by Griff Hosker
Don Iago turned to me and, grinning, clasped my arm, “And it is good to know that in an uncertain world some things never change. I am pleased that you are still the madman, the hero of Salamanca. You say that which others only think!”
As we mounted Babieca and Hercules El Campeador said, “It is a pity that he does for I fear he will have a shorter life because of it!”
We turned our horses and left León without a backward glance. It was many years until we returned. When we reached the parting of the ways Rodrigo said, “I will say farewell to my wife for I will not bring her and my children and I will meet you at Briviesca.”
“Then we head for Catalonia and not the taifa?”
“I know that Ramon Berenguer bears me no love but his is the only Christian country left to me. I will try him and if he will allow me to serve him then Jimena and my family can come.”
“But you think that will not happen.”
“No, we will try it and then offer our swords to the Moors!”
Epilogue
Maria was forewarned of my arrival and was tearful when I entered my hall. None knew of the King’s punishment and so, with all of my men and family gathered I told them. Maria fell to her knees and wept. Anna and Isabella had also been with me for years and their faces showed their shock.
“The men I take know who they are.”
Geoffrey said, “We will all follow you, lord!”
“And if I knew where I was going that might be something I would consider, but all of you need to stay here and protect my foster mother and my land. This is exile and not banishment. As such it can be rescinded. When I am able, I will send word to you. This is not something I chose. Rather it was chosen for me when I was asked to train Rodrigo de Vivar. None of you wish me to abandon him, do you?” I looked at them all but held the gaze of Maria and she shook her head and rose.
She came over to me and hugged me, “It is my fault and your foster father’s for we brought you up this way. You are noble and you are loyal. It is a shame the King is not more like you. We will keep a home for you and pray for you each night. This night we will feast as though it is Christmas for who knows when we shall meet again!”
I learned, from the men I had left behind, that Álvar had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Anjou and that he had known nothing about our fate. I was pleased for I had worried that our old comrade had been part of the conspiracy. I saw now that it was not true. If he had been present then he would have intervened. King Alfonso was cunning!
It was noon the next day when Rodrigo arrived. He had with him Rafa and Carl and they led spare horses and El Campeador’s war gear. He had a tearful farewell with Maria and then we headed up the road, first to Pamplona and then to the coast and Catalonia.
When we reached the col and looked down on my home he said, “And now the real adventure begins. Know this, William Redbeard, there is no other man I would rather do this with. Let us step out on this precipice together.”
“Aye, for you truly are El Campeador!”
Our horses began the descent to Navarre and we lost sight of Castile. We were exiles and wanderers but we were also a band of warriors and I feared any man who came up against us!
The End
Glossary
Armiger- champion
Barracho – steep-sided gully
Buskins- boots
Campi doctor -battlefield trainer
Chevauchée a raid by mounted men, normally knights
Jubbah- quilted garment worn over or beneath mail
Magerit –Madrid
Mozarab-one who fights for the Taifa states but is not necessarily a Muslim
Pariah- tribute
Pel- a wooden stake embedded in the ground where men at arms would practice their strokes
Taifa –a faction or geographical area which followed a petty king or warlord in Iberia
Tijfaf- quilted armour for horses
Quintain- a target used by mounted men
Ventail- a piece of mail secured on a helmet and covering all but the eyes of a knight
Maps and Illustrations
Historical Notes
Books used in the research:
The Normans- David Nicolle
Norman Knight AD 950-1204- Christopher Gravett
The Knight in History- Francis Gies
Knights- Constance Brittain Bouchard
El Cid- The Making of a Legend, M.J. Trow
El Cid and the Reconquista 1050-1492
Armies of the Crusades- Wise and Embleton
The Moors- Nicolle and McBride
English Medieval Knight 1200-1400 Gravett and Turner
Age of Empires computer game
This story began to be written when I was about fourteen, more than fifty years ago and I watched Charlton Heston chew up the scenery in the great epic, El Cid. When I began to write the story, I did my research and found that the Charlton Heston El Cid was not the legend that I thought he was. I think that good as the film was the truth and reality showed an even greater Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar.
This is a story and while I have been at pains to write a historically accurate story, I have used the holes in history to make it fiction. Most of what we know about El Cid comes from a poem, written a long time after the great Spanish knight died, Carmen Campidoctoris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Campidoctoris. There is doubt about almost everything which happened to Rodrigo until he was already famous. Even the inscription on his sword which I used is in doubt as the one in Valencia says that it was made in 1040, and that was three years before he was even born. Briviesca was an ancient fortress but it was moved in the fourteenth century to its present position. Of the old settlement, there are few traces left and I have had to use my imagination.
I have made his father, Don Diego, ‘a bad ‘un’ as it suited my story but we know very little about him and his grandfather, the Lord Luis of my story, is better documented.
The only documented battles we have for this period are Atapuerca and Graus although King Ferdinand and Prince Sancho did manage to subjugate two taifa and make them vassals. The written records are a little vague and as most of the material we have comes from many years after Rodrigo’s death then it is hard to differentiate where the legend ends and reality kicks in. My philosophy is, if in doubt then make it up!
There are, however, more than a couple of incidents which baffle me as a historian. The murder of King Sancho is one. According to the limited history we have King Sancho and the deserter, Vellido entered the forest where King Sancho was stabbed with a spear. I have tried to make sense of this in my explanation. If it seems farfetched, then I agree with you. I cannot see why the King would go alone with a deserter into a wood.
The second incident was the Battle of Cabra. According to one legend, and the film ‘El Cid’, then the reason that El Cid is banished is because he demanded an oath from King Alfonso. That legend grew in the 14th century and was not recorded at the time. More than that King Alfonso did send Rodrigo on a diplomatic mission to the Emir of Córdoba to secure the pariah. That would not have happened if Rodrigo was in disgrace. The Count Garcia did lead Christian knights to support the Emir of Granada in an attempt to take Córdoba. He was captured by El Cid and returned to Castile. It was a year after the Battle of Cabra when we last see Rodrigo at court and then he is exiled. My story is my version of events, but it may not be the true one. Until someone builds the TARDIS or a good version of Doc Brown’s time machine, we shall never know.
The kings, princes and emirs all existed and behaved, pretty much as I describe. King Ramiro was not killed by a knight but a Moor who could pass as a Christian! I gave Iago that honour. The story of Prince Sancho and his fiancée was also true, and I had to read my research several times to work out that it was not, in fact, a brother and sister who married!
The term Taifa means a faction but the reality is that the Emirs who ran those states were largely warlords and the idea of Christian fighting Muslim is mislea
ding. Christian and Moor would ally when it suited their purposes and they would act like sharks around a wounded shark when it suited too.
I have used William as the narrator for I wish the story to continue after El Cid’s death. (Sorry, spoiler alert!) I have, however, tried to use William to get into Rodrigo’s mind. At the moment there will be a final book to this series but that depends upon how William Redbeard develops. He is a real person to me and he has a mind of his own. Like Ted Hughes’ ‘Thought Fox’ my stories often write themselves. It is a scary world in which I live.
I also discovered a good website http://orbis.stanford.edu/. This allows a reader to plot any two places in the Roman world and if you input the mode of transport you wish to use and the time of year it will calculate how long it would take you to travel the route. I have used it for all of my books up to the eighteenth century as the transportation system was roughly the same. The Romans would have been quicker!
Griff Hosker
February 2020
Other books by Griff Hosker
If you enjoyed reading this book, then why not read another one by the author?
Ancient History
The Sword of Cartimandua Series
(Germania and Britannia 50 A.D. – 128 A.D.)
Ulpius Felix- Roman Warrior (prequel)
The Sword of Cartimandua
The Horse Warriors
Invasion Caledonia
Roman Retreat
Revolt of the Red Witch
Druid’s Gold
Trajan’s Hunters
The Last Frontier
Hero of Rome
Roman Hawk
Roman Treachery
Roman Wall
Roman Courage
The Wolf Warrior series
(Britain in the late 6th Century)
Saxon Dawn
Saxon Revenge
Saxon England
Saxon Blood
Saxon Slayer
Saxon Slaughter
Saxon Bane
Saxon Fall: Rise of the Warlord
Saxon Throne
Saxon Sword
Medieval History
The Dragon Heart Series
Viking Slave
Viking Warrior
Viking Jarl
Viking Kingdom
Viking Wolf
Viking War
Viking Sword
Viking Wrath
Viking Raid
Viking Legend
Viking Vengeance
Viking Dragon
Viking Treasure
Viking Enemy
Viking Witch
Viking Blood
Viking Weregeld
Viking Storm
Viking Warband
Viking Shadow
Viking Legacy
Viking Clan
Viking Bravery
The Norman Genesis Series
Hrolf the Viking
Horseman
The Battle for a Home
Revenge of the Franks
The Land of the Northmen
Ragnvald Hrolfsson
Brothers in Blood
Lord of Rouen
Drekar in the Seine
Duke of Normandy
The Duke and the King
New World Series
Blood on the Blade
Across the Seas
The Savage Wilderness
The Bear and the Wolf
The Reconquista Chronicles
Castilian Knight
El Campeador
The Aelfraed Series
(Britain and Byzantium 1050 A.D. - 1085 A.D.)
Housecarl
Outlaw
Varangian
The Anarchy Series England
1120-1180
English Knight
Knight of the Empress
Northern Knight
Baron of the North
Earl
King Henry’s Champion
The King is Dead
Warlord of the North
Enemy at the Gate
The Fallen Crown
Warlord's War
Kingmaker
Henry II
Crusader
The Welsh Marches
Irish War
Poisonous Plots
The Princes’ Revolt
Earl Marshal
Border Knight
1182-1300
Sword for Hire
Return of the Knight
Baron’s War
Magna Carta
Welsh Wars
Henry III
The Bloody Border
Baron’s Crusade
Sentinel of the North
Lord Edward’s Archer
Lord Edward’s Archer
King in Waiting
Struggle for a Crown
1360- 1485
Blood on the Crown
To Murder A King
The Throne
King Henry IV
The Road to Agincourt
Tales of the Sword
Modern History
The Napoleonic Horseman Series
Chasseur a Cheval
Napoleon’s Guard
British Light Dragoon
Soldier Spy
1808: The Road to Coruña
Talavera
The Lines of Torres Vedras
The Lucky Jack American Civil War series
Rebel Raiders
Confederate Rangers
The Road to Gettysburg
The British Ace Series
1914
1915 Fokker Scourge
1916 Angels over the Somme
1917 Eagles Fall
1918 We will remember them
From Arctic Snow to Desert Sand
Wings over Persia
Combined Operations series
1940-1945
Commando
Raider
Behind Enemy Lines
Dieppe
Toehold in Europe
Sword Beach
Breakout
The Battle for Antwerp
King Tiger
Beyond the Rhine
Korea
Korean Winter
Other Books
Great Granny’s Ghost (Aimed at 9-14-year-old young people)
For more information on all of the books then please visit the author’s web site at www.griffhosker.com where there is a link to contact him or visit his Facebook page: GriffHosker at Sword Books