Scratch that, after a chat with the moderators I am just going to keep this thread as a repository for my wonderful stories.
So, without further adieu:
Las Historias de Vivar
El Cid
Defender of Leon
El Cid
Rise & Fall
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Scratch that, after a chat with the moderators I am just going to keep this thread as a repository for my wonderful stories.
So, without further adieu:
Las Historias de Vivar
El Cid
Defender of Leon
El Cid
Rise & Fall
I've always wanted to see an anecdotes thread. Not AARs, just little stories that have happened.
El Cid
1096~1110
«Defender of Leon»
The seemingly inconsequential marriage of Deigo Rodriguez de Vivar to Teressa Gonzalez de Lara, daughter of Duque Gonzalo of Castillia, was anything but. Greatness would spring from the union, though not from Diego's loins. Deigo was something of a disappointment for his father, Rodrigo Diaz, Condado de Valencia, El Cid. Try as he might, El Cid could not make his son into a great warrior, though Diego did have some small amount of skill in courtly management and intrigues. I certainly was not impressed with these attributes either, and I can assume that El Cid's heart was rankled by the sheer size of the gulf that separated him from his son. In fact, it threatened to bismirch the de Vivar name, or at least all the hard work and heroism that El Cid had put in over the course of his long, illustrious life.
Father & Son; Worlds Apart
True to real-life, El Cid of Crusader Kings 2 is a valiant hero, peerless warrior, and brilliant commander. Paradox saw fit to make El Cid the best general ever; I have yet to see or make a character that comes close to El Cid's martial ability. Ultimately this would prove to be both a blessing and a curse for Rey Alfonso VI, who was styled 'the Brave' during his lifetime in real life and in-game, of Leon and the slew of Jimenez monarchs that would come after him. Somewhat deviating from history, El Cid and Rey Alfonso VI were not outright enemies in 1096. Just a year prior the condado de Valencia had reigned as a free prince over a small, but prosperous realm that he had wrested from incapable Muslim hands. Earlier in 1096, however, El Cid knelled before the king that had banished him and swore an oath of loyalty; not out of any sense of feudal duty, but from fear of the future.
In 1096 Iberia was awash with Muslim princes that threatened to rise up and overwhelm Spanish Christendom in a tide of religious wars. Not long after the birth of El Cid's granddaughter, who was named after Diego's mother, Jimena Diaz, in the fall of 1097 the small sheikdom of Evora fell to forces of Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin, giving the Almoravid Sultanate of Mauretania & Andalusia near-complete control of southern Iberia. Just a decade prior the taifa Muslim princes traded their freedom for the protection of Yusuf's armies from Rey Alfonso VI, and now Yusuf was poised to strike out at the Kingdom of Leon by retaking the rich provinces of Toledo, Cuenca, and Molina. The Sultan declared war in the first days of 1098.
Iberia c.1096
Alfonso's and El Cid's reactions were immediate; the king summoned up the forces of Leon & Castile, while El Cid gathered a sizable band of his own fearsome knights. Nearly 7,000 soldiers were gathered between Rey Alfonso VI and El Cid, and by the end of January they marched for the northern borders of Yusuf's empire in Al-Andalus. History caught up with El Cid in the last days of March. Real-life would have placed Diego Rodriguez in front of a Muslim blade in the 1097 Battle of Consuegra, but in-game Yusuf did not declare war in 1097 and he did not lead his armies into La Mancha. Instead battle was met around Toledo, and during one skirmish Diego Rodriguez was shot through the heart by a Muslim arrow.
At the time El Cid was fending off Almoravid forces lead by an Almoravid lordling, Yafar of Merida, who sought to recapture Valencia for the Muslims. For nearly three months El Cid chased Yafar all across Valencia until he was able to defeat and capture the craven captain in a battle outside of Valencia itself. News of his son's death reached El Cid that summer as he set out to join his forces with Rey Alfonso. El Cid grieved, but that grief turned to a grim determination to defeat the armies of Sultan Yusuf. During August El Cid and Rey Alfonso VI's combined forces rampaged across north-eastern Badajoz. In mid-October the two intercepted an advance force of nearly 3,000 Muslims who had besieged Illescas, Toledo, and after a pitched battle was fought the Leonese emerged victorious.
Thereafter Yusuf suffered defeat after defeat. The war spiraled out of control for the Almoravid forces, but it raged on for three more years. Each year saw El Cid secure more and more victories for himself and his people, and admittedly Alfonso VI lived up to his epithet after a few key victories in 1099 and 1100. In August of 1101 Sultan Yusuf saw the writing on the wall and begged for peace with the Leonese. Spanish Christendom was safe for the time-being.
History would have El Cid die in the next year, 1102, in much the same manner as his son died in-game. However, the Almoravids were beaten back, truces were signed, and my El Cid was able to spend the last months of 1101 and majority of 1102 building up his fief in Valencia. Here El Cid proved himself to be as capable a statesman and lord as he was a warrior. Villages all around Valencia were settled by Castellano subjects. However, El Cid's oversight of the settlement efforts would be left to his wife, Jimena, by the late summer of 1102. A warrior as great as he could scarcely sit still for long, and El Cid's advanced age weighed heavy on his mind. The victory over Sultan Yusuf was great, but El Cid desired victories that were even greater.
On the 25th of September Rey Alfonso VI called El Cid to lead the Leonese armies once again, this time against the independent Emir of Valencia. El Cid obliged his rapacious liege, and for the rest of 1102 he commanded Alfonso's offensive that saw the Muslims defeated and besieged in Castellon. However, the control Rey Alfonso VI could have ever claimed over El Cid was nominal at best. After a series of arguments between El Cid and Alfonso, El Cid abandoned his liege's armies, declared war on the Emir of Valencia, mustered his own armies, and marched for the rich province of Denia.
Along the journey to Denia a strange event occurred. I cannot quite explain it myself, for El Cid both in-game and out is an example of chivalry at its finest. Whether it was for comfort, for lust, for politics, or for whatever other reason, El Cid, Condado de Valencia, Mariscal of Leon, and Hero of all of Spanish Christendom took his dead son's wife, Teresa Gonzalez de Lara, to bed.
Next Time: The Rise & Fall of El Cid
1096~1110
«Defender of Leon»
The seemingly inconsequential marriage of Deigo Rodriguez de Vivar to Teressa Gonzalez de Lara, daughter of Duque Gonzalo of Castillia, was anything but. Greatness would spring from the union, though not from Diego's loins. Deigo was something of a disappointment for his father, Rodrigo Diaz, Condado de Valencia, El Cid. Try as he might, El Cid could not make his son into a great warrior, though Diego did have some small amount of skill in courtly management and intrigues. I certainly was not impressed with these attributes either, and I can assume that El Cid's heart was rankled by the sheer size of the gulf that separated him from his son. In fact, it threatened to bismirch the de Vivar name, or at least all the hard work and heroism that El Cid had put in over the course of his long, illustrious life.
Father & Son; Worlds Apart
True to real-life, El Cid of Crusader Kings 2 is a valiant hero, peerless warrior, and brilliant commander. Paradox saw fit to make El Cid the best general ever; I have yet to see or make a character that comes close to El Cid's martial ability. Ultimately this would prove to be both a blessing and a curse for Rey Alfonso VI, who was styled 'the Brave' during his lifetime in real life and in-game, of Leon and the slew of Jimenez monarchs that would come after him. Somewhat deviating from history, El Cid and Rey Alfonso VI were not outright enemies in 1096. Just a year prior the condado de Valencia had reigned as a free prince over a small, but prosperous realm that he had wrested from incapable Muslim hands. Earlier in 1096, however, El Cid knelled before the king that had banished him and swore an oath of loyalty; not out of any sense of feudal duty, but from fear of the future.
In 1096 Iberia was awash with Muslim princes that threatened to rise up and overwhelm Spanish Christendom in a tide of religious wars. Not long after the birth of El Cid's granddaughter, who was named after Diego's mother, Jimena Diaz, in the fall of 1097 the small sheikdom of Evora fell to forces of Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin, giving the Almoravid Sultanate of Mauretania & Andalusia near-complete control of southern Iberia. Just a decade prior the taifa Muslim princes traded their freedom for the protection of Yusuf's armies from Rey Alfonso VI, and now Yusuf was poised to strike out at the Kingdom of Leon by retaking the rich provinces of Toledo, Cuenca, and Molina. The Sultan declared war in the first days of 1098.
Iberia c.1096
Alfonso's and El Cid's reactions were immediate; the king summoned up the forces of Leon & Castile, while El Cid gathered a sizable band of his own fearsome knights. Nearly 7,000 soldiers were gathered between Rey Alfonso VI and El Cid, and by the end of January they marched for the northern borders of Yusuf's empire in Al-Andalus. History caught up with El Cid in the last days of March. Real-life would have placed Diego Rodriguez in front of a Muslim blade in the 1097 Battle of Consuegra, but in-game Yusuf did not declare war in 1097 and he did not lead his armies into La Mancha. Instead battle was met around Toledo, and during one skirmish Diego Rodriguez was shot through the heart by a Muslim arrow.
At the time El Cid was fending off Almoravid forces lead by an Almoravid lordling, Yafar of Merida, who sought to recapture Valencia for the Muslims. For nearly three months El Cid chased Yafar all across Valencia until he was able to defeat and capture the craven captain in a battle outside of Valencia itself. News of his son's death reached El Cid that summer as he set out to join his forces with Rey Alfonso. El Cid grieved, but that grief turned to a grim determination to defeat the armies of Sultan Yusuf. During August El Cid and Rey Alfonso VI's combined forces rampaged across north-eastern Badajoz. In mid-October the two intercepted an advance force of nearly 3,000 Muslims who had besieged Illescas, Toledo, and after a pitched battle was fought the Leonese emerged victorious.
Thereafter Yusuf suffered defeat after defeat. The war spiraled out of control for the Almoravid forces, but it raged on for three more years. Each year saw El Cid secure more and more victories for himself and his people, and admittedly Alfonso VI lived up to his epithet after a few key victories in 1099 and 1100. In August of 1101 Sultan Yusuf saw the writing on the wall and begged for peace with the Leonese. Spanish Christendom was safe for the time-being.
History would have El Cid die in the next year, 1102, in much the same manner as his son died in-game. However, the Almoravids were beaten back, truces were signed, and my El Cid was able to spend the last months of 1101 and majority of 1102 building up his fief in Valencia. Here El Cid proved himself to be as capable a statesman and lord as he was a warrior. Villages all around Valencia were settled by Castellano subjects. However, El Cid's oversight of the settlement efforts would be left to his wife, Jimena, by the late summer of 1102. A warrior as great as he could scarcely sit still for long, and El Cid's advanced age weighed heavy on his mind. The victory over Sultan Yusuf was great, but El Cid desired victories that were even greater.
On the 25th of September Rey Alfonso VI called El Cid to lead the Leonese armies once again, this time against the independent Emir of Valencia. El Cid obliged his rapacious liege, and for the rest of 1102 he commanded Alfonso's offensive that saw the Muslims defeated and besieged in Castellon. However, the control Rey Alfonso VI could have ever claimed over El Cid was nominal at best. After a series of arguments between El Cid and Alfonso, El Cid abandoned his liege's armies, declared war on the Emir of Valencia, mustered his own armies, and marched for the rich province of Denia.
Along the journey to Denia a strange event occurred. I cannot quite explain it myself, for El Cid both in-game and out is an example of chivalry at its finest. Whether it was for comfort, for lust, for politics, or for whatever other reason, El Cid, Condado de Valencia, Mariscal of Leon, and Hero of all of Spanish Christendom took his dead son's wife, Teresa Gonzalez de Lara, to bed.
Next Time: The Rise & Fall of El Cid
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El Cid
1096~1110
«Rise & Fall»
Actually, I think I can explain El Cid's uncharacteristic lascivious advance on his former daughter-in-law. For all his patience, diligence, charitableness, and bravery El Cid was not stupid. Both his daughters were due to be married to various Leonese noblemen, and the death of Diego in 1098 coupled with the agnatic-cognatic gavelkind succession laws of Valencia, the de Vivar holdings would be split among El Cid's remaining daughters and from their given to the future sons—sons who were not de Vivar. History saw the death of Diego closely followed up by the death of El Cid, who was too preoccupied with fighting against the Almoravids to sire a new son of the de Vivar name. But this is not history, it is a game. I do not think it is too far-fetched to believe that the 'Game Over' screen a player gets when his character is succeeded by a member of a different dynasty is the same 'Gave Over' a lord living in the medieval period would have in his head as he lay on his deathbed without a son in sight. Given his extended life, the availability of a vaguely attractive and fertile young woman, and the necessity of a male heir El Cid could have bed Teresa out of purely political means. We know that the real-life El Cid loved his wife Jimena, but at the same time the real-life chronicles of El Cid's deeds sees him abandon his children for glory. Who knows, my El Cid may just have been horny!
However, the ramifications of 'doing the deed' would not come for another year. The next day Teresa awoke to an empty bed; El Cid had slipped away early in the morning to lead his men into battle. A week later Denia was besieged, and by August it had fallen, alongside Castellon to the north. The Emir of Valencia capitulated to Rey Alfonso VI, leaving El Cid in the lurch as both Denia and Castellon went to the victorious Leonese king. Rey Alfonso VI was not a greedy man, nor was he blind to the power that El Cid and his exploits commanded among the nobility and commoners alike. Out of the 'generosity of his spirit' Rey Alfonso VI 'awarded' the province El Cid had captured himself, making El Cid condado of both Valencia and Denia.
The 'Graciousness' of Rey Alfonso VI; The Gains of El Cid
The rest of 1103 passed quietly as El Cid attempted to assimilate his new Muslim subjects by sending a contingent of priests to convert the populace and soldiers to crush those who violently fought back. On February 15th of 1104 a son was born to El Cid and Teresa Gonzalez, the young Fruela Rodriguez, who would later be called 'the Holy'. Being a just man, and not to mention practical, El Cid not only acknowledged his bastard son, but legitimized Fruela. Further steps were taken to see El Cid's realm kept whole by adopting primogeniture over the splintering tenets of gavelkind, which was supported by all the lords of Valencia and Denia save for El Cid's own family.
Jimena Diaz and her daughters would scarcely have time to complain to El Cid; it did not take long before Rey Alfonso VI was at war with the Muslims again. The Emir of Badajoz sought to outdo his liege, Sultan Yusuf, and declared a holy war for to recapture the Leonese-held provinces of the Toledo region. A large pitched battle was fought by El Cid and the Almoravid forces outside of Vila Real on the 26th of March, and El Cid lead the christian forces to victories after a number of super-human feats of bravery and martial prowess. After the severe defeat at Vila Real the Emir of Badajoz's forces continued to be harried by El Cid and Alfonso until the battered emir begged for peace in mid-May. Spanish Christendom, again, was saved.
El Cid returned home to the fanfare of his subjects, but his family turned the cold shoulder to him and, surprisingly, Teresa Gonzalez ignored the further advances of the great Spanish hero. In the almost half-year that El Cid was away it seemed that Teresa had become something of a pariah in the Valencian court, causing her to develop a severe depression that ultimately would culminate in her suicide many decades later. El Cid, however, knew nothing of this and spent the vast majority of the remaining year in the court of Rey Alfonso VI. There he trained more Christian soldiers for the battles to come, but also lent an ear to the political intrigues of the prosperous kingdom.
By January of 1105 El Cid tired of his 'liege'. The king constant ordered Alfonso back and forth between the royal demesne to train soldiers here and there, and all the mock combat only managed to increase El Cid's thirst for the bloody glory that could only be found on the battlefield. In December of 1104 a falling out occurred between El Cid and Rey Alfonso VI after the condado de Valencia refused an invitation to Alfonso's yuletide banquet after the king made it clear that El Cid would not participate in an upcoming campaign against the Emirate of Zaragoza.
To put it simply, Zaragoza was an easy target. The ducado de Barcelona did not have the liberty of this view due to his ruinous defeat at the Emir of Zaragoza's hands some five years prior; a defeat that saw the entirety of Barcelona put under Muslim control. Alfonso rightly guessed that a renewed offensive from the Almoravid Sultan to the south was due in a few short years, and so in order to prepare for the inevitable he aimed to rid himself of one less enemy. War was declared on the Emir of Zaragoza in early January of 1105.
El Cid was wroth. As Alfonso rode out to lead his armies, the greatest hero of Spanish—no, all Christendom was left to teach mewling boys how to wield a sword. True to his ambitious and defiant nature El Cid waited only a short while, just two weeks after Alfonso set out, in fact, before abandoning his position and declaring a war of his own on the Zaragozan emir. El Cid's target was Albarracin.
In the months between January and May Rey Alfonso VI saw success after success on the battlefield against his Muslim foes. By early April Calatayud was in Leonese hands and the king marched on Zaragoza itself, hoping to end the war then and there. Alfonso was entirely aware that his quarrelsome vassal, El Cid, had launched a separate war, but it did not seem that the Leonese king was as wroth with his subject as his subject was with him. Out of a mixture of generosity, admiration, and keen familiarity with his realm's politics Rey Alfonso VI sought to humble El Cid by ennobling the beloved hero with the ducado de Valencia.
If Alfonso believed raising El Cid to dukedom would placate his brazen subject the king was utterly wrong. El Cid simply continued to besiege Albarracin, and it fell a few months later on the 23rd of September. Peace was made a day later and El Cid became condado de Albarracin, adding to his rapidly increasing fiefdom. Not long after Rey Alfonso VI also concluded a peace with the defeated Emir, resulting in Calatayud and Zaragoza becoming a part of the Leonese kingdom.
The next few years were quiet ones for El Cid. Some development was put into Valencia's lacking walls, and late in 1106 Alfonso yet again awarded El Cid another fief by making El Cid condado de Castellon. Over the next two years El Cid saw his time divided between the Leonese court and his home in Valencia. Both he and Rey Alfonso VI knew that the peace could not last forever, and neither were surprised when Sultan Yusuf declared war for Toledo, yet again, on May 6th of 1108.
El Cid was immediately ordered to continue to train the Leonese soldiers while Alfonso and a cadre of his favorite nobles would lead the Christian armies into battle. Perhaps the Alfonso did not understand by now that El Cid would not be shunted aside so easily, or perhaps the AI just does not understand that a character with a 32 martial score needs to be out on the fronts, not in some ho-dunk province trying to make something out of the pathetic population. Regardless, El Cid abandoned his post, rode for Valencia, and mustered his own army of nearly 1,500 men.
Skirmishes were fought all along the Leonese-Badajozan border for the rest of 1108 as the forces of Leon and Mauretania attempted to out maneuver one another. On January 6th of 1109 a large battle was fought once again outside of Illescas that saw the Muslims broken and the armies of Leon victorious. Rey Alfonso VI then took his armies east to relieve Cuenca from the small band of Almoravids that had besieged them, but El Cid chased the larger Muslim army that he had just broken south into Calatrava. Though he was outnumbered nearly 3:1 he harried his foes so much that their forces dissolved around them, allowing El Cid to personally take several Almoravid lords into his custody. The war was over, and though Yusuf was loathe to admit defeat for the majority of 1109 peace was eventually signed on the 25th of November.
By now El Cid was nearly 66 years old, a decade older than he would have been had his life taken the historical route. Nonetheless, he did not seem any less able than when he was 40, but the same could not be said for Rey Alfonso VI. During the war with the Almoravids Alfonso's health deteriorated rapidly till the once valiant king was declared incapable to rule his realm shortly after peace was signed. His son-in-law, the duque de Galicia was named regent and for most nobles this was a wise decision. But not for El Cid and certainly not for me.
I am not entirely sure how it was managed, but the ruler of Galicia was a Franc, an outsider, and so was his daughter, the young Judith d'Ivrea. By 1109 in my game all of Rey Alfonso VI's sons had perished without heirs, leaving his granddaughter, Judith, to inherit Leon. The thought of a child on the Leonese throne was bad enough, as the AI seems to feel that after every succession a slew of lords must rebel, but the fact that that child-ruler would be a Franc, a member of an entirely different culture group? Leon would tear itself apart, leaving the Almoravids to swallow Iberia whole.
I knew this, El Cid knew this, and so he conspired to do the unthinkable shortly after the November peace. A month later, on Christmas Day no less, the eight-year-old Franc heiress-apparent was dead.
Unfortunately El Cid's assassin, a woman disguised as the late Judith's maid, was captured and executed, but not before she divulged El Cid's name to the Leonese crown. El Cid did not flee, being too brave for that, and was seized shortly after Judith's death. He was tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the despicable murder of a child, and the heiress of Leon no less, and would likely have been stripped of all his titles were it not for the efforts of Bishop Alvar of Hijar, who pleaded that the law be upheld and El Cid's once-bastard son Fruela continue to be the recognized heir of Valencia, Denia, Castellon, and Albarracin. That much Rey Alfonso VI would give, but his kindness ended there when it came to the fate of El Cid. El Cid would die a traitors death, his head severed from his body by an executioner's ax. No tears would be shed, no epic poetry or prose dedicated to his exploits. The name "El Cid" would go down in history as being synonymous with reckless ambition, self-serving loyalty, and unscrupulous politics—that is were it not for the future actions of Fruela, who would see El Cid's honor restored.
On the 21st of March, 1110 El Cid was executed publicly before a massive throng of nobles and peasants alike, none of whom dared call him a hero.
1096~1110
«Rise & Fall»
Actually, I think I can explain El Cid's uncharacteristic lascivious advance on his former daughter-in-law. For all his patience, diligence, charitableness, and bravery El Cid was not stupid. Both his daughters were due to be married to various Leonese noblemen, and the death of Diego in 1098 coupled with the agnatic-cognatic gavelkind succession laws of Valencia, the de Vivar holdings would be split among El Cid's remaining daughters and from their given to the future sons—sons who were not de Vivar. History saw the death of Diego closely followed up by the death of El Cid, who was too preoccupied with fighting against the Almoravids to sire a new son of the de Vivar name. But this is not history, it is a game. I do not think it is too far-fetched to believe that the 'Game Over' screen a player gets when his character is succeeded by a member of a different dynasty is the same 'Gave Over' a lord living in the medieval period would have in his head as he lay on his deathbed without a son in sight. Given his extended life, the availability of a vaguely attractive and fertile young woman, and the necessity of a male heir El Cid could have bed Teresa out of purely political means. We know that the real-life El Cid loved his wife Jimena, but at the same time the real-life chronicles of El Cid's deeds sees him abandon his children for glory. Who knows, my El Cid may just have been horny!
However, the ramifications of 'doing the deed' would not come for another year. The next day Teresa awoke to an empty bed; El Cid had slipped away early in the morning to lead his men into battle. A week later Denia was besieged, and by August it had fallen, alongside Castellon to the north. The Emir of Valencia capitulated to Rey Alfonso VI, leaving El Cid in the lurch as both Denia and Castellon went to the victorious Leonese king. Rey Alfonso VI was not a greedy man, nor was he blind to the power that El Cid and his exploits commanded among the nobility and commoners alike. Out of the 'generosity of his spirit' Rey Alfonso VI 'awarded' the province El Cid had captured himself, making El Cid condado of both Valencia and Denia.
The 'Graciousness' of Rey Alfonso VI; The Gains of El Cid
The rest of 1103 passed quietly as El Cid attempted to assimilate his new Muslim subjects by sending a contingent of priests to convert the populace and soldiers to crush those who violently fought back. On February 15th of 1104 a son was born to El Cid and Teresa Gonzalez, the young Fruela Rodriguez, who would later be called 'the Holy'. Being a just man, and not to mention practical, El Cid not only acknowledged his bastard son, but legitimized Fruela. Further steps were taken to see El Cid's realm kept whole by adopting primogeniture over the splintering tenets of gavelkind, which was supported by all the lords of Valencia and Denia save for El Cid's own family.
Jimena Diaz and her daughters would scarcely have time to complain to El Cid; it did not take long before Rey Alfonso VI was at war with the Muslims again. The Emir of Badajoz sought to outdo his liege, Sultan Yusuf, and declared a holy war for to recapture the Leonese-held provinces of the Toledo region. A large pitched battle was fought by El Cid and the Almoravid forces outside of Vila Real on the 26th of March, and El Cid lead the christian forces to victories after a number of super-human feats of bravery and martial prowess. After the severe defeat at Vila Real the Emir of Badajoz's forces continued to be harried by El Cid and Alfonso until the battered emir begged for peace in mid-May. Spanish Christendom, again, was saved.
El Cid returned home to the fanfare of his subjects, but his family turned the cold shoulder to him and, surprisingly, Teresa Gonzalez ignored the further advances of the great Spanish hero. In the almost half-year that El Cid was away it seemed that Teresa had become something of a pariah in the Valencian court, causing her to develop a severe depression that ultimately would culminate in her suicide many decades later. El Cid, however, knew nothing of this and spent the vast majority of the remaining year in the court of Rey Alfonso VI. There he trained more Christian soldiers for the battles to come, but also lent an ear to the political intrigues of the prosperous kingdom.
By January of 1105 El Cid tired of his 'liege'. The king constant ordered Alfonso back and forth between the royal demesne to train soldiers here and there, and all the mock combat only managed to increase El Cid's thirst for the bloody glory that could only be found on the battlefield. In December of 1104 a falling out occurred between El Cid and Rey Alfonso VI after the condado de Valencia refused an invitation to Alfonso's yuletide banquet after the king made it clear that El Cid would not participate in an upcoming campaign against the Emirate of Zaragoza.
To put it simply, Zaragoza was an easy target. The ducado de Barcelona did not have the liberty of this view due to his ruinous defeat at the Emir of Zaragoza's hands some five years prior; a defeat that saw the entirety of Barcelona put under Muslim control. Alfonso rightly guessed that a renewed offensive from the Almoravid Sultan to the south was due in a few short years, and so in order to prepare for the inevitable he aimed to rid himself of one less enemy. War was declared on the Emir of Zaragoza in early January of 1105.
El Cid was wroth. As Alfonso rode out to lead his armies, the greatest hero of Spanish—no, all Christendom was left to teach mewling boys how to wield a sword. True to his ambitious and defiant nature El Cid waited only a short while, just two weeks after Alfonso set out, in fact, before abandoning his position and declaring a war of his own on the Zaragozan emir. El Cid's target was Albarracin.
In the months between January and May Rey Alfonso VI saw success after success on the battlefield against his Muslim foes. By early April Calatayud was in Leonese hands and the king marched on Zaragoza itself, hoping to end the war then and there. Alfonso was entirely aware that his quarrelsome vassal, El Cid, had launched a separate war, but it did not seem that the Leonese king was as wroth with his subject as his subject was with him. Out of a mixture of generosity, admiration, and keen familiarity with his realm's politics Rey Alfonso VI sought to humble El Cid by ennobling the beloved hero with the ducado de Valencia.
If Alfonso believed raising El Cid to dukedom would placate his brazen subject the king was utterly wrong. El Cid simply continued to besiege Albarracin, and it fell a few months later on the 23rd of September. Peace was made a day later and El Cid became condado de Albarracin, adding to his rapidly increasing fiefdom. Not long after Rey Alfonso VI also concluded a peace with the defeated Emir, resulting in Calatayud and Zaragoza becoming a part of the Leonese kingdom.
The next few years were quiet ones for El Cid. Some development was put into Valencia's lacking walls, and late in 1106 Alfonso yet again awarded El Cid another fief by making El Cid condado de Castellon. Over the next two years El Cid saw his time divided between the Leonese court and his home in Valencia. Both he and Rey Alfonso VI knew that the peace could not last forever, and neither were surprised when Sultan Yusuf declared war for Toledo, yet again, on May 6th of 1108.
El Cid was immediately ordered to continue to train the Leonese soldiers while Alfonso and a cadre of his favorite nobles would lead the Christian armies into battle. Perhaps the Alfonso did not understand by now that El Cid would not be shunted aside so easily, or perhaps the AI just does not understand that a character with a 32 martial score needs to be out on the fronts, not in some ho-dunk province trying to make something out of the pathetic population. Regardless, El Cid abandoned his post, rode for Valencia, and mustered his own army of nearly 1,500 men.
Skirmishes were fought all along the Leonese-Badajozan border for the rest of 1108 as the forces of Leon and Mauretania attempted to out maneuver one another. On January 6th of 1109 a large battle was fought once again outside of Illescas that saw the Muslims broken and the armies of Leon victorious. Rey Alfonso VI then took his armies east to relieve Cuenca from the small band of Almoravids that had besieged them, but El Cid chased the larger Muslim army that he had just broken south into Calatrava. Though he was outnumbered nearly 3:1 he harried his foes so much that their forces dissolved around them, allowing El Cid to personally take several Almoravid lords into his custody. The war was over, and though Yusuf was loathe to admit defeat for the majority of 1109 peace was eventually signed on the 25th of November.
By now El Cid was nearly 66 years old, a decade older than he would have been had his life taken the historical route. Nonetheless, he did not seem any less able than when he was 40, but the same could not be said for Rey Alfonso VI. During the war with the Almoravids Alfonso's health deteriorated rapidly till the once valiant king was declared incapable to rule his realm shortly after peace was signed. His son-in-law, the duque de Galicia was named regent and for most nobles this was a wise decision. But not for El Cid and certainly not for me.
I am not entirely sure how it was managed, but the ruler of Galicia was a Franc, an outsider, and so was his daughter, the young Judith d'Ivrea. By 1109 in my game all of Rey Alfonso VI's sons had perished without heirs, leaving his granddaughter, Judith, to inherit Leon. The thought of a child on the Leonese throne was bad enough, as the AI seems to feel that after every succession a slew of lords must rebel, but the fact that that child-ruler would be a Franc, a member of an entirely different culture group? Leon would tear itself apart, leaving the Almoravids to swallow Iberia whole.
I knew this, El Cid knew this, and so he conspired to do the unthinkable shortly after the November peace. A month later, on Christmas Day no less, the eight-year-old Franc heiress-apparent was dead.
Unfortunately El Cid's assassin, a woman disguised as the late Judith's maid, was captured and executed, but not before she divulged El Cid's name to the Leonese crown. El Cid did not flee, being too brave for that, and was seized shortly after Judith's death. He was tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the despicable murder of a child, and the heiress of Leon no less, and would likely have been stripped of all his titles were it not for the efforts of Bishop Alvar of Hijar, who pleaded that the law be upheld and El Cid's once-bastard son Fruela continue to be the recognized heir of Valencia, Denia, Castellon, and Albarracin. That much Rey Alfonso VI would give, but his kindness ended there when it came to the fate of El Cid. El Cid would die a traitors death, his head severed from his body by an executioner's ax. No tears would be shed, no epic poetry or prose dedicated to his exploits. The name "El Cid" would go down in history as being synonymous with reckless ambition, self-serving loyalty, and unscrupulous politics—that is were it not for the future actions of Fruela, who would see El Cid's honor restored.
On the 21st of March, 1110 El Cid was executed publicly before a massive throng of nobles and peasants alike, none of whom dared call him a hero.
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Thank you for your interest!
At the moment I am just waiting for 1.04/Wizmod .22 to come out before I start doing up some more AAR's. A slew of them should be produced this weekend.
At the moment I am just waiting for 1.04/Wizmod .22 to come out before I start doing up some more AAR's. A slew of them should be produced this weekend.