The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest

Four principal narrative sources for the history of the Spanish kingdom of Leon-Castile during the 11th and 12th centuries are presented here in English. The four chronicles were all composed in an unprecedented surge of Spanish historical writing between c.1110 and c.1150. Three of them focus primarily upon the activities of the kings of Leon-Castile as leaders of the Reconquest of Spain from the forces of Islam, and especially upon Fernando I (1037-65), his son Alfonso VI (1065-1109) and the latter’s grandson Alfonso VII (1126-57). The fourth chronicle is a biography of the hero Rodrigo Diaz, better remembered as El Cid, and is the main source of information about his extraordinary career as a mercenary soldier who fought for Christian and Muslim alike. A general introduction to the volume sketches the historical background, and then each text is prefaced by its own introduction and accompanied by explanatory notes.