Rodrigo Diaz de Vivaralso called the Cid or the Campeador, He was a Castilian nobleman who lived in the 11th century, a fundamental moment in peninsular history due to the transformations that occurred throughout that century. This article will try to unravel in the most precise and accessible way who this character was, whom almost everyone knows, although, frequently, thanks to the Cantar del Mío Cid (a epic poem composed a century after the Rodrigo’s death) or the 1960s film El Cid, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. Both examples are far from what was that historical figure of the Cid Campeador, therefore, Next, the context in which Rodrigo lived, as well as his life and events, will be recounted in the most reliable way possible.
Context
The Peninsula in times of Rodrigo
As some specialists in the field have pointed out, the Cid’s generation (that is, those who lived in the second half of the 11th century) has a lot of “hinge”, the reason for this is that the world in which they lived it was different from that of their grandparents and would be different from that of their grandchildren (Escalona 2017: 6). Rodrigo’s predecessors navigated much rougher waters for Christians, while his successors would find themselves in a world increasingly dominated by crusading ideology.with all that this implies (it should be remembered that Jerusalem falls into Christian hands only a few days after Rodrigo’s death).
In any case, what matters here is not what happened a posteriori of the death of the Campeador, but what was the situation of the Peninsula when he came to the world. As it is well known, the Peninsula was divided into a multitude of political entities; the north was occupied by the Christians, who in 1035 (a few years before the birth of El Cid) controlled the northern fringe of the Peninsula, although in a very unequal way since, if in the west of the peninsula the Christians dominated Porto and Zamora, in the this did not manage to dominate Huesca or Tarragona. These territories were divided between the kingdoms of León, Castile, Pamplona, Aragón and the Catalan counties. The rest of the peninsular geography was under Muslim rule.
Between 929 and 1031 the Muslim domains of the Peninsula were governed by a CaliphThis time was the time of greatest power and thrust of the Muslims during the entire time that they remained in the Peninsula. However, the power of the caliphs began to decline from the moment that his figure, deified, was separated from the administration and the effective government. Instead, state officials began to wield ever stronger power, extending their power and influence at the expense of the ruling family, the Caliph (Catlos 2019: 193).
In addition to this, figures such as Ibn Abi Amir, who would come to be known as Almanzor, subtracted even more power from the Caliph; in fact, Almanzor tried to create a true political dynasty that his sons were unable to preserve. Thus, with the arrival of the eleventh century, the caliphate was on the brink of a precipice; With the death of Sanchuelo, one of Almanzor’s successors (who were not caliphs, but were the real depositories of power), the fitna which can be defined as “the antithesis of peace and stability in Islam. a wild struggle for power between members of the Umayyad family, palace slaves, warlords, ulama and local governors” (Catlos 2019: 218).
Finally, in 1031 the last of the caliphs was deposed, although the process of dissolution of the caliphate had begun much earlier (Monsalvo Antón 2010: 92). The disintegration process would continue until the 1080s, and will be known as the period of the taifas (flag, party, disunity). At first, there were dozens of them (twenty-five in 1035), although the largest and strongest were absorbing other weaker taifas (until in 1085 there were nine left). Each taifa was governed by a family, although its origin could be Berber, Slavic or Arab; for example, Berbers: that of Toledo with the Banu al-Aftas; Arabic: Zaragoza with the Banu Hud; Slavic: that of Almería with the Banu Sumadih.
The main problem of these political entities was their weakness, which favored the Christian kingdoms. For this reason, the Taifas understood that their survival was to sign pacts or alliances with the Christians, the so-called outcasts. Through these pacts, the Muslim kinglets paid an annual amount, a tribute, in exchange for the signing Christian lord committing not to attack them and even to defend them (Monsalvo Antón 2010: 93). The taifas were rich and could meet these payments, but for this the tax burden on their subjects had to increase. In any case, the political tendencies of the moment can be defined as follows: “the post-caliphate political environment was relentlessly pragmatic, reflexively opportunistic, and highly atomized” (Catlos 2019: 231)
The consequences of this policy are several, both for some and for others. The Christians managed to introduce a monetary flow into their domains, which stimulated the economy, which until then had remained practically demonetized (Escalona 2017: 9); but that system only worked if the monarch complied with his part of the agreement, if so, the monarch managed to dispose of a monetary wealth that he distributed as he pleased, being an essential part of his policy (purchase of loyalties). All this must also be taken into account when understanding Rodrigo’s relationship with the monarch Alfonso VI.
Secondly, Regarding the Christian powers, their strength and thrust was closely related to the situation of the Muslims. In this way, during the last third of the 10th century, a period dominated by Almanzor’s campaigns, the various Christian monarchs could only withstand the constant offensive. However, with the arrival of the eleventh century and the beginning of the fitna Muslim Christians would see how their situation changed radically. Thus, they ceased to be tributaries of the caliphate to become the depositories of those taxes paid by the taifas, the pariahs that have already been discussed.
Politically speaking, the first half of the 11th century was one of great effervescence among the Christian territories: deaths, betrayals, battles, inheritances… a dynamic that, in fact, will continue until Alfonso VI takes power in Castile definitively. In 1035, four years after the disappearance official of the caliphate, Fernando I, second son of Sancho III el Mayor, obtained the County of Castile; two years later he would join the Kingdom of León to his domain after defeating his king, Vermudo III, at the Battle of Tamarón. In this way, Castilla y León remained united, at least until his death.
In an environment of deep instability, he managed to win over the pariahs of Taifas as important as those of Toledo, Seville, Zaragoza or Badajoz, the consequence of which: a contribution of 40,000 dinars per year that made this kingdom the richest in the Peninsula. (Monsalvo Anton 2010: 100). Will be during the reign of Ferdinand I when Rodrigo is born Díaz de Vivar, even participating in some campaigns of said monarch, who died in 1065. The death of the monarch will open another period of instability among the Christian kingdoms and will touch the Cid very closely.
The war world in the eleventh century
The world of the Cid, that is, the second half of the eleventh century, was a world of conflicts, a violent world in which the figure of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar is one of the best archetypes, but not the only one. In this way, it is necessary to explain what were the warlike foundations that governed at that time, both the Christians and the Muslims. However, first of all, it should be mentioned that the peninsular war was marked by sieges and cavalcades (and thus the fighting of cavalry forces, which was often light), much more than for large-scale battles (Nicolle 1988: 4). Peninsular warfare differed from that practiced in the rest of Europe due to the emphasis given here to cavalry and light infantry (which does not invalidate what will be discussed below).
Eleventh-century Europe is a feudalized Europe, because of this, an elite would emerge that based its way of life on fighting, war and combat; the knight performed military work in exchange for receiving the fiefdom, through which he could maintain his panoply (Balbás 2017: 47), which was immensely expensive for the time. But it was in Catalonia where this reality could be most appreciated, mainly due to the French influence (Nicolle 1988: 11). In any case, the truth is that in Europe a heavy cavalry was developing that would end up dominating the medieval battlefield in a hegemonic way in much of Western Europe.
Within the peninsular scenario, the cavalry had always had a relevant specific weight, but with the arrival of the Full Middle Ages those cavalry forces begin to become heavy cavalry. The horsemen begin to wear chainmail lorigas in addition, they wield increasingly heavy lances; the appearance of a gentleman could be the following:
“He himself wears his loriga, which no man has seen better, and he girds himself with his master-handed gold-chiseled sword. He raises his admirably polished spear, made of noble woodland ash, sharpened with solid iron erected at its point. He carries on his left arm a shield, entirely adorned with gold, on which a ferocious dragon shines with dazzling splendor” (Carmen Campidoctoris105-116 in Balbás 2017: 47).
In addition to the rider the mount was essential, these had to be strong enough to withstand the load, they also had to be trained not to be frightened by the heat of combat. It seems that after the fall of the Roman Empire there was a setback in horse breeding throughout Europe, as a result of which, starting in the 8th century, Western powers sought to obtain these animals in the Peninsula and protect their breeding. As a result of these measures, the destroythe European war horse (Balbás 2017: 47).
In the case of the infantry, the Peninsula, and specifically the Christian kingdoms, stood out for the use of the crossbow; in any case, this infantry was complementary to the cavalry and always of inferior rank to it. As some have pointed out “Medieval Spain was a society organized for war” (L. Lourie in Nicolle 1988: 11), this claim was also supported by Powers in his work on urban militias.
During the 11th century, heavy cavalry gained predominant power on the battlefield, surpassing the infantry when it came to pitched battles. Coupled with this, a new way of fighting arose, a “new warrior tactic”: cavalry charge (Porrinas 2019: 4); understand that it was new for medieval western Europe, it is evident that during antiquity there were cavalry corps…