El Cid . the facts behind the legend . by Henry Austin . the Canon in Don Quixote : there is no doubt that there was such a man as El Cid , but much doubt whether he achieved what is attributed to him . El Cid - the hero idealised in Spain &apos;s most famous mediaeval epic poem , also by Corneille and Victor Hugo , and now in an American spectacular film . what are the facts about this man who has inspired such a powerful legend ? Rodrigo de Vivar , named by the Moslem Spaniards , El Sayyid Campeador , the lord and champion , was born about 1043 and died at the age of 56 in 1099 . the date and place of his birth are unknown . his mother , of the Asturian nobility , and his father , a Castilian , lived in Vivar , a little village which even today is primitive and grim in appearance . the young Rodrigo found himself from the start in the midst of the strains and tensions that Spain was then enduring . this barren land , glacial in winter and torrid in summer , was on the frontier between the rival Christian kingdoms of Castile and Navarre , both sides allying themselves to one or other of the Moslem states of Spain to gain a temporary advantage . the Moslem Spaniards . at this stage of Europe &apos;s history , regional not national power was the chief motive in politics ; in Spain , neither secular nor religious unity was considered a goal worth fighting for . the small Christian states in the north were divided ; so were the Moslem states of central and northern Spain . the Moslems of Spain , the so-called Moors , were for the most part of Spanish blood . they had adopted the language and ways of living , and some the faith of the Moslems . many of them had two names , Moslem and European , and had adopted such customs as the harem and certain legal procedures . Arabic was the written language of law and commerce for two centuries after the Christian conquest of Toledo by Alphonso 6 in 1085 . peace and war . Rodrigo de Vivar has been called by one historian the most colourful of the Mozarabs , the Spaniards who had adopted the Moslem way of life ( in Arabic , mustarib ) . he spent most of his life among these people . having received a good education at the Christian court of Sancho 2 , King of Castile , he became the Constable of the little kingdom , a rank which included command of the army and of the legal administration . his first taste of action had been in the battle of Graus , at the age of twenty , between Sancho , in alliance with the Moors of Saragossa , and Ramiro 1 , King of Aragon . for the next twelve years of his life , he led a peaceful existence as a country gentleman , carefully looking after his property . during this time , he became involved in only one battle . Sancho sent him to Seville to collect tribute from the king , Motamid . while he was there Abdullah , King of Granada , attacked Seville but without success . apart from this one excitement , Rodrigo led a quiet life , in the words of Louis Bertrand , in his history of Spain , saddling his horse only to go and raid his neighbour &apos;s cows and sheep . Jimena . to please Alphonso , Sancho &apos;s brother and rival , he agreed to marry Jimena Diaz , daughter of the Count of Oviedo , and niece of Alphonso 5 , King of Leon . this marriage of convenience was designed to strengthen an alliance between the Castilian and Leonese nobility . later Rodrigo helped Sancho in his struggle for power with his brother , by suggesting a deceitful way of taking possession of Leon . a new period in Rodrigo &apos;s life began in his late thirties , in 1081 , when Alphonso 6 , Sancho &apos;s younger brother and successor , exiled him from his kingdom . he had , it was alleged , kept part of the tribute he had collected from Motamid of Seville . for this he was dismissed from the court and banished . at the head of three hundred free lances , he rode out of Vivar , leaving Jimena and his children , to begin a life of mercenary combat , living by what he could commandeer . in his subsequent conduct , made up of both cruelty and kindness , he was almost as much Moslem as Christian ( Philip Hitti , history of the Arabs ) . he first offered his services to Berenguer , the Christian Count of Barcelona . the count rejected him . he then travelled on to Saragossa , where Moktadir , the Moslem king now ruled . this time his offer was accepted . as Moktadir was in alliance with Alphonso of Castile , Rodrigo was not making any dramatic or even unusual departure from one way of life to another . such hard and fast divisions of humanity were to come later . at Saragossa , the old Roman town of Caesarea Augustus , Rodrigo served his new master well . fighting for him against the Christian King of Navarre , he won from his Moslem soldiers the title of El Cid Campeador . he extended the Moslem dominions at the expense of the Christian states of Aragon and Barcelona , and led raids into his former province of Castile . Moktadir , the King of Saragossa , was a man of letters and the cultured head of a court of poets , philosophers and tutors . Rodrigo made this court his home and the base for his career of freebooting . Saragossa , the most Islamised city of Spain , a town of minarets and mosques , fountains and entertainment , must have been a fascinating place to live in . Rodrigo lived here for more than ten years , until he established himself as sole ruler of Valencia in 1094 . Valencia . in the words of Louis Bertrand , the great love of the Cid was not Jimena ; it was Valencia . in charge of an army of seven thousand men , most of them Moslem , he besieged this Moslem city for nine months and finally defeated it . all the conditions he had agreed to before the surrender , he violated ; the Cadi , his opposite number , he burnt alive . before the occupation of Valencia , Rodrigo had shown inexcusable cruelty by throwing refugees from the city onto bivouac fires . he chased the remainder back into the town , unleashing his camp dogs onto them . having established himself as sole ruler of Valencia and Murcia , he summoned his wife and his daughters . he made the chief mosque a cathedral and installed an archbishop . in general policy he followed the course that he had adopted at the court of Moktamid , of peaceful co-operation with both the Christians and the Moslems in his domain . he proudly called himself Emperor of the two religions , but he withstood any prompting he may have received of giving himself the official title of King . the Berbers . Rodrigo and his family only enjoyed four years of rule in Valencia . in 1099 his realm was attacked by the Berber warriors of north Africa , attracted across the narrow Straits by the high standard of living and the riches of Moslem Spain . at the battle of Cuenca he was defeated and he died shortly afterwards of a fever . Valencia held out for another three years , at the end of which , Jimena left the city with her children , taking with her the bones of her dead husband , to bury them in the monastery of San Pedro at Cardena , near Burgos . the legend . the anonymous Poema del Cid , the finest and the oldest extant Spanish literary work , appeared in the latter half of the twelfth century . this poem , together with nearly two hundred ballads written about him , most of which were written in the sixteenth century , extol Rodrigo as a brave and chivalrous knight , and as the inspirational hero of the Christian conquest of Spain . the Poema has deeply influenced Spanish thought and the formation of the national character . El Cid , in fact , lived comfortably in both the Christian and Moslem courts of Spain . he fought the invading Berbers , it is true ; but then , so did the Moslem states of Spain also . some writers have tried to justify the claims made by the Poema and the ballads ; one of them , Louis Bertrand , in his history of Spain , can only say : it is impossible that this great Castilian should not have conceived the future unification of Spain as an absolute necessity . the known facts of Rodrigo &apos;s life show that he was more concerned with truly peaceful co-existence between the two religions ( with an occasional raid as a diversion and an extension of diplomacy ) than with the concept of total victory for one side or the other . Peter the great in London . by Francis Carr . the strangest sight in London in 1698 was that of the giant Tsar of Russia , striding out of his house in Norfolk Street , just off the Strand , and entering one of the local taverns to quaff a pint of ale . at six foot nine inches , he was certainly the tallest celebrity in the western world . on January 10th , of that year , at the age of twenty-six , Peter arrived in London . he had come from Amsterdam with an escort of three British war-ships aboard the royal transport , a fine new yacht which King William was later to present to him . stories of Peter &apos;s grand embassy had already spread throughout every country on the continent . never before had such a large body of Russians come so far from their native land , and never before had western Europe seen a Tsar . on his journey through Hanover Peter had met the beautiful Electress of Brandenburg , Princess Sophia Charlotte , whose husband , Frederick , was four years later to declare himself the first King of Prussia . she and her mother Sophia , the Electress of Hanover , gave a large banquet in Peter &apos;s honour ; being unused to western manners , he became embarrassed and almost speechless . he amused the company by saying , in reply to questions about his favourite pastimes , from my youth up I have had a real passion for navigation and fireworks . after the banquet he played to the court on his own drum . in Holland he lived incognito as a carpenter in the shipyards of the east India company at Amsterdam . this soon became an open secret , but Peter insisted on keeping up the pretence , turning his back on anyone calling him your majesty . he lived and dressed as a workman , lit his own fire and cooked his own meals . the Duke of Marlborough came to the shipyards to look at him , and the foreman pointed him out - hardly necessary on account of his great height - by saying : Peterbas ( Master Peter ) , help those men carry the planks . during the five months he stayed in Holland , he studied , besides carpentry , navigation , astronomy , law-court procedure , fortification , mathematics , printing , botany , copper-plate engraving , surgery , dentistry , and the making of fire-engines and fireworks . he impressed his instructors by his eagerness to learn and the speed with which he grasped the essentials of each subject . he arranged for 345 Dutch sailors , several ship &apos;s captains and doctors , and many other craftsmen to sail to Russia to teach their various skills . having been told ( by an Englishman ) that in England he would find the cleverest shipbuilders in the world , he asked King William , whom he met in Utrecht , for permission to come to this country . this was gladly given , and the King , when he was back in England , gave him his newest yacht , the royal transport , a handsome vessel mounting twenty brass cannon , and three men-of-war as escort . Peter set sail from Amsterdam with a dozen of his friends , having left behind the greater part of his embassy to continue their apprenticeship in the Dutch shipyards and munition works . in charge of the convoy was Vice-Admiral Mitchell , to whom Peter later said , while watching a sham naval battle off Spithead , that he thought an English admiral was a happier man than a Tsar . in his shirtsleeves . after three days at sea the Russians arrived at Greenwich , where Peter left his yacht and boarded the royal barge , which took him to the Strand . here he was given a house in Norfolk Street . this soon resembled a stable . three days after his arrival , William called on him and was taken up to his bedroom , where the Tsar met the King in his shirtsleeves . 