The Lay of the Cid | Page 2

Alphonso's auspices is the royal acknowledgment. The treachery of the heirs is the pretext for the Parliament of Toledo where the Cid shall appear in all the glory of triumphant?vindication. The interest in the hecatombs of Moors and even in the fall of Valencia is a secondary one. What really matters is that the Cid's fair name be cleared of all stain of disloyalty and the do?a Elvira and do?a Sol wed worthy husbands.
This unity of plan is consistently preserved by a rearrangement of the true chronology of events and by the introduction of purely traditional episodes. The shifting of historical values may be due to the fact that when the poem was composed, about 1150, the power of the Moor had really been broken by the conquests of Ferdinand I, Alphonso VI, Alphonso VII and Alphonso VIII of Castile and alphonso I, the Battler, of Aragon. The menace was no longer felt with the keenness of an hundred years before. until the end of the tenth century the Moors had dominated the Peninsula. The growth of the Christian states from the heroic nucleus in northern Asturias was confined to the territory bordering the Bay of Biscay,?Asturias, Santander, part of the province of Burgos, León, and Galicia. In the East other centers of resistance had sprung up in Navarre, Aragon and the County of Barcelona. At the beginning of the eleventh century the tide turned. The progress of the?reconquest was due as much to the disruption of Moorish unity as to the greater aggressiveness and closer co?peration of the Christian kingdoms. The end of the Caliphate of Cordova was the signal for the rise of a great number of mutually independent Moorish states. Sixty years later there were no less than twentythree of them. By the middle of the following century the?enthusiasm that had followed the first successful blows struck against the Moor had waned, and with it the vividness of their historical significance and order.
Let us look at the Cid for a moment as he was seen by a Latin chronicler who confesses that the purpose of his modest narrative was merely to preserve the memory of the Cid of history.
When Ferdinand I of Castile died under the walls of Valencia in 1065 he divided his kingdom among his five children. To Sancho he left Castile, to Alphonso León, to García Galicia, to do?a Urraca the city and lands of Zamora, and to do?a Elvira Toro. Sancho, like his father, soon set about uniting the scattered inheritance. Ruy Diaz, a native of Bivar near Burgos, was his standard bearer against Alphonso at the battle of Volpéjar, aided him in the Galician campaign and was active at the siege of Zamora, where Sancho was treacherously slain. Alphonso, the despoiled lord of León, succeeded to the throne of Castile. Ruy Diaz, now called the Campeador (Champion) in honor of his victory over a knight of Navarre, was sent with a force of men to collect the annual taxes from the tributary Moorish kings of Andalusia. Mudafar of Granada, eager to throw off the yoke of Castile, marched against the Campeador and the loyal Motamid of Seville, and was routed at the battle of Cabra. García Ordo?ez who was fighting in the ranks of Mudafar was taken prisoner. It was here probably that the Cid acquired that tuft of García's beard which he later produced with such convincing effect at Toledo. The Cid returned to Castile laden with booty and honors. The jealousy aroused by this exploit and by an equally successful raid against the region about Toledo caused the banishment of the Cid. From this time until his death he was ceaselessly occupied in warfare against the Moors.
The way to Valencia was beset with more and greater difficulties than those described in the poem. The events of the first years of exile are closely associated with the moorish state of Zaragoza. At the death of its sovereign Almoktadir bitter strife arose between his two sons, Almutamin in Zaragoza and Alfagib in Denia. The Cid and his followers cast their lot with the former, while Alfagib sought in vain to maintain the balance by allying himself with Sancho of Aragon and Berenguer of Barcelona. After a decisive victory in which Berenguer was taken prisoner Almutamin returned to Zaragoza with his champion, "honoring him above his own son, his realm and all his possessions, so that he seemed almost the lord of the kingdom." There the Cid continued to increase in wealth and fame at the expense of Sancho of Aragon and Alfagib until the death of Almutamin.
For a short time the Cid was restored to the good graces of Alphonso, but a misunderstanding during some joint military expedition brought a second decree of banishment. The Cid's possessions were confiscated and his wife