THE SPANISH CRUSADER El Cid

How a Castilian knight fought Christians and Muslims alike to become a national icon

- Edoardo Albert

"Your Majesty, I have brought a deserter from the enemy. He has much to tell of the situation within Zamora."

The king, Sancho II, ruler of Castile and Léon, looked up from the table where he was taking his lunch in a tent, while outside his soldiers continued the siege of the city of Zamora.

"Don Rodrigo." The king smiled. "My champion." He looked to the man standing beside Rodrigo Diaz, the king's standard-bearer and commander of the royal troops. "Who are you?"

The man glanced to Diaz. "May I speak?"

Diaz nodded. "Speak."

"I am Vellido Adolfo, Your Majesty. Queen Urraca has insulted my bonour and I can no longer serve her. I come to offer you my sword."

The king looked questioningly at Diaz.

"I have taken Don Vellido's sword from him, until you give word that I may return it."

"That is well." As the king spoke, a messenger entered the tent and signalled to Diaz for his attention.

"See to the messenger," instructed the king. "I will hear what Don Vellido has to say."

Diaz bowed and, following the messenger, left the tent. The walls of Zamora - tall, proud and defiant - stood before them. The city had held out against the besieging forces of the king for seven months now. Zamora alone defied Sancho. With the city under his control, Sancho would be king of all the Christian realms of Spain, and then might truly turn his attention to the long task of the Reconquista, the capture of the vast areas of Spain that had fallen under the control of the advancing armies of Islam.

As Diaz spoke to the messenger, he saw the flaps of the tent open and the king emerge with Don Vellido.

"My lord, where are you going?" Diaz asked.

The king gestured towards the city. "Don Vellido says that there is a lightly guarded gate through which we may enter the city. I have asked him to show it to me, that I may judge the truth of his claim and give him right reward."