Rodrigo Diaz De Vivar

   Another name for Rodrigo was El Cid Campeador.

  General Notes:

The Cid of history, though falling short of the poetical ideal which the patriotism of his countrymen has so long cherished, is still the foremost man of the heroical period of Spain--the greatest warrior produced out of a long struggle between Christian and Moslem, and the perfect type of the Castilian of the 12th Century. Rodrigo Diaz, called de Bivar, from the place of his birth, better known by the title given him by the Arabs as the Cid (El Seid, the lord) and El Campeador, the Champion par excellence was of noble family. He is the most famous warrior in Spanish history and the history of Mediaeval Spain without the Cid would be something more barren than the Iliad without Achilles. Shortly after his marriage, the Cid was sent to collect tribute from the King of Seville, whom he found engaged in war with Abdullah, the King of Granada. His subsequent actions served to kindle against him the rancour of his enemies and the jealousy of the King of Castile, and the king took advantage of his absence to banish him from Castile. Henceforth Rodrigo Diaz began to live the life of the soldier of fortune which has made him famous, sometimes fighting under the Christian banner, sometimes under Moorish, but always for his own hand. Among the enterprises of the Cid the most famous was against Valencia, then the richest and most flourishing city of the peninsula, and an object of cupidity to both Christian and Moslem. He took Valencia after a siege of nine months on June 5, 1094, and ruled for four years with vigor and justice. At length he suffered a crushing defeat and the blow was fatal to the aged Campeador, who died of anger and defeat in July, 1099. His widow maintained Valencia four years against the Moors, but was at last compelled to evacuate the city, taking with her the body of the Cid to be buried in the monastery of San Pedro at Cardena, in the neighborhood of Burges. The bones have since been removed to the town hall of Burges. Philip II tried to get him canonized, but Rome objected and not without reason. His true place in history is that of the greatest of Guerrilles, the perfect type of that sort of warrior, of which the soil of Spain has been most productive. The Cid of Romance, the Cid of a Thousand battles, legends and dramas, the Cid as apotheosized in literature, the Cid invoked by good Spaniards in every national crisis, whose name is ever inspiration to Spanish patriotism is a very different character from the historical Rodrigo Diaz--the freebooter, the rebel, the consorter of infidels and enemies of Spain. His wife outlived him 5 years and was buried near him in Burges. He had two daughters, one Christina married the infante Ramire of Navarre, the other, Maria Elvira, married Raymond IV (Raymond Berenger III) of Barcelona. Through her the Cid became the ancestor of the later royal dynasty of Spain.

Rodrigo married Jimena De Oviedo. (Jimena De Oviedo was born in 1056 and died in 1104.)