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Rafael Beltrán
DÍAZ DE VIVAR, RODRIGO (1043–1099)
Rodrigo Díaz was born at Vivar, near Burgos, in 1043,
the son of the infanzón Diego Laínez. Because of his
noble status and the protection of his maternal uncle,
Nuño Alvarez, he was reared in the household of In-
fante Sancho, the son of Fernando I. He accompanied
Sancho on his expeditions to protect the petty Muslim
king (tˉa’ifa) of Zaragoza against the attacks of Ramiro I
of Aragón, whom they defeated at Graus (1063). When
Sancho II ascended the throne of Castile (1066), he
named Rodrigo royal alférez (armiger regis, or standard
bearer). As such he participated in quarrels with the
neighboring kingdoms: a dispute with Navarre over the
castle of Pazuengos, in which he gained the nickname
Campi doctor or Campeador; an expedition against the
tˉa’ifa of Zaragoza, who had stopped paying tributes
(parias) to Castile (1067); the battles or “judgments of
God” at Llantada (1068) and Golpejera (1072), fought
by Sancho II and his brother, Alfonso VI of León, to
determine to whom the thrones of Castile and León
belonged. Sancho won both battles. Rodrigo’s deeds
during the siege of Zamora, which supported Alfonso,
were extolled in legend. The assassination of Sancho
II during the siege (October 1072) forced the Castil-
ians to accept Alfonso as king, although Rodrigo and
his followers required him fi rst to swear an oath of
purgation, in the Germanic fashion, that he had had no
part in Sancho’s death and had not plotted it. Rodrigo
Díaz became a vassal of Alfonso but lost his important
position at court.
In 1074 the king arranged a very advantageous mar-
riage for him to Jimena Díaz, daughter of the Count of
Oviedo and great-granddaughter of Alfonso V. At the
end of 1079 he went to Seville to collect tribute owed
by that tˉa’ifa to Alfonso VI. In 1081, as a consequence
of an incursion that he made into the tˉa’ifa kingdom of
Toledo, under Leónese protection, and the accusations
made against him by Count García Ordóñez and other
courtiers, Alfonso VI declared him subject to the ira
regia (royal wrath), compelling him to go into exile.
Rodrigo’s exile with his retinue interrupted his
courtly career and launched him on enterprises in which
he showed his capabilities and gained fame as well as the
nickname El Cid (lord). He rendered military services
to the tˉa’ifa of Zaragoza against King Sancho Ramírez
of Aragón and Navarre (whom he routed in 1084) and
against the Count of Barcelona and the tˉa’ifa of Lérida.
After the African Almoravids’ fi rst invasion of al-An-
dalus and their rout of Alfonso VI at Zall a ̄ qah (1086),
the king received Rodrigo again (in the spring of 1087)
and entrusted him with the mission of protecting the
tˉa’ifa of Valencia, al-Q a ̄ dir, formerly king of Toledo.
In 1089, when the tˉa’ifa of Zaragoza and the Count
of Barcelona besieged Valencia, El Cid received from
Alfonso VI all the lands that he might conquer in the
eastern part of the peninsula, to be held by hereditary
right. He lifted the siege of Valencia, using as a base of
operations Albarracín, whose tˉa’ifa resumed payment
of tribute to Castile.
The second Almoravid invasion (autumn of 1089)
resulted in Rodrigo’s disgrace once again because he
was unable to relieve the advanced Castilian position
at Aledo in the southeast. At the beginning of 1090 he
consolidated his protectorate over Valencia when he
routed and captured the count of Barcelona near Morella
(Battle of the Pines of Tévar), dissolving his coalition
with the tˉa’ifa of Lérída, Albarracín, and Zaragoza. The
Almoravid conquest of al-Andalus after 1090 required
Rodrigo, again in royal favor on various occasions, to
strengthen his dominion in the east, thereby covering one
of the fl anks of the kingdom of Toledo and of all Castile,
and blocking the coastal road to the Ebro valley. In the
face of this danger, the tˉa’ifa of Zaragoza and Sancho
Ramírez of Aragón allied against him. Alfonso VI, who
tried to take Valencia in 1092, entrusted the defense of
Christian interests in that zone to Rodrigo. Al-Qˉa dir
of Valencia was deposed and killed by the Valencian
qˉa. dˉı Ibn Jahhaf, with Almoravid help. El Cid, with the
aid of anti-African Muslims and of the Mozarabs, oc-
cupied Valencia and repelled the Almoravid relieving
army (Battle of Cuarte, October 1094).
The Cid established himself as “lord of Valencia”
and supreme judge, by hereditary right, maintaining
his fi delity to Alfonso VI; he coined money and resided
with his troops in the citadel of the city. He established
a regime of coexistence, allowing the Muslims to keep
their property, their system of taxation, and religiousDÍAZ DE GAMES, GUTIERRE