El Cid (1040/43 – 1099)
Immortalized by Charlton Heston in the eponymous 1961 film, El Cid, whose real, quintessentially Spanish-sounding name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, was born to minor nobility in the Castilian town of Vivar. He was raised at the court of King Ferdinand the Great and served as the standard-bearer to the prince, Sancho II of Castile and León.
By the time Sancho took over as king in 1065, Rodrigo had proven himself militarily. He was an exceptional individual fighter, according to legend defeating an Aragonese knight in single combat (from which he got the pseudonym El Campeador, meaning, in Spanish, the unsurpassed warrior). He was also a strategic genius, leading successful campaigns against Sancho’s brothers, García II of Galicia and Alfonso VI of León, as well as Muslim armies in Al-Andalus (once Muslim Spain).
In serving Sancho, however, Rodrigo backed the wrong horse. When the childless king was assassinated just seven years into his reign, the new king Alfonso VI forced Rodrigo—now related to the king through marriage—into exile at one of the earliest opportunities. Rodrigo first offered his services to the rulers of Barcelona, but they refused. So he traveled south, and having spent the first 40 or so years of his life fighting against the Moors, he then spent his latter years fighting largely with them (it was the Moors, in fact, who gave him the name El Cid, meaning “the Lord”).
He entered into the service of the Moorish King of Zaragoza, Yusuf al-Mu’taman ibn Hud, exercising his tactical and strategic genius in defending Zaragoza against their Spanish enemies, Barcelona and Aragon. Then, in 1086, Alfonso VI suffered a major defeat at the hands of the North African Almoravid armies. Realising he desperately needed an able general, he recalled Rodrigo from exile. Rather than becoming too involved, though, he sat back and watched the two sides wear each other down. This was because he had set his eyes on a bigger prize: the Kingdom of Valencia.
Rodrigo took Valencia in 1094 after a lengthy siege, and ruled essentially as a king, styling himself Alfonso VI. He died, either from famine or disease, during another siege of Valencia (one that had him in the role of defender) in 1099. Legend goes that his corpse was dressed in armor, mounted on a horse, and sent forth to lead the charge against the enemy; an assault that won the battle, but ultimately not the war. Whether true or not, it’s a testament to the loyalty that he commanded.