Historical Figures Codexery

El Cid

Castilian knight and ruler who dominated the Levante and became Spain's national hero.

He earned the Arabic honorific as-Sayyid and the Spanish honorific El Campeador by fighting with both Christian and Muslim armies.[1] After his death, El Cid became Spain's most celebrated national hero and the protagonist of the medieval epic poem El Cantar de mio Cid.[2]

Quick Facts

Full name
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar
Coronation
1094
Predecessor
Ibn Jahaf
Successor
Jimena Díaz
Father
Diego Laínez
Issue
  • Diego Rodríguez
  • Cristina Rodríguez
  • María Rodríguez
Birth name
Rodrigo Díaz
Born
c. 1043

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

El Cid lost his ranking in the new court and was finally exiled in 1081.[3] After Sancho was killed by conspirators in 1072, his brother Alfonso, whom El Cid had previously helped to depose, inherited the throne.[3] He secured employment fighting for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, protecting them against their customary adversary, Aragon.[4] A North African Almoravid expeditionary force heavily defeated Castile in 1086, forcing Alfonso to recall El Cid.[4]

Christians and Muslims alike supported his rule over a pluralistic society.[4]

What the cited sources add

The genealogy record states that El Cid's nickname is El Cid and that he was born about 1043 in Vivar del Cid, Castile and León, Spain.[5] The same record lists his children as Elvira Cristina Elvira Rodriguez Diaz de Vivar.[5] The 1918 publication by Ramón Menéndez Pidal discusses autographs of El Cid and Jimena in two diplomas from 1098 and 1101.[6] The Diccionario de la Real Academia Española identifies El Cid as Ruy Díaz de Vivar.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "El Cid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, https://dle.rae.es/campeador; Word Reference Spanish-English dictionary, https://www.wordreference.com/esen/campeador (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "El Cid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barton, "The world of El Cid: chronicles of the Spanish reconquest", Manchester University Press, 2000 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "El Cid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fee, Christopher R., "Mythology in the Middle Ages: Heroic Tales of Monsters, Magic, and Might", ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 161 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "El Cid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fletcher, Richard A., "The Quest for El Cid", Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 166–168, 198 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Bergen, "Rodrigo 'el Cid' "El Cid" Díaz de Vivar príncipe de Valencia (± 1043–1099) » maximum test » Genealogy Online", Genealogy Online. facts only, no text reused. genealogieonline.nl
  6. See Ramón Menéndez Pidal, «Autógrafos inéditos del Cid y de Jimena en dos diplomas de 1098 y 1101», Revista de Filología Española, t. 5 (1918), Madrid, Sucesore. facts only, no text reused. bibliotecadigital.jcyl.es
  7. Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, https://dle.rae.es/campeador. facts only, no text reused. dle.rae.es

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article El Cid (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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