Spain under moorish rule were multi religious, multi ethnic. They even hired Christian knights to fight on their side.
The story of El Cid( syd! get it?)
Born a member of the minor nobility, El Cid was brought up at the court of
Ferdinand the Great and served Ferdinand's son,
Sancho II of León and Castile. He rose to become the commander and royal standard-bearer (
armiger regis) of
Castile upon Sancho's ascension in 1065. Rodrigo went on to lead the Castilian military campaigns against Sancho's brothers,
Alfonso VI of León and
García II of Galicia, as well as in the Muslim kingdoms in
al-Andalus. He became renowned for his military prowess in these campaigns, which helped expand the territory of the Crown of Castile at the expense of the Muslims and Sancho's brothers' kingdoms. When conspirators murdered Sancho in 1072, Rodrigo found himself in a difficult situation. Since Sancho was childless, the throne passed to his brother Alfonso, whom El Cid had helped remove from power. Although Rodrigo continued to serve the sovereign, he lost his ranking in the new court, which treated him suspiciously and kept him at arm's length. Finally, in 1081, he was exiled.
[2]
El Cid found work fighting for the
Muslim rulers of
Zaragoza, whom he defended from its traditional enemy,
Aragon. While in exile, he regained his reputation as a strategist and formidable military leader. He was repeatedly victorious in battle against the
Muslim rulers of
Lérida and their Christian allies, as well as against a large Christian army under King
Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. In 1086, an expeditionary army of
North African Almoravids inflicted a severe defeat to Castile, compelling Alfonso to overcome the resentment he harboured against El Cid. The terms for El Cid's return to Christian service must have been attractive enough since Rodrigo soon found himself fighting for his former lord. Over the next several years, however, El Cid set his sights on the kingdom-city of
Valencia, operating more or less independently of Alfonso, while politically supporting the
Banu Hud and other Muslim dynasties opposed to the Almoravids. He gradually increased his control over Valencia; the Islamic ruler,
Yahya al-Qadir [
es], became his tributary in 1092. When the Almoravids instigated an uprising that resulted in the death of Al-Cádir, El Cid responded by laying siege to the city. Valencia finally fell in 1094, and El Cid established an independent principality on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. He ruled over a
pluralistic society with the popular support of Christians and Muslims alike.
[3]
El Cid's final years were spent fighting the Almoravid
Berbers. He inflicted upon them their first major defeat in 1094, on the plains of Caurte, outside Valencia, and continued opposing them until his death. Although Rodrigo remained undefeated in Valencia, Diego Rodríguez, his only son and heir, died fighting against the Almoravids in the service of Alfonso in 1097. After El Cid's death in 1099, his wife,
Jimena Díaz, succeeded him as ruler of Valencia, but she was eventually forced to surrender the principality to the Almoravids in 1102.
