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Who was El Cid? Many know him as Spain’s most iconic hero. But beneath the legend we discover the true El Cid of history – Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar – a knight born in Castile in the mid-eleventh century. He began as the right hand man to King Sancho of Castile: the King’s greatest general who won victory after victory. But after his king died amid suspicious circumstances, El Cid was banished from the kingdom of his fathers, and became a mercenary captain in service to the Emir of Zaragoza. Eventually, El Cid would strike out on his own, and become a conqueror in his own right. Ultimately, El Cid would battle one of the most powerful forces of the period – the Almoravid Empire. But what motivated the Cid?

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Written, edited and narrated by J Stephen Roberts
Historia Roderici voice actor: Carl Hughes
Maps and animations by Denys Rodionov, Dan Stan, and Dacio Gutierrez
Thumbnail by Kip Ayers
Game footage: Attila Total War: Age of Charlemagne and Medieval Kingdoms 1212

Sources:
-Clissold, Stephen - In Search of the Cid, (Hodder and Stoughton, 1965)
-Collins, Roger - Caliphs and Kings: Spain, 796-1031, (Wiley Blackwell, 2014)
-Fletcher, Richard - The Quest for El Cid, (Oxford University, 1991)
-Melville, Charles; Ubaydli, Ahmad - Christians and Moors in Spain: Vol. 3 (Arabic Sources), (Liverpool University, 1992)
-O’Callaghan, Joseph - A History of Medieval Spain, (Cornell, 1975)
-Reilly, Bernard F. - The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-1157, (Blackwell, 1995)
-Reilly, Bernard F. - The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065–1109, (Princeton, 1989)
-World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest, trans. Simon Barton and Richard Fletcher, (Manchester, 2000)

#ElCid #Spain #Knight