Metrical Romance
Pierre Corneille
6 June 1606 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molire and Racine. He has been called the founder of French tragedy and produced plays for nearly forty years. Corneille is one of Frances most outstanding playwrights of the seventeenth century. Although he was considered a prolific writer for his time and is best known as a playwright, literature was not his main career.
The name El Cid comes from the article el (which means "the" in both Spanish and Arabic), and the dialectal Arabic word sdi or sayyid, which means "Lord" or "The Master". The title Campeador means "champion" or "challenger" in Spanish.
Unlocking of Tough Words
Kinswoman
Courtier Bureaucrat Cavalryman
a female relative an attendant at the court of a sovereign
an official of a bureaucracy a soldier in a motorized army unit belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy an independent ruler or chieftain a friendly nation a person who is expelled from home or country by authority the action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack attract a severe shortage of food resulting in death the group following and attending to some important person
Aristocratic
Emir Ally Exile Siege Enamoured Famine Retinue
El Cid was born 1043 AD in Vivar, also known as Castillona de Bivar, a small town about six miles north of Burgos, the capital of Castile. His father, Diego Lanez, 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. 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 would emerge victorious; Ramiro I was killed and the Aragonese fled the field. One legend has said that during the conflict, El Cid killed an Aragonese knight in single combat, thereby receiving the honorific title Campeador.
In the Battle of Cabra (1079), El Cid rallied his troops and turned the battle into a rout of Emir Abdulallh of Granada and his ally Garca Ordez. However, El Cid's unauthorized expedition into Granada greatly angered Alfonso, and May 8, 1080, was the last time El Cid confirmed a document in King Alfonso's court. This is the generally given reason for El Cid's exile. However, the exile was not the end of El Cid, either physically or as an important figure. In 1081, El Cid, went on to offer his services to the Moorish king of the northeast Al-Andalus city of Zaragoza, Yusuf alMu'taman ibn Hud, and served both him and his successor, Al-Mustain II. He was given the title El Cid (The Master) and served as a leading figure in a vibrant Moorish force consisting of Muladis, Berbers,Arabs and Malians. Terrified after his crushing defeat, Alfonso recalled from exile the best Christian general: El Cid. It has been shown that El Cid was at court on July 1087; however, what happened after that is unclear. El Cid returned to Alfonso, but now he had his own plans. He only stayed a short while and then returned to Saragossa.
El Cid was content to let the Almoravid armies and the armies of Alfonso fight without his help, even when there was a chance that the armies of Almoravid might defeat Alfonso and take over all of Alfonso's lands. The reason El Cid did not want to fight was because he was hoping that both armies would become weak. That would make it easier for him to carry out his own plan which was to become ruler of the Kingdom of Valencia. Along the way to Valencia, El Cid also conquered other towns, many of which were near Valencia, such as Castejn and Alucidia. El Cid gradually came to have more influence on Valencia, then ruled by al-Qadir. In October 1092 an uprising occurred in Valencia inspired by the city's chief judge Ibn Jahhaf and the Almoravids. El Cid began a siege of Valencia. A December 1093 attempt to break the siege failed. By the time the siege ended in May 1094, El Cid had carved out his own principality on the coast of the Mediterranean. Officially El Cid ruled in the name of Alfonso; in reality, El Cid was fully independent. The city was both Christian and Muslim, and both Moors and Christians served in the army and as administrators.
El Cid was married in July 1075 to Alfonso's kinswoman Jimena Daz. The Historia Roderici calls her a daughter of a Count Diego of Oviedo, a person unknown to contemporary records, while later poetic sources name her father as an otherwise unknown Count Gomez de Gormaz. Tradition states that when El Cid first laid eyes on her, he was enamored of her great beauty. Together El Cid and Jimena had three children. Their daughters Cristina and Mara both married into the high nobility; Cristina to Ramiro, Lord of Monzn, grandson of Garca Snchez III of Navarre via an illegitimate son; Mara, first (it is said) to a prince of Aragon (presumably the son of Peter I) and second to Ramn Berenguer III, count of Barcelona. El Cid's son Diego Rodrguez was killed while fighting against the invading Muslim Almoravids from North Africa at the Battle of Consuegra (1097).
El Cid and his wife Jimena Daz lived peacefully in Valencia for five years until the Almoravids besieged the city. El Cid died June 10, 1099.[1] The cause of death is commonly accepted to be a combination of sorrow for the loss of his only son in 1097, and the increasing impact of the siege on famine and living standards more generally.[2] 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 in with her retinue and the body of El Cid.[3] Originally buried in Castile in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardea, his body now lies at the center of the Burgos Cathedral.
El
Cid had a number of close friends who were willing to follow him to death El Cid was not only a natural leader, he was known as a good follower. El Cid was a great hero, but every hero must have a villain to fight. El Cid may have been a great warrior and leader, but he was even better at unintentionally making enemies.
Spanish
Family Values Machismo Meeting Etiquette Dining Etiquette Table manners
