The Quest for El Cid

Chances are, if you were famous and died a long time ago, Charlton Heston has played you in some epic film. Such is the case with El Cid, the Spanish warlord who successfully played the Christian and Muslim tensions and ended up seizing Valencia for his own. Fletcher's book cuts through the myth to explore who the Cid really was, at the same time offering very intricate portraits of the history and personality of Medieval Spain, at the time the joining of the Christian and Muslim worlds. And it succeeds admirably.

The understanding of the reign of Alfonso VI of Leon-Castilla is basic to the understanding of the following 1000 years of Iberian History... and this text is very helpful to understand that time.It is evident that the author has some difficulty in perceiving the social and religious coexistence of Jews, Christians and Muslim... and it is very instructive to see how a Gallo-Romano-Germanic author sees a life that is, basically, Hispano-Romano-Semitic.

El Cid was, in Spanish legend, a hero who helped to liberate Spain from the Moors; in fact he was a mercenary warlord who worked for both sides. This brief, scholarly look at his life and times attempts to separate legend from reality. The first half sets the scene by reviewing Iberian politics, religion, and society in the early middle ages; the second recounts the historical events in which El Cid played a role, relying on four near-contemporary sources (which are analyzed in a chapter that divides the two halves). A final chapter discusses when and how the legend arose. The first half of the book is its strength. It is El Cid's context -- the interaction of peoples and states across the border between Islam and Christianity -- that intrigues, and Fletcher presents an interesting overview. The second half moves nicely through the minutiae of mid-11th-century Spanish politics but demonstrates that most of the few things history (as opposed to legend) knows about El Cid are not terribly interesting.The book is well-written and should please those interested in its rather narrow subject matter.

Richard Fletcher has done a service to the student of history with his insiteful biography of Rodrigo Diaz "El Cid".For those of us who are familiar with the legend he has shown us a man of eleventh century castile along with his glories and shortcomings.Fletcher's work is a revelation in comparison to the earlier work of Melendez Pidal which has become legendary in Spain.The real Question remaining is what if any recognition will Fletcher receive from the Castilians?

Fletcher's book provides a revealing portrait of the Cid, separating the historical man from the myth. The opening chapters provide a glimpse of Spain during the Middle Ages, while the subsequent chapters focus on El Cid. It is a particularly useful book if you are only familiar with Charlton Heston's Cid, or with the epic poem, El Poema del Cid. Thought provoking, and exceptionally well-written.