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Birth:          ABT 1043 Castillona de Bivar, Spain
Death:          Jul 1099 

Notes
"Muy Ciel el Compeador"
conquered and held Valencia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1040 – 1099), better known as El Cid, or simply Rodrigo, 
was a Castilian nobleman and military leader in medieval Spain. The Moors called him 
El Cid, which meant the Lord, and the Christians, El Campeador, which stood for 
Outstanding Warrior. He was born in Vivar, a town near the city of Burgos. After his 
death, he became Castile's celebrated national hero and the protagonist of the most 
significant medieval Spanish epic poem, El Cantar de Mio Cid.[1]

Born a member of the minor nobility, El Cid was brought up at the court of King 
Ferdinand the Great and served Ferdinand's son, Sancho II of León and Castile. He 
rose to become the commander and royal standard-bearer (armiger regis) of Castile 
upon Sancho's ascension in 1065. Rodrigo went on to lead the Castilian military 
campaigns against Sancho's brothers, Alfonso VI of León and García II of Galicia, as 
well as in the Muslim kingdoms in Al-Andalus. He became renowned for his military 
prowess in these campaigns, which helped expand Castilian territory at the expense of 
the Muslims and Sancho's brothers' kingdoms. When conspirators murdered Sancho in 
1072, Rodrigo found himself in a tight spot. Since Sancho was childless, the throne 
passed to his brother Alfonso, the same whom El Cid had helped remove from power. 
Although Rodrigo continued to serve the Castilian sovereign, he lost his ranking in the 
new court which treated him at arm's length and suspiciously. Finally, in 1081, he was 
ordered into exile.[2]

El Cid found work fighting for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, whom he defended from 
their traditional enemies, Aragon and Barcelona. While in exile, he regained his 
reputation as a strategist and formidable military leader. He repeatedly turned out 
victorious in battle against the Muslim rulers of Lérida and their Christian allies, as well 
as against a large Christian army under King Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. In 1086, an 
expeditionary army of North African Almoravids inflicted a severe defeat to Castile, 
compelling Alfonso to overcome the resentments he harbored against El Cid. The 
terms for the return to the Christian service must have been attractive enough since 
Rodrigo soon found himself fighting for his former Lord. Over the next several years, 
however, El Cid set his sights on the kingdom-city of Valencia, operating more or less 
independently of Alfonso while politically supporting the Banu Hud and other Muslim 
dynasties opposed to the Almoravids. He gradually increased his control over 
Valencia; the Islamic ruler, al-Qadir, became his tributary in 1092. When the 
Almoravids instigated an uprising that resulted in the death of al-Qadir, El Cid 
responded by laying siege to the city. Valencia finally fell in 1094, and El Cid 
established an independent principality on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. He ruled 
over a pluralistic society with the popular support of Christians and Muslims alike.[3]

El Cid's final years were spent fighting the Almoravid Berbers. He inflicted upon them 
their first major defeat in 1094, on the plains of Caurte, outside Valencia, and 
continued resisting them until his death. Although Rodrigo remained undefeated in 
Valencia, his only son, and heir, Diego Rodríguez died fighting against the Almoravids 
in the service of Alfonso in 1097. After El Cid's death in 1099, his wife, Jimena Díaz, 
succeeded him as ruler of Valencia, but she was eventually forced to surrender the 
principality to the Almoravids in 1102.

To this day, El Cid remains a Spanish popular folk-hero and national icon. Numerous 
plays, films, folktales, songs, and even video games continue to memorialize the 
traditions of allegiance that his allegories typify.
Title[edit]

The name El Cid (Spanish: [el '?ið]) is a modern Spanish denomination composed by 
the article el meaning "the" and Cid which comes from the Old Castilian loan word Çid 
from the dialectal Arabic word ??? sîdi or sayyid, which means "Lord" or "Master". 
The Mozarabs or the Arabs that served in his ranks may have addressed him in this 
way, which the Christians may have transliterated and adopted. Historians, however, 
have not yet found contemporary records referring to Rodrigo as Cid. Arab sources 
use instead Rudriq, Ludriq al-Kanbiyatur or al-Qanbiyatur (Rodrigo el Campeador).[4] 
The cognomen Campeador derives from Latin campi doctor, which means "battlefield 
master". He probably gained it during the campaigns of King Sancho II of Castile 
against his brothers King Alfonso VI of León and King García II of Galicia. While his 
contemporaries left no historical sources that would have addressed him as Cid, they 
left plenty of Christian and Arab records, some even signed documents with his 
autograph, addressing him as Campeador, which prove that he used the Christian 
cognomen himself.[5][6][7][8] The whole combination Cid Campeador is first 
documented ca. 1195 in the Navarro-Aragonese Linage de Rodric Díaz included in 
the Liber Regum under the formula mio Cid el Campeador.
Life and career[edit]

Origins[edit]

El Cid was born Rodrigo Díaz circa AD 1043 in Vivar, also known as Castillona de 
Bivar, a small town about six miles north of Burgos, the capital of Castile. His father, 
Diego Laínez, was a courtier, bureaucrat, and cavalryman who had fought in several 
battles. Despite the fact that El Cid's mother's family was aristocratic, in later years 
the peasants would consider him one of their own. However, his relatives were not 
major court officials; documents show that El Cid's paternal grandfather, Lain, 
confirmed only five documents of Ferdinand I's; his maternal grandfather, Rodrigo 
Alvarez, certified only two of Sancho II's; and El Cid's father confirmed only one.

Service under Sancho II[edit]

As a young man in 1057, Rodrigo fought against the Moorish stronghold of Zaragoza, 
making its emir al-Muqtadir a vassal of Sancho. In the spring of 1063, Rodrigo fought 
in the Battle of Graus, where Ferdinand's half-brother, Ramiro I of Aragon, was laying 
siege to the Moorish town of Cinca, which was in Zaragozan lands. Al-Muqtadir, 
accompanied by Castilian troops including El Cid, fought against the Aragonese. The 
party slayed Ramiro I, setting the Aragonese army on the run, and emerged victorious. 
One legend has said that during the conflict, El Cid killed an Aragonese knight in 
single combat, thereby receiving the honorific title Campeador.

When Ferdinand died, Sancho continued to enlarge his territory, conquering both 
Christian strongholds and the Moorish cities of Zamora and Badajoz. When Sancho 
learned that Alfonso was planning on overthrowing him in order to gain his territory, 
Sancho sent Cid to bring Alfonso back so that Sancho could speak to him.
Death[edit]


 


Tomb of El Cid and his wife Doña Jimena at the Burgos Cathedral, 9 August 2012
El Cid and his wife Jimena Díaz lived peacefully in Valencia for five years until the 
Almoravids besieged the city. El Cid died on June 10, 1099.[12] His death was likely a 
result of the famine and deprivations caused by the siege.[12] Valencia was captured 
by Masdali on May 5, 1102 and it did not become a Christian city again for over 125 
years. Jimena fled to Burgos, Castile, in 1101. She rode into the town with her retinue 
and the body of El Cid.[12] Originally buried in Castile in the monastery of San Pedro 
de Cardeña, his body now lies at the center of Burgos Cathedral.

Defeat[edit]

After his demise, but still during the siege of Valencia, legend holds that Jimena 
ordered that the corpse of El Cid be fitted with his armor and set atop his horse 
Babieca, to bolster the morale of his troops. In several variations of the story, the 
dead Rodrigo and his knights win a thundering charge against Valencia's besiegers, 
resulting in a war-is-lost-but-battle-is-won catharsis for generations of Christian 
Spaniards to follow. It is believed that the legend originated shortly after Jimena 
entered Burgos, and that it is derived from the manner in which Jimena's procession 
rode into Burgos, i.e., alongside her deceased husband.[12]
Marriage and family[edit]


 


 El Cid depicted on the title page of a sixteenth-century working of his story
El Cid was married in July 1075 to Alfonso's kinswoman Jimena Díaz. The Historia 
Roderici calls her a daughter of a Count Diego Fernández de Oviedo.

Tradition states that when El Cid first laid eyes on her, he was enamored by her great 
beauty. Together El Cid and Jimena had two daughters and a son. Their daughters 
Cristina and María both married into royal families; Cristina to Ramiro, Lord of Monzón, 
grandson of García Sánchez III of Navarre via an illegitimate son; María, first (it is 
said) to a prince of Aragon (presumably the son of Peter I) and second to Ramon 
Berenguer III, count of Barcelona. El Cid's son Diego Rodríguez was killed while 
fighting against the invading Muslim Almoravids from North Africa at the Battle of 
Consuegra in 1097.

El Cid's own marriage and those of his daughters raised his status by connecting him 
to the peninsular royalty; even today, most European monarchs (including the current 
King of Spain) and many commoners of European ancestry descend from El Cid, 
through Cristina's son, King García Ramírez of Navarre and to a lesser extent via 
Maria's daughter, Jimena of Barcelona, who married Roger III, Count of Foix.
El Cid in literature and music[edit]

The figure of El Cid has been the source for many literary works, beginning with the 
Cantar del Mio Cid, an epic poem from the 12th century which gives a partly-
fictionalized account of his life. This poem, along with similar later works such as the 
Mocedades de Rodrigo, contributed to portray El Cid as a chivalric hero of the 
Reconquista, making him a legendary figure in Spain. In the early 17th century the 
Spanish writer Guillén de Castro wrote a play called "Las Mocedades del Cid", on 
which French playwright Pierre Corneille based one of his most famous tragicomedies, 
Le Cid. He was also a popular source of inspiration for Spanish writers of the 
Romantic period, such as Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, who wrote "La Jura de Santa 
Gadea", or José Zorrilla, who wrote a long poem called "La Leyenda del Cid".

Jules Massenet wrote in 1885 an opera based on Corneille´s play, also called Le Cid.
In popular culture[edit]


 


El Cid (1961) movie posterThe 1960 short film, El destierro del Cid, is a documentary 
based on texts from the 'Poema del Mio Cid'.
The 1961 epic film, El Cid, was a romanticized story of the life of Rodrigo Díaz de 
Vivar where El Cid was portrayed by Charlton Heston.
The 1980 animated television series Ruy, el pequeño Cid ("Ruy, the Little Cid") told 
stories from El Cid's youth.
The 1983 comedy film, El Cid cabreador is a tongue-in-cheek spoof of the El Cid story.
The 2000 expansion for the video game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings includes 
a campaign featuring El Cid.
The 1999 album from Avalanch called Llanto de un Heroe a former Spanish renown 
band created a song Called "Cid" which denotes him as a hero for Spaniards
The 2003 animated feature, El Cid: La leyenda, tells his story from childhood.
The 2006 video game Medieval II: Total War has El Cid as a rebel general in 
Valencia.
The 2010 video game Civilization V has El Cid as a Great General unit.
The 2012 video game Crusader Kings II depicts El Cid as a landless courtier, though 
he can lead battles and gain titles for the player; he becomes Count of Valencia at 
1095.
The first chapter of the second season (2016) of the Spanish TV series El Ministerio 
del Tiempo focuses on the character El Cid.
Drag racer Hans Schmidt owned and raced a Shelby Cobra Dragonsnake named El Cid 
in 1965.
In the HBO Television Series "Oz", the leader of the Latino gang (Raoul Hernandez) is 
referred to multiple times as "El Cid".

Parents
LAINEZ Diego (ABT 1015 - ABT 1058)
RODRIGUEZ Teresa (ABT 1015 - )

Siblings
DIAZ DE BIVAR Roderigo "el Cid" (ABT 1043 - Jul 1099)

Marriage To DIAZ Jimena (Ximene) (ABT 1054 - 1115)
    m. 14 May 1074 

Notes

Parents
FERNANDEZ Diego (ABT 1030 - )
FERNANDEZ Christina (ABT 1030 - )

Children by DIAZ Jimena (Ximene) ABT 1054 - 1115
RODRIGUEZ DE BIVAR Christina (Elvira) (Ximene) (ABT 1075 - )
DE VIVAR Marie (ABT 1084 - BEF 1110)

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