El Campeador

by Griff Hosker

  “I ask for what is mine as for the rest, that is up to you.” There was a threat in his words, and I saw King Sancho of Navarre glance at the Bishop.

  I do not know what would have happened had not Don Jimeno Garcés spoken, “Don Rodrigo, men say you are the greatest knight in Spain. I dispute that.”

  It was a clear challenge and all eyes were fixed upon my friend. He nodded and said, “Some men accord me that title, yet I do not. I am the Armiger Regis of Castile and I use my sword to defend my King.”

  It was well spoken but the Navarrese champion kept on, “Then let us settle this here today! Let two champions fight and that combat will decide who is lord of the disputed land.”

  King Sancho of Navarre was no fool; he knew how good Rodrigo was and he shook his head, “No, Don Jimeno, you may fight El Campeador, but the result will just decide who is the better knight.”

  The Navarrese knight frowned but he could not back down now. “Well, Don Rodrigo, what say you?”

  Rodrigo looked at King Sancho of Castile who shrugged and then he looked at me and looked for an answer. I had complete faith in Rodrigo, but he had brought me for a reason. I looked at the Navarrese champion and said, “You can defeat this arrogant cockerel, my lord. In fact, I will go further, I could defeat him.”

  I had angered the Navarrese knight and he spat out, “And I would not soil my hands fighting Norman spawn like you!”

  Rodrigo nodded, “Then as you have insulted my friend, I will fight you and when you lie defeated in the dust then you will apologise to him!”

  The ground was cleared between the two armies as the two champions retired to prepare for battle. There would be neither lances nor spears. This would be fought on foot. As we prepared him, he said to King Sancho, “Their King will attack as soon as the combat is over, you know that, my king?”

  “I do and we shall be armed and ready. William Redbeard, you will have to be the one to protect El Campeador for he will be on foot and they will use their horsemen.”

  I nodded, “I know, Your Majesty, and I have been watching Don Rodrigo’s back for enough years to know what to do.” I could not keep my voice civil.

  King Sancho frowned for he was unused to being spoken to like that by anyone, let alone a man he considered a peasant. “Then continue to do so for that is the only reason we allow your insolence.”

  As Rodrigo and I walked towards the waiting Bishop of Pamplona and the rest of our army formed lines to watch, Rodrigo said, quietly, “Your tongue will get you into trouble one day, Will! He is a king!”

  “And?” He looked at me for we had reached the Bishop and the Navarrese champion and his second were heading for us. “It is you who has won what the King holds. You are doing so again now! When he has Navarre, he will seek more land and you will win it for him.”

  “That is my appointed duty but, when we have one Spain, under one King then there will be peace and your Maria, and my Jimena will be able to live without fear of war.”

  Don Jimeno had arrived, and the Bishop said, “Kneel!”

  The two knights held their swords like crosses as they were blessed and then they stood. I went to the side with the Bishop and the Navarrese champion’s second. Our swords were drawn for we were there to ensure that the fight was fairly fought. The two knights circled each other. The open helmets with the nasals which they wore meant that they could see each other’s eyes. In a normal battle that could be important but here it was vital for they were watching for the tick in the eye which would tell them of a blow heading in their direction. I looked at Don Jimeno Garcés to assess his strengths and weaknesses. He was of an age with Rodrigo, but he was not quite as broad in the chest. I took pride in the state of Rodrigo’s body for I had helped to form it when he had been a young warrior. They both wore mail, and both had the same size shield, but I knew that Tizona was the better sword. However, even had they both had the same sword then I would have backed Rodrigo for he was the better warrior.

  It was Don Jimeno Garcés who broke first. He brought his sword backhand from on high. It showed that he had quick hands and he had thought to catch Rodrigo unawares. El Campeador must have seen the tick for he flicked up his shield with contemptuous ease and diverted the blade to the side. At the same time, he swung Tizona in a mighty sweep. As it came horizontally there was no opportunity for Don Jimeno Garcés to flick it aside. It took all that he could do to block the blow and it was so powerfully struck that the Navarrese knight reeled and stepped backwards. That allowed Rodrigo to punch the knight in the face with his shield. There was an angry murmur from the Navarrese army for their champion had to step backwards. As he did so Rodrigo brought his sword over his head and I saw him turn the blade in the air so that he struck the Navarrese not with the edge, which would have split open the helmet and killed Don Jimeno Garcés, but with the flat of the blade so that the Navarrese champion was laid out. The combat was over for the Navarrese champion was unconscious.

  I turned to the Bishop and the second, “It is over, and we know who the champion is!”

  They both nodded but, as I walked to Rodrigo, a horn sounded, and the Navarrese line leapt forward. King Sancho of Castile had been anticipating it and the Castilian line raced forward to meet it. The Bishop and Don Jimeno Garcés’ second ran to protect the prone knight but it was Rodrigo and myself who were in danger. I ran to his left side. We both knew that the worst thing we could have done was to turn and flee. We would have been ridden down by the Navarrese who would have happily speared us in the back. We faced our foes and both of us held our swords in two hands.

  El Campeador laughed, “You and I again, Will, and this time facing the whole of the Navarrese army!”

  I nodded, “Aye, but we have your cousin and the knights we trained to come to our aid. I am confident!” In truth I was not for the spears of the Navarrese knights were just forty paces from us. What I did know was that the horses would not ride us down. A horse will not trample a man unless there is no way of avoiding him. The danger to Don Rodrigo and myself lay in the spears which would have free strike at two men on the ground. However, the nature of an attack by mailed horsemen was that their horses, their legs and their weapons took up a larger area. The spears and lances of the knights who attacked us might get in each other’s way; I knew I was clutching at straws but I could not simply give up and die.

  The fact that Rodrigo and I had been fighting next to each other since we were boys helped. Our swings and our strokes were so similar that had we worn the same mail it would have been hard to discriminate between us. Our two swords swept and scythed together as the first two knights of the twenty who charged, approached us. Timing was all and we swung as we saw the two lances lunge towards us. The wooden lances were splintered by our blades. There was a danger from the shattered wood which flew into the air, but God smiled on us that day and the splinters hit our helmets and not our eyes. The swinging swords also flashed before the two horses’ eyes and they flinched. One went to my left and the other to Rodrigo’s right. El Campeador had quick hands and his sword hacked into the leg of the knight close to him as he thundered past. I manage to pierce with the tip of my sword the mail of the knight who passed me.

  And then our knights struck their line. The treacherous charge of the Navarrese undid them for their knights had been so keen to get to El Campeador that they were bunched in the centre. When the two of us stood it disrupted their line and our knights hit as one. It was a terrifying noise I heard behind us as horses, metal, wood and men collided. More knights were following the leading twenty-two who were obviously the Navarrese elite. Rodrigo and I faced the next charge, but these were not their best knights. These were the ones in the second rank, and they had seen that we had survived their better knights. When we swung our swords this time, I shattered a spear while Rodrigo’s sword split the skull of the horse. As its legs buckled the rider flew through the air to land behind us and the Navarrese line parted to ride on either side of us. When we heard the hor
n from the King of Navarre’s herald, we knew that we had won. I turned, as the knights before us returned to their king and, looking behind, saw that the knights who had been in combat were surrendering to Álvar and the rest of El Campeador’s chosen men. It was Rodrigo’s victory and not King Sancho’s but, when the land was ceded, King Sancho of Castile took all the credit. Rodrigo did not mind but I did. He had been used once more and, as had happened before, not given the credit he was due him by the King. The fact that the whole of the Castilian army knew who had been victorious was some comfort.

  Chapter 10

  I suppose that I was relieved, as I returned to Briviesca, that my home was now safe and the victory meant that Navarre and Aragon would not attack but I knew the war was not over. The battle did have one immediate effect: King Alfonso sent emissaries to tell King Sancho that he agreed to the joint campaign against King Garcia. The brothers were totally ruthless and intended to destroy each other. That contrasted with the way my family felt about each other. Rather than trying to kill each other my family, which had not a single blood tie, would die for each other! I was not privy to those talks and I heard of them, second hand, when Rodrigo came to stay with me a year after the Battle of Viana. It was to celebrate the birth of Iago’s third child, a son named in Rodrigo’s honour.

  In the year since the battle Don Fernando had died and King Sancho had given the town and the manor to Rodrigo. It meant he would be a more frequent visitor to my home which I had greatly improved and strengthened. I was not a fool and knew that the peace we enjoyed would be short-lived and there would be war again. I owed it to Maria and my people to make us a hard nut to crack and one that would be distasteful to swallow. By the time Rodrigo visited then the walls and towers were complete, my village had a wall and a gate and my hall was encircled by a ditch and wall. We had a well and we had granaries. We could withstand a siege, but I did not think it would come to that. We could be bypassed, and Rodrigo’s new town was more strategically placed.

  He came completely alone save for Diego his servant and horse holder. I have heard many men who discount this theory, but the truth was that Rodrigo de Vivar was so highly regarded at that time that he could travel wherever he wished, and not only would he be unharmed, he would be welcomed. The room we always kept for him had been named El Campeador’s Chamber by Maria and kept aired in case he ever came to visit. A year to the day after our last battle he arrived, and I was given the news which he carried.

  It was after we had eaten and the two of us sat alone that he told me the way the world was moving. “King Garcia has now defeated Count Nuno Mendes and his internal enemies are gone. King Alfonso and King Sancho will cross the border in three months and take the Kingdom. In his moment of victory King Garcia will be weak for he lost men in the war and now has to garrison his border towns and the land taken from the Count.”

  I sighed, “And I am needed?”

  “No, William, you are not. In fact, King Sancho takes just me, Álvar and twenty of our knights. King Alfonso will have the bulk of the army.” I narrowed my eyes and struggled to find a reason for this. My friend explained without patronising me. “King Alfonso does this so that he will decide upon the division of Galicia when we win.”

  “And King Sancho is happy with that?”

  He sighed and poured himself more wine, “I know the game they play, and I do not like it for it lacks honour. Between you and I, King Sancho knows that they will win but he hopes that the battle will weaken King Alfonso who, perforce, must lose more men than King Sancho. You are not needed for this war but next year, when King Sancho goes to war for his father’s old Kingdom, then you and your warriors will be needed.”

  I now had twenty trained men and although we had not fought for a year and had no income from force of arms we had been richly rewarded for our part in the last campaign. The tribute we received paid my men and the farms I had given them were profitable. I am not certain it would have suited the lords of the land for they, to me, seemed to waste money on frivolities. We spent our money on defence, mail and food.

  “We will be ready. And you, Rodrigo, how is your life?” The real reason I asked was because I wondered about Jimena.

  “I am to be wed in two years’ time.” I could not believe the delay. I would have married her immediately. He saw my look and said, “If King Sancho is intent on destroying his brothers then I have to wait until they are destroyed. Only then will I marry for when King Sancho rules this land there will be peace.”

  At the time that seemed reasonable but, in my heart, I knew it would not be as he expected.

  “And you, Rodrigo, what of you?” He gave me a quizzical look. “My friend, I have not seen you this last year and I know not what goes on in here.” I tapped my own head.

  He smiled, “You know me well, better than anyone, I think, and that includes Minaya. He is to be married, you know, to Mayor Pérez, a daughter of count Pedro Ansúrez. The Count is a powerful man and close to Alfonso.” I said nothing but I remembered how Alfonso, when a prince, had tried to court Álvar away from Rodrigo. To me this seemed another ploy from King Alfonso to suborn Álvar. “You should marry too. You have money and there are many women who would marry you.”

  I snorted, “You delude yourself, Rodrigo! No matter how much treasure and land I have I am still, in the eyes of the nobility, a jumped-up peasant, a hired sword at best!” That, of course, was a lie. I could marry no one for I would have to marry someone to whom I could not give all of my love.

  Rodrigo looked genuinely sad, “I wish you would find someone for then you would be happy.”

  I told my friend a lie for I could not hurt him nor could I drive a wedge between us, “I am happy. I have my foster mother, my warriors and my people.”

  When he left, two days later, I felt even sadder for I thought I had lost my friend. He would go to war without me and even though there was little danger to him I would worry. I had thought I would be with him forever and die at his side. I saw now that was not to be and so I threw myself into the training of my twenty warriors. We might not have fought since Viana, but we were the finest force of professional warriors in Spain. That was not arrogance, it was a fact. Although Iago no longer came to war, he was still the yardstick by which we measured my men and all of them had managed to defeat him. A couple, Jorge and Christos, were two who had almost defeated me.

  Five months later and I was still restless. I was not helped by the news that King Garcia had been defeated and his lands divided between his two brothers. He had fled to the Taifa of Sevilla. King Sancho was given the pariah from the taifa of Sevilla and Córdoba. I did not know it at the time but that simple act would completely change not only my life but that of Rodrigo too. While others, even in my manor, celebrated I did not for I knew that war would come once more and I knew that I had incurred the enmity of King Alfonso through Don Gonzalo Ordóñez and there was a feeling, at the back of my mind, that he might use some legal means to take Briviesca from me. My position as a senior landowner and my gifts to the church meant that I had a friend in the Bishop of Burgos. I rode to speak with him. He was a good man but, more than that, he knew the law and helped me draw up the documents which passed ownership of the manor and the village to my mother. The King’s steward acted as witness and I rode back to give Maria the document.

  I had confused her, “What is this?”

  “I give you the hall and the village!”

  She was genuinely shocked, “What do I want it for? I live here with my foster son and I am happy. I am no landowner.”

  “I do not expect you to do anything. Let me do this for you as it pleases me.”

  She kissed me, “You know that, when I die, it will be yours again?”

  I laughed, “You are hale and hearty. Out of the two of us who is more likely to die first?”

  She made the sign of the cross, “Do not speak like that. I could not live if you were gone! You are the only child I shall ever have.”

  “And
I have no intention of dying. Now let us open some decent wine and celebrate!”

  Don Rodrigo did not come for me, he sent Diego with a handwritten message. I was to join the King at Burgos where we would be mustered. My warriors were eager to ride to war and to test out their prowess. They cared not against whom they fought for they trusted both my judgement and that of Rodrigo. Geoffrey now had two children and he was no longer the youth who had come to us, but he still wished to go to war. The difference this time was that he was better protected with a good helmet, Navarrese sword and a padded hide jerkin. We had many horses so that we took four servants with us. Two were men who would normally serve in my garrison. They were happy to watch the horses. We said our goodbyes and rode the short way to Burgos. I was no longer the favoured warrior since my words at Viana. The King had a long memory and I joined the rest of the army camped in the fields to the west of the town. Rodrigo sent an invitation to feast with the King. I knew that the invite did not come from the King. I was merely a pawn in his chess game. He might use me as a sacrifice or as a strategy to divert attention from another action. I remembered the battle against the Valencians when the young warriors from Bilbao had died under my command. I knew my position.

  I recognised many of the knights I had trained. Some, having been at peace for some time, had grown to fat but most, like Don Iago of Astorga looked just like an older version of the youths I had trained. I was flattered to be greeted so warmly. It contrasted with the frosty looks the King gave to me. He had still not married and there were rumours, groundless no doubt, that he shunned the company of women. If so then he was the opposite of his brother, Alfonso, who had the appetite of a rutting stag! Despite my mood when I entered, I was soon in a happier frame of mind as I was assailed by questions from the knights I had trained. For once I could not divulge information to them for all that I knew was that we were to war in the west.