El+Cid

=El Cid=

 Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar was an 11th century soldier known in the legends as El Cid Campeador. What does El Cid Campeador mean? Roughly translated, //el// means //the// in Spanish. //Cid// comes from the Arabic word //syd//, meaning //master// or //lord//. //Campeador// translated from Old Spanish means //a master of the military arts//. So, his full name means The lord, master of the military arts, or more simply put, The Champion.

Born in 1043 A.D in Vivar, he was born into an aristocratic family, but was seen by the peasants of Spain as one of their own, because he was awesome and peasants tend to really like awesomeness. This popularity and loyalty helped make him the heroic figure he is today. As a young man, Rodrigo made a name for himself fighting under the service of Sancho II, the King of Castile and Leon. He fought in several battles, and legends say that Rodrigo earned the title Campeador when he killed an Aragonese knight in single combat. For years he fought for Sancho, and worked hard to push the Moors out of northern Spain.

When Sancho was assassinated in 1072, and the main suspect in this murder was Sancho's brother, Alfonso VI. Alfonso immediately took control and became king of Castile and Leon. El Cid, being all awesome and stuff, called Alfonso out on it. Alfonso didn't like that and stripped El Cid of his titles and land. Eventually, Alfonso decided to kick El Cid out of his kingdom, exiling him. It may have been out of jealousy or fear or stupidity, but no matter the reason, it turned out to be a pretty bad idea, because El Cid was, after all, a master of the military arts - what did Alfonso think he was gonna do - go home and do crosswords?

No, that's not was El Cid's do, El Cid's don't like word puzzles, they like butt kicking. El Cid's lead armies, and without an army to lead __for__ Alfonso, El Cid decided to lead an army __against__ Alfonso. He traveled to Zaragoza, the same city he sacked the snot out of as a young man, and asked for a job. They thought to themselves, "hmmmmmmmmm could we use ourselves an El Cid to whoop up on some Alfonsos?" The answer was yes, and El Cid had a new army to fight with, the Moors that he used to fight against. This time, he took on his old bosses, including Alfonso and most of the northern Iberian kingdoms.

El Cid, being the Chuck Norris of his era, used the army he now ran to beat the army he used to run that he had previously used to beat the army that he was now running. I'm not certain, but I think he may have just walked on to a battlefield with a sword and glared at people til they decided to lay down and die.

Needless to say, Alfonso realized he was a dumb dumb head and asked El Cid to take his old role back as general of the armies of Castile and Leon, but Cid decided he'd just go get himself his own kingdom. He went and took the city of Valencia and made it his own little kingdom where anyone he liked, Muslim, Jew, or Christian could live happily. A few years later, El Cid was killed in a raid on Valencia. His body is at rest in the Burgos Cathedral in Northern Spain. 