hero challenged Don Gómez and killed him, cutting off his head and presenting it to his father as proof that the wrong had been avenged. Don Diego then took his son to court, but the young man did not please King Ferdinand, who banished him from his presence. Rodrigo then left with 300 knights, encountered the Moors, who were invading Castile, and defeated them, taking five of their kings prisoner. He released them only after they promised to pay him tribute and refrain from further warfare. They were so grateful for their liberty that they pledged themselves to his will, calling him El Cid. After Rodrigo had delivered the land from the Moors, King Ferdinand restored him to favour at the court.

Shortly after this, Doña Ximena, daughter of Don Gómez, the man El Cid had killed, demanded vengeance for the murder of her father. When her pleas to the king came to no avail, she asked that the king order El Cid to marry her instead. To win Doña Ximena’s love El Cid said he would not rest until he had won five battles for her. Before he left he went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the shrine of St. James the Greater, where he had a vision of Lazarus, the leper beggar (Luke 16:19–31) and as a result established a leper house in St. Lazarus’s honor.

When King Ferdinand died, his relatives fought over the succession. Finally Don Alfonso came to the throne, but the king hated El Cid. The Poema del Cid opens with King Alfonso’s banishment of El Cid from court. El Cid was given nine days to leave Castile. He and his men left and were supported by admirers to whom El Cid was a hero. Once again El Cid went into battle against the Moors and again defeated them. The king restored El Cid to favour, but the reconciliation was not to last. There was a misunderstanding between El Cid and the king. El Cid left the court again, and during his absence the Moors took Valencia. Hearing of this, El Cid promptly returned, captured the city, and established his headquarters there. He asked King Alfonso to send his wife and daughters. As master of Valencia, El Cid was enormously rich, and therefore his daughters Doña Elvira and Doña Sol were much sought after as brides. Among the suitors were the counts of Carrion, whose proposals were warmly encouraged by King Alfonso. El Cid, in obedience to the king, had his daughters married to the counts, but the results were not happy.

Once a lion broke loose from El Cid’s private menagerie. It entered the hall where he was sleeping while his guests were playing chess. His sons-in-law fled, one falling into an empty vat, the other hiding behind El Cid’s couch. Awakened by the noise, El Cid seized his sword, twisted his cloak around his arm, and, grasping the lion by its mane, thrust it back into its cage. He then calmly returned to his palace. The two men, however, were angered by the humiliation of their cowardly behavior and asked to leave with their wives. After traveling some time with their brides and an escort named Felez Muñoz, the counts of Carrion camped near Douro. Early the next day they sent all of their suites ahead, and being left alone with their wives, stripped them of their garments, lashed them with thorns, kicked them with spurs, and finally left them for dead on the bloodstained ground. They then rode on. The brides were rescued by Felez Muñoz and taken home. El Cid demanded vengeance, and the king summoned the counts. A battle was arranged, and the counts of Carrion were defeated and banished. The daughters were then married to counts from Navarre.

The Poema del Cid ends here with a statement of El Cid’s death. Ballads continue the tale. In one the Moors, under the leadership of Cucar, king of Morocco, returned to besiege Valencia. El Cid was preparing to do battle when he had a vision of St. Peter. The saint predicted his death within 30 days but assured him that, even though he would be dead, he would still triumph over the enemy.

El Cid then prepared to die. He appointed a successor, gave instructions, and directed that his body be embalmed, set on his horse, Babieca, with the sword Tizona in his hand, and sent into battle. When these instructions had all been given, he died at the appointed time. The successor and El Cid’s wife, Ximena, carried out his wishes. A sortie was planned against the Moors, and El Cid, fastened onto his warhorse, rode in the van. Such terror was created by his presence that the Moors fled.

King Alfonso ordered El Cid’s body placed in the church of San Pedro de Cardena, where it remained for 10 years seated in a chair of state in plain view of all. Such respect was paid the body that no one dared touch it, except one person who, remembering El Cid’s proud boast that no man had ever dared lay a hand on his beard, attempted to do so. Before he could touch the beard, however, El Cid’s lifeless hand clasped the hilt of Tizona, his sword, and drew it a few inches out of its scabbard. The man fled.

The legend of El Cid inspired the two-part play by Guillén de Castro, Las Mocedades del Cid (the youth of the Cid), which in the first part centers around his wedding. The French playwright Corneille used part 1 of the Spanish drama for his play Le Cid, which in turn was made into an opera by Jules Massenet. The English poet Leigh Hunt wrote a verse play, A Father Avenged, based on El Cid and his father. A movie starring Charlton Heston as El Cid and Sophia Loren as his wife, Doña Ximena, was also based on the legends.

SOURCE:

HOME

LIBRARY

Courses

Forums

MEMBERS AREA

CONTACT

About Us