Stories from Carrion III

This is the last of 3 stories from the town of Carrion de los Condes

The name of the town is Carrion of the Condes (Counts)

To tell this story, I have to go back to reintroduce El Cid, the great Spanish warrior figure. El Cid was a kind of Robin Hood figure. Both were unfairly made into outlaws. The difference is that as far as we know Robin Hood was a fictitious character. There was never a specific real person called Robin Hood or Robin of Locksley. In contrast El Cid was a very real person. His name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. He was born in Burgos in 1048 and died in Valencia in 1099. His title means Great Leader in the Field (of Battle).

Early on in his career, El Cid was falsely accused of treason and was exiled by the then King of Castile, Alfonso VI. He was given a certain amount of time to leave Castile, and unknown to him, all other citizens of Castile were proscribed from providing any help or aid to El Cid on his journey into exile on pain of death. Exile in this case meant going south into what is now the middle of the Iberian Peninsula. And so as he traveled south, El Cid found towns, villages and farms closed to him. Eventually a small child told him that they could not help him (even thought many wanted to do) because the King would have them put to death.

However, before he crossed the border out of Castile a number of his followers joined him, choosing to go into exile as well, so when he left Castile he had a small army with him.

In that area of Spain today, there are a number of towns that have as part of their name the words de la Frontera (of the frontier) e.g. Jeriz de la Frontera, and at first you wonder why towns in the middle of Spain call themselves of the frontier. The reason is that at that time that was the frontier between Christian Spain in the north and Moorish Spain in the south.

El Cid became a sort of mercenary warlord in this frontier region and, as he was very good at what he did, he soon became very rich and powerful. El Cid was also a family man. He had 2 daughters of whom he was very proud and whom he loved very much. At some point 2 young men, the above mentioned Counts of Carrion came and joined his camp. These counts were not particularly good warriors and showed no evidence of courage in battle, but they did succeed in wooing, winning and marrying the 2 daughters of El Cid.

After an appropriate time they said that it was time for them to take their new wives and return to their land, the region of Carrion, and so a great cavalcade was prepared. El Cid showered his daughters and their new husbands with wealth and after tearful goodbyes the cavalcade left for Carrion.

However these were not nice young men, They were in fact quite evil. It was their plan to take the 2 young women deep into the forest, strip them, tie them to trees, beat them and leave them to die, which they did. However, El Cid had asked one of his trusted lieutenants to follow the cavalcade surreptitiously and see that his daughters were safe (which they were not) and that they arrived at their new homes in Carrion (which they never did). El Cid’s man found the 2 young women in the forest, rescued them, took them to a place where they were nursed back to health and then reported his findings to El Cid.
As you can imagine, El Cid was not happy. He was in fact enraged. By this time the expulsion order of the King had been reversed (although I don’t think El Cid ever returned to live in Castile) and El Cid followed the Counts to Carrion, slew them and took back the wealth that he had bestowed on them.

The 2 nefarious counts for whom the Town of Carrion de los Condes is named are buried in the Monasterio of San Zoilo on the western edge of Carrion. I passed the San Zolio on my way out of Carrion. I did not go in to pay my respects for the quite justifiably executed Counts (they did not deserve respect then or now), but I did wave as I walked by.

The 2 daughters of El Cid went on to make better marriages. And after a highly successful career El Cid retired to Valencia where he died peacefully in 1099.

The El Cid canto is one of the great works of Spanish literature, perhaps next only to Cervantes Don Quixote. Don Quixote has been translated into many languages and may be the first novel ever written. So we all know about the honorable but slightly crazed knight from La Mancha. The El Cid story is much less well known in the English speaking world. And that is a pity.

There was a movie made of El Cid some years ago. Apparently Charlton Heston, when he was not playing Moses had some time left over to play El Cid along with Sophia Loren. I don’t remember much about this movie and whether it had any degree of historical accuracy, however coming out of Hollywood I have only low expectations.

And speaking of Don Quixote, if the (fictitious) knight from La Mancha were around today he would be a very busy man indeed. We do not think of Spain as a mountainous country. But in fact Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe. Spain is divided by many ranges of mountains (many snow peaked) and hills. And on virtually all of the hills there are many, many wind turbines. Spain is into wind power in a big way.
However, were Don Quixote inclined to tilt at these modern windmills he might have to get a mechanical Rosinante because a horse would not be much of a match against a modern wind turbine.

So that is the third story from the Town of Carrion, a small town with an abundance of history.

Len


1048 to 1099 Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar