The World of El Cid Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest

This book makes available, for the first time in English translation, four of the principal narrative sources for the history of the Spanish kingdom of Leoacute;n-Castile during the 11th and12th centuries. The four chronicles were all composed in an unprecedented surge of Spanish historical writing between c.1110 and c.1150. Three of them focus primarily upon the activities of the kings of Leoacute;n-Castile as leaders of the Reconquest of Spain from the forces of Islam, and especially upon Fernando I (1037-65), his son Alfonso VI (1065-1109) and the latter's grandson Alfonso VII (1126-57). The fourth chronicle is a biography of the hero Rodrigo Diacute;az, better remembered as El Cid, and is the main source of information about his extraordinary career as a mercenary soldier who fought for Christians and Muslims alike.

Simon Barton is Reader in Medieval Spanish History at the University of Exeter.

Richard Fletcher is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York.