liberty, although they surrendered their arms. Former
rebels were relocated to the suburb of Alcudia. After the
Almoravid attack in January 1097, their defeat in the
Battle of Bairén, and the capture of Murviedro (modern
Sagunto) in 1098, Rodrigo converted the mosque into
a cathedral (the fi rst bishop was a Frenchman, Jerome
of Perigord). To consolidate alliances he arranged the
marriage of his daughters Cristina and María to Infante
Ramiro of Navarre and Ramón Berenger III, Count of
Barcelona, respectively. He died 10 July 1099 without
a male heir, and Valencia fell to the Almoravids in
- Thus the route to the northeast was opened, and
Castile’s effort to consolidate its dominion in the east
was nullifi ed.
Rodrigo quickly became an epic personality, although
the memory of his historical existence was not lost. He
was a military genius, a hero formed by exile and ad-
venture during the diffi cult years of the Almoravid inva-
sion; he represented to perfection the values of chivalry
and vassalage, the spirit of the frontier, and coexistence
between Christians and Muslims, under the aegis of the
king-emperor of León and Castile.
Further Reading
Fletcher, R. The Quest for El Cid. Oxford, 1989.
Menéndez Pidal, R. La España del Cid. 7th ed. Madrid, 1969.
Lacarra, M. E. “El poema de mío Cid. Realidad histórica e ide-
ología.” Madrid, 1980.
Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada
DIGULLEVILLE, GUILLAUME DE
(1295–1358)
Guillaume, son of Thomas of Digulleville (Degulleville
or Deguileville), Normandy, lived as a monk in the
Cistercian abbey of Chaalis, Île-de-France, from 1326
until his death. He is known for his dream-allegory
moral poems. Inspired by Jean de Meun’s Roman de la
Rose and perhaps by other allegories, he created a tril-
ogy on the Piligrimage of Life theme, in which divine
grace, nature, and the virtues and vices are personifi ed.
He composed the Pèlerinage de vie humaine in a fi rst
version in 1330–31, with a recension in 1355, and the
Pèlerinage de l’âme between 1355 and 1358. He wrote
a summary of both the second version of the Pèlerinage
de vie humaine and the Pèlerinage de l’âme that survives
in its entirety in only one manuscript. In 1358, he wrote
the third part, the Pèlerinage Jhesucrist. He also com-
posed a series of Latin poems intended for inclusion at
the end of the Pèlerinage de l’âme, but these remain un-
published, as does the 1355 recension of the Pèlerinage
de vie humaine. He wrote a further allegorical poem in
French, the Roman de la Fleur de lys. This last work,
which survives in two manuscripts, explains the origins
and symbolism of the arms of France as a defense of the
French royal dynasty against the claims of Edward III.
Digulleville’s popular pilgrimage trilogy, surviving in
more than seventy-fi ve manuscripts, inspired Chaucer,
Lydgate, and Bunyan. The poems show the way to sal-
vation through obedience to the church, its sacraments,
and its principles. The fi rst work takes a Pilgrim-monk
from a prenatal vision of the New Jerusalem to his death,
with authorial digressions of an encyclopedic nature
along the way. In the second pilgrimage, the Pilgrim’s
soul visits the places on earth where he had sinned, the
cemetery where his body rots, and Hell with its torments
of the damned, ending in Purgatory. The third part is a
life of Christ.
See also Chaucer, Geoffrey; Jean de Meun;
Lydgate, JohnFurther Reading
Digulleville, Guillaume de. Le pèlerinage de vie humaine, Le
pèlerinage de l’âme, Le pèlerinage Jhesucrist, ed. Jacob Stürz-
inger. 3 vols. London: Roxburghe Club, 1893, 1895, 1897.
Faral, Edmond. “Guillaume de Digulleville, moine de Chaalis.”
Histoire littéraire de la France. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale,
1962, Vol. 39, pp. 1–132.
Huot, Sylvia. The Romance of the Rose and Its Medieval Readers:
Interpretation, Reception, Manuscript Transmission, Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 207–38.
Piaget, Arthur. “Un poème inédit de Guillaume de Digulleville:
Le roman de la Fleur de lys.” Romania 63 (1936): 317–58.
Joan B. WilliamsonDINIS, KING OF PORTUGAL (1261–1325)
King Dinis, son of King Afonso III and Queen Beatriz of
Castile, was born 9 October 1261 and died on 7 January- The sixth king of Portugal, he ascended the throne
on 16 February 1279.
During the long reign of Dinis, Portugal reached in
many respects its high-water mark in the Middle Ages.
The monarch’s actions generated signifi cant internal
growth within his kingdom and also did much to ensure
the viability of Portugal as an independent entity in the
Iberian Peninsula. With the Muslim threat largely neu-
tralized, Dinis was free to turn his attention to Portugal’s
boundaries with Castile. Towns, castles, and strongholds
in three areas were of particular concern: (1) those on
the east bank of the Guadiana River, (2) those of the
Ribacoa district in the region of Boira Baixa, and (3)
those near the Castilian border which were under the
control of Dinis’s younger brother Afonso.
Through shrewd alliances and the judicious use of
military force, Dinis took advantage of the dynastic
problems in Castile following the death of Sancho IV in - The Portuguese monarch fi rst gained undisputed
authority over the towns of Moura, Serpa, and Mour a ̄ o.
DINIS, KING OF PORTUGAL