The Lay of the Cid | Page 2

in itself but the means of vindication and, be it said,
of support. When he is restored to favor, the marriage of his daughters
to the Heirs of Carrión under 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 doña
Elvira and doña 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 coöperation 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 doña Urraca the city
and lands of Zamora, and to doña 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 Ordoñez 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