What Our Limited Skill Can Do We Have Done': A Review of The Quest For El Cid By: Adam Giancola

‘What ou r limited skill can do we h ave done’: A Review of The Quest for El Cid
By: Adam Giancola
A mere glimpse at the history of 11th century Spain unescapably calls to mind the legacy of
Rodrigo Diaz, widely known as El Cid. An aristocratic military warrior most famous for his Christian
conquest of Valencia in 1094, his presence continues to have a lasting effect on Reconquista discourse
today. Yet genuine inquiry into the life of the Cid warrants a careful consideration of the sources
available. One such piece of scholarship, Richard Fletcher’s 1989 publication The Quest for El Cid, poses
itself as a re-examination of the ubiquitous tale of the life of the Cid, seeking to distinguish the man
from the myth. Fletcher, a specialist in medieval Spanish and English history and Senior Lecturer in
History at the University of York, has authored works such as Saint James’ Catapult and Moorish Spain.1
Employing the words of the Historia Roderici, Fletcher presents his most recent work as a humble
contribution to a pre-existing body of research, admitting that, “What our limited skill can do we have
done: written of his deeds briefly and in a poor style, but always with the strictest regard for truth.”2
Fletcher’s hope to furnish ‘the strictest regard for truth’ is grounded in his requirement that
only those sources contemporary to the life of the Cid be employed.3 Unlike previous scholars,
including Reinhart Dozy and Ramon Menendez Pidal, who have addressed the historical problem of
the Cid head-on either by rejecting or affirming popular belief, Fletcher intends to offer what he calls a
‘horizontal’ approach, locating the Cid as part of a broader movement of military conquest across
European soil.4 It is therefore the task of this paper to provide a thoughtful review of Fletcher’s
presentation of the life of Rodrigo Diaz, considering whether or not a contextual approach can be used
to derive an effective portrait of the Cid’s life. While Fletcher refuses to go beyond the sources

1
Richard Fletcher. The Quest for El Cid. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), Back.
2
Fletcher. The Quest for El Cid, 205.
3
4
contemporary to the period, it will be suggested that such an approach limits our understanding,
providing conclusions that do not accommodate for the multiplicity of interpretations that inevitably
arise from the sources themselves.
The Quest for El Cid begins with an assessment of the plausibility of a figure like Rodrigo Diaz as
a timeless hero in popular Spanish Christian mythology. His life is unavoidably a paradox, in which
‘from modest origins among the aristocracy of Old Castile he so prospered that he ended his life as the
independent ruler of… Valencia.’5 Fletcher’s thesis suggests a look ‘beyond the Pyrenees’ in order to
cast light on the veiled legacy of El Cid:
The Cid has too often been interpreted in a distortingly narrow, merely Spanish
perspective. But eleventh-century Europe at large was full of warrior adventurers. To try
to characterize some of the features of aristocratic life which were common to the noble
classes of Christendom at that time is to liberate Rodrigo from the shackles of patriotic
hero-worship and to assist, it is hoped, a juster appreciation of him as a man of his time
– a remarkable one, certainly, but not unique.6
Embedded within his central argument, Fletcher makes two fundamental claims: first, he argues
that understanding the life of Rodrigo Diaz requires a thorough examination of 11th century aristocratic
warriors at large, affirming notions of Christian reconquest as neither articulated nor widely shared.
Secondly, he argues that the legendary El Cid parts significantly from the historical Rodrigo Diaz,
whose accomplishments ‘unveiled’ can be deemed significant, yet not aggrandized.
In the first part of Fletcher’s work, he maps out the historical development of the peninsula in
order to provide a landscape within which the Cid grew up. Fletcher argues that the two centuries
preceding the reign of the Cid can be characterized by a “markedly fissile tendency, where a single
political authority has had the greatest difficulty in imposing its will upon the provinces.”7 Given this
particularity, Fletcher paints the picture of a highly mutable socio-political structure, suggesting that the
fracture of the tenth century caliphate of Al-Andalus into smaller taifa kingdoms was an inevitable

5
6
7
prospect.8 In contrast, the experience in the north saw the development of tiny polities into larger and
more sophisticated kingdoms by the eleventh century, unified by their “common enemy across the
religious frontier.”9 Typical of the second half of the eleventh century was a growing movement to
encourage new settlement through royal patronage, and it is upon this foundation that Fletcher argues
that Rodrigo Diaz can be apprehended as a Castilian of the feudal aristocracy who perceived the
Moorish south “not [as] danger but opportunity.”10 Dissenting from the common perception which
views the tale of the Cid as the story of a rag to riches, Fletcher suggests that the landscape of 11th
century Christian Spain was a period dominated by the constant warfare of military elite.
When commenting on the exile of Rodrigo Diaz at the hands of King Alfonso VI, Fletcher
suggests that such an outcome was common given Rodrigo’s status as a prominent military leader in
Castile. In effect, the image of the Cid fits comfortably with the paradigm of “war as a means of
livelihood… the pursuit of feud and the experience of exile: these activities [were] central to the quality
of aristocratic life in eleventh century Europe.”11 Fletcher also looks across the Mediterranean to the
heroic Bohemond, ‘Prince of Antioch’, and conqueror of Jerusalem to reinforce this assessment. He
argues that the Cid’s exploits can be cast in the same mould as Bohemond, having conquered Valencia
for a mere eight years, and leaving no male heirs to continue his legacy.12 By placing El Cid within the
program of military settlement, accomplishing deeds not unlike anyone before him, Fletcher lends
weight to his first claim, namely, that the actions of Rodrigo Diaz can be interpreted as nothing greater
than being characteristic of the time in which he lived.
The second component to Fletcher’s argument emerges out of his treatment of the sources in
determining the historical authenticity of the legend of the Cid. Fletcher frequently cites Ramon

8
9
10
11
12
Menendez Pidal’s La Espana del Cid as a reference point for his own work. Nonetheless, our attention
should be given particularly to the four contemporary sources from which Fletcher fashions the life of
Rodrigo Diaz, forming the backbone of the latter half of his work. The first source is the Carmen Campi
Doctoris or ‘Song of the Campeador’, a set of Latin verses celebrating the early exploits of Rodrigo Diaz,
likely composed around 1083. The author praises Rodrigo as a military hero, demonstrating his
familiarity with the life of the Cid was well as his own proficiency with ancient texts.13 The next source,
and the most important to Fletcher, is the Historia Roderici, which chronicles the deeds of Rodrigo,
beginning from his early years and concluding with his death in 1099. Fletcher uses this source often,
arguing for its composition around 1125. Similar to the Carmen, the Historia demonstrates the author’s
familiarity with the topography of eastern Spain where Rodrigo campaigned.14 More importantly, the
source stands out, since it provides a more critical view of the life of Rodrigo that is not present in
more popular accounts. For example, when describing the Cid’s conquest of Toledo, Fletcher reports,
“the Historia tells us that he rounded up 7000 captives, ‘ruthlessly laying hold of all their wealth and
possession, and brought them back home with him’… The king and his advisers were ‘very gravely
displeased”.15
The final two sources both provide an Arab account of the Cid’s deeds, shedding light on the
tone of public life in the age of the taifa rulers16. Ibn ‘Alqama’s work of local history in the town of
Valencia specifically offers an Islamic reaction to the Cid’s rulership over the city between 1094-1099.
The second source comes from Ibn Bassam, who composed an encyclopedia of notable inhabitants in
al-Andalus.17 From these texts, Fletcher demonstrates how popular legends concerning the life of the
Cid stray significantly from the historical certainties found in the sources. Far from the image of the

13
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15
16
17
emphatically Castilian, uncompromisingly Christian, and consistently loyal military warrior18, “what is
fairly clear is that Rodrigo could make his own terms. The king was desperate, and was prepared – or
could be bought – to pay Rodrigo handsomely for returning to his service.”19 Yet the most significant
highlight of Fletcher’s argument arises not from the sources he employs, but rather from the sources he
fails to make use of: the Poema de Mio Cid as well as the Primera Cronica General. It is upon this choice that
a critique of Fletcher’s argument emerges.
The Poema de Mio Cid, arguably the most influential of the sources pertaining to El Cid, casts
Rodrigo Diaz into the virtuous role of military hero. Yet for Fletcher, “the poem is important to us
because in it for the first time there steps forth a Cid who has moved some way from the Rodrigo Diaz
of history. He is not unrecognizably different. Yet the fact remains that in the epic the first and most
decisive step – judged only of course on the evidence of surviving texts – from history into myth has
been taken.”20 The difficulty that arises from this position is whether historical inaccuracy necessarily
discounts the use of a source, particularly where historical exactness is so difficult to ascertain. In any
historical investigation, the reliance on sources deemed inaccurate is commonplace. For example,
Fletcher makes use of Ibn Ammar’s poetry to demonstrate the consumption of alcohol by Muslims in
Toledo, knowing full well that the source does not provide good evidence for practice. Even in the case
of Rodrigo, Fletcher himself admits that the Islamic sources demonstrate an understandable hostility
towards the Cid, but justifies their addition by arguing that, “it is this very hostility which gives the work
its value.”21 Why then does the Poema, which propagates an “understandable praise towards the Cid,”
get left out?
The Poema de Mio Cid, likely written between the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, is in
part, historical in nature. As Fletcher admits, “the Cid in history was indeed exiled by Alfonso VI, he

18
Fletcher. The Quest for El Cid, 193-194.
19
20
21
did defeat the count of Barcelona, he did capture Valencia, he was victorious over the Almoravides.”22
Take for instance the Poema’s praise at the conquest of Valencia, reporting: “You held Valencia for me,
and I won the field… God and all his saints send us this enormous treasure.”23 While Fletcher suggests
that the author embellishes the success, disposing the source as unreliable, it can be seen just as clearly
in the Historia Roderici how momentous this event was even during the Cid’s lifetime: “By God’s
clemency Rodrigo defeated all the Almoravides. Thus he had victory and triumph over them, granted to
him by God.”24 Yet perhaps most interesting is Fletcher’s acknowledgment that works of hagiography,
albeit easy to mock for their embellishments, “constitute one of the modern historian’s most important
sources of information about the early medieval period. Sensitively handled, the lives of the saints have
much to tell us about beliefs, assumptions and expectations which can be gleaned from no other
source.”25 Similarly, there is much to be discovered regarding the moral expectations in the Chronicles
post-dating the Cid. In my own review of the Poem of the Cid, I argue that the Poema, by glorifying the
Cid and criticizing the infants, offers a moral judgment on the various figures in the text, demonstrating
how in medieval Castile, “the value of remaining obedient to one’s obligations expresses the moral
character of the virtuous.”26 Rather than simply disregarding such sources in light of their historical
misrepresentations, in the face of works like the Poema and the Primera Cronica, it is worth considering
the value of restoring earlier texts by “enlarging the corpus of information about the Cid with what…
[is] reliable, near-contemporary materials embedded like fossils in the strata of the much later
chronicles.”27

22
23
Paul Blackburn and George Economou. Poem of the Cid: A Modern Translation with Notes. (Norman: University Of
Oklahoma Press, 1998), 88.
24
25
26
Adam Giancola. “Mio Cid el Campeador: A Model of Obedience” (paper submitted for evaluation, University of
Toronto, Ontario, February 20, 2012).
27
It remains clear that Richard Fletcher’s The Quest for El Cid provides an excellent re-examination
of the legendary tale of Rodrigo Diaz. By introducing a more contextual approach to current
scholarship on El Cid, he is able go beyond a mere rejection of the myth, and to argue that the
authenticated life of Rodrigo Diaz as aristocratic warrior fits comfortably into the Christian history of
medieval Spain as well as Europe at large. Nonetheless, it has also been shown that such historical
conclusions cannot be satisfied through a simple examination of the sources contemporary to the Cid.
Sources like the Poema and the Primera Cronica, to which Fletcher dismisses, beg a further examination
into the particularities of the Cid’s life that currently remain indefinite, and simultaneously help to
explain the devotional legacy of El Cid that has come to dominate popular belief.
Bibliography:
Blackburn, Paul, and George Economou. Poem of the Cid: A Modern Translation with Notes. Norman:
University Of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
Fletcher, Richard. The Quest for El Cid. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Giancola, Adam. “Mio Cid el Campeador: A Model of Obedience.” Paper Submitted for Evaluation,
University of Toronto, Ontario, February 20, 2012.

What Our Limited Skill Can Do We Have Done': A Review of The Quest For El Cid By: Adam Giancola

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What Our Limited Skill Can Do We Have Done': A Review of The Quest For El Cid By: Adam Giancola

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arise from the sources themselves.

cast light on the veiled legacy of El Cid:

whose accomplishments ‘unveiled’ can be deemed significant, yet not aggrandized.

than being characteristic of the time in which he lived.

a critique of Fletcher’s argument emerges.

get left out?

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