By Alberto MENGONI
(THE GLOBE)
In 1099 the knights of the First Crusade reconquered Jerusalem to Christianity. That very same year, only five days before, on July10th, an epic hero that had given so much to that religious faith was dying in Valencia, Spain.
So much for the chronicles as for El Cid Campeador passing away: gone the man, however, remained his exploits that many authors have taken the trouble to depict in their literary works. El Cid�s deeds are filling the oldest epic-historical poem of the Spanish literature, �Poem of my Cid�, also known as �Praising of my Cid�, in which the �Reconquista� movement is celebrated in heroic tones often not adherent to those days� reality.
El Cid, born in Spain�s Bivar (or at Burgos, it�s still unclear) in 1043, was not his real name: Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (or de Vivar) was the son of Diego Lainez, a Castilean aristocrat, and a noble woman from the Asturias, trained to the art of war like all those belonging to the �lite class of the several kingdoms of which Spain was composed of in the XI century.
Young Rodrigo was lucky enough to be raised at the court of Ferdinand I of Castile and L�on and, having given good proof of his military skill, when the kingdom was split in two at the king�s death, he was given the post of ensign, sort of commander-in-chief, at the service of Sancho II of Castile.
Under Castile colours he fought against Sancho�s brother, Alphonso VI of L�on, never being defeated and therefore raising the foe�s interest for his martial ability.
At that time many landless knights were merely mercenaries and often, lured by their opponents� money, they switched side. It happened to El Cid too, but he did not have to betray his lord: the events of the war between the two brothers developed in a way that at Zamora Sancho found his death in the year 1072. Freed that way by his oath, Rodrigo joined forces with Alphonso, but wanted the latter to swear that he had no part in the treason that seemingly caused Sancho�s death.
This El Cid�s stand contributed a great deal to the establishment of his legend, but also seems having created a deterioration of their personal relationship, so much so that El Cid abandoned his �alf�rez� position and retreated in his domain.
Really what happened was that, dead one of the opponents and passed to the other side the military leader of Castile, there was reason any longer for the two kingdoms to ruin themselves in a senseless civil war, so that military ranks were reduced and, as a result of Alphonso�s policy, important figures of the two sides started marrying to each other. This way the aristocracies of the two countries could match up in peace their differencies.
Rodrigo himself did not escape Alphonso�s scheme and married his niece, Jimena of Oviedo, whose father, according to the legend, was killed by El Cid during the preceding war. This fact, however, is not historically proved.
What is nowadays known as Iberian Peninsula was heavily dominated, although not completely, by the Moors, people of Arab-Berber origin that started the conquest of Europe�s closest landmass to Africa in the year 711. Therefore those Christian knights indeed had a better task than fighting each other: the �enemy� was right on their threshold, and if land had to be conquered, better should have been to take it from Muslim hands! So that when the crusade spirit started to wander across Europe, the northern Spanish Christian kingdoms began pushing southward to oust Spain�s Moors from the country.
Of course, the new impetus found Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar among the most active knights. Perhaps more than for the glory of Christ, for his own sake. It is indeed in his almost 20 years of fighting against the Arabs that Rodrigo gained his epithet: Cid, in fact, derives from the contraction of the Arab word �Sayyd�, �Sid�, meaning �lord�; while Campeador comes from the Latin term �Campiductor� (or �Capidoctor�) meaning �military leader, warrior�, hence Cid Campeador = lord warrior.
Back to the quest of liberating Spain from the Moors, it can be said that El Cid�s disturbing actions against Arab rulers started in 1081 when he attacked Toledo�s emir Yahya II, that on his turn was an ally of Alphonso VI. Sanctioned by the king of Castile and L�on, El Cid set to offer his military expertise on a mercenary basis, not disdaining Arab money too, so much so that for a period he fought on Saragossa�s emir Yusuf�s side against a coalition formed by Muslims and Christians together: Lerida�s emir, Sancho I of Aragon and Raymond Berengarius II, count of Barcelona.
El Cid proved in many occasions his chivalrous behaviour by being always magnanimous with his foes, as witnessed by Raymond Berengarius II that got captured by El Cid�s forces, or in the case of his former enemy Yahya II, emir of Toledo, that happened to become his personal friend.
It was when Yahya was killed by Arab hands in 1092, that El Cid wanted to avenge the emir by setting a siege to the city of Valencia which fell to Christian forces on June 15th, 1094. Rodrigo entered the city as a �conquistador� transforming it in a principality of which he was the sovereign. In such role he showed his former foe Raymond Berengarius that the past was forgotten by letting him marry his youngest daughter, Christine.
Of course, in such a fragmented political scenario like that of Spain�s late XI century, small states could only guarantee their survival by a net of alliances, often cast by virtue of marriages. Christine�s one linked Valencia to Provence, while El Cid�s older daughter Mary�s marriage to the heir of Aragon, Ramiro, linked the city to that Spanish kingdom.
In 1098 El Cid Campeador gave another proof of his war ability by conquering another Arab held city, Sagunto, but the never ending struggle against the Moors had its toll also on the Christian side. El Cid himself, when died at 56, it is said it happened because of the delusion following a defeat: the legend, indeed, is hard to fade away.
After Rodrigo�s death, Jimena governed the Principality of Valencia for three more years until in 1102 it was occupied by the Almoravids: El Cid�s saga reached its end. Not so his legend, mentioned afterward in numberless works, literary and else, such as �General Chronicle� of Alphonso X, �Romancero of El Cid�, an ensemble of �El Rodrigo� and many �romances�, Guillen de Castro�s �El Cid�s early adventures� and �El Cid�s deeds�, both plays of the XVII century, Corneille�s tragedy �El Cid� of 1636, not to talk of Ezra Pound�s �Cantos� of this century. Hollywood too has turned its attention on El Cid�s legend with a movie starred by Charleston Heston in the key role.
Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, often regarded as a saint, is buried in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardenas, not far away from Burgos, still attracting crowds of believers and faithful Christians.
What follows is an excerpt from �Cantar de mio Cid� (Praising of my Cid) of 1140 ca., describing the hero�s battle against emir B�car who landed on Valencia�s coast with 50,000 warriors to resume control of the city. Challenged by El Cid, B�car was defeated and killed, but not without having been chivalrously offered friendship, by the latter, before the bout.
�(�) My Cid Ruy Diaz presses on King B�car:- Turn this way, Bucar, coming from overseas.
You must come to terms with Cid, the one with a long beard. We must exchange a kiss, make friendly pacts.
- And B�car answers him: - Never such a friendship!
You hold your sword, I see you well spurringAnd if I am not mistaken, you want to try it over me.If your horse doesn�t stumble or if it doesn�t fall with me,
You can reach me alone even in the sea -.Readily El Cid answers: - No, it will not be so! �
B�car has a go
od horse that jumps a lot but El Cid�s Babieca presses it on.El Cid reaches B�car three ells away from the sea:
raises high Colada, and delivers him a great blow, the rubies of the helm spurt far away, the very same helm is broken up, all the rest falls apart, and down to the belt he plunges his sword.Thus he killed B�car, the king from overseas,
and gains Tizzona, 1,000 marks worth.He has won the great and beautiful battle.
Highest honours are credited to El Cid and his side�.
November 30, 1936 London�s famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the International Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire.
November 30, 1939 the Russo-Finnish War began as Soviet troops invaded Finland.
November 30, 1966 the former British colony of Barbados became independent.
December 1, 1919 Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
December 1, 1959 representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.
December 1, 1989 In an extraordinary encounter, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Pope John Paul the Second at the Vatican.
December 2, 1942 a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.
December 2, 1961 Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would lead Cuba to Communism.
December 2, 1969 the Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, flew from Seattle to New York City.
December 2, 1989 President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev held the first talks of their wind-tossed Malta summit aboard the Soviet cruise ship �Maxim Gorky.�
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, and V. Eifert�s works, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Closed on Mondays
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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