250 



CICINDELLA 



CID CAMPEADOR 



Cicindella, a genus of beetles in the section 

 Pentamera, and type of a family with some 300 

 species. They are very active, and occur abund- 

 antly on sandy places. C. campestris is a common 

 British species of a green colour. 



Cicisbe'O, a professed gallant who waits with 

 fantastic devotion upon a married lady. In the 

 higher ranks of Italian society it was at one time 

 considered unfashionable for the husband to asso- 

 ciate with his wife anywhere except in his own 

 house ; and in society, or at public places of amuse- 

 ment, the wife was accompanied Iby her cicisbeo. 

 Cicisbeo is synonymous with cavaliere servente. 



Cicu'ta. See HEMLOCK. 



Cidarls, a genus of Sea-urchins (q.v.), and 

 type of a family ( Cidaridae ) with very long spines. 

 The most of the members of the family are'fossil 

 forms, but over a score of living species are known. 

 Dorocidaris papillata is occasionally dredged to the 

 north of Scotland, and its beautifully marked 

 spines in some instances measure over six inches 

 in length, being often twice as long as the cross 

 diameter of the shell. It is sometimes popularly 

 called the Piper from a fanciful resemblance to 



Cid Campeador, the name, or rather names, 

 by which the most renowned Spanish warrior of 

 the llth century is best known. By his Moorish 

 vassals he was called ' Sid-i ' ( ' my lord ' ), which the 

 Spaniards translated by Mio Cid r and a victory in his 

 youth over a Navarrese champion in single combat 

 gave him the title of Campeador. His real name 

 was Rodrigo, or Ruy, Diaz ( i. e. ' son of Diego ' ). He 

 was a Castilian noble by birth, seventh in descent 

 from Nuno Rasura, who was also ancestor of the 

 royal line of Castile. He was born either at Burgos 

 or at Bivar near it, about the year 1040. From 1065 

 to 1072 he was nominally alferez, or 'ancient,' but 

 virtually commander of the foi'ces to Sancho II. of 

 Castile in the wars in which that king wrested the 

 kingdoms of Leon and Galicia from his brothers. 

 In 1072 Sancho was treacherously slain at the siege 

 of Zamora, and as he left no heir the Castilians 

 had to acknowledge Alfonso, the banished king of 

 Leon. As a conciliatory measure Alfonso gave his 

 cousin Ximena, daughter of the count of Oviedo, 

 to the Cid in marriage, but after wards, in 1081, 

 when he found himself firmly seated on the throne, 

 yielding to his own feelings of resentment, and 

 incited by the Leonese nobles, he banished him 

 from the kingdom. According to 'tradition he 

 never forgave the Cid for having, as leader of the 

 Castilians, compelled him to swear that he had no 

 hand in the murder of his brother Sancho, but there 

 is no need to look for any cause beyond the heredi- 

 tary animosity between the Castilians and the 

 Leonese, now intensified in the latter by recent 

 defeat and humiliation, for which they held the Cid 

 responsible. At the head of a large body of 

 followers the Cid betook himself to Moctadir of the 

 Beni Hud, the so-called king of Saragossa, to whom, 

 and to his son and grandson, he rendered important 

 services against their enemies the king of Aragon 

 and the count of Barcelona. In conjunction with 

 Mostain, grandson of Moctadir, he invaded Valencia 

 in 1088, but afterwards carried on operations on his 

 own account, and finally, after a long siege, made 

 himself master of the city in June 1094. The 

 Almoravides, then in possession of south and 

 central Spain, twice sent large armies against him, 

 but were each time routed with great loss. For 

 five years he reigned like an independent sovereign 

 over the fairest and richest territory in the Penin- 

 sula, but in July 1099 he died suddenly, of grief, the 

 Arabic annals say, at .the news that some of his 

 men had been defeated. His widow held out for 

 two years longer, and then retired, carrying with 



her the embalmed body of the Cid, which for ten 

 years sat enthroned beside the high altar at San 

 Pedro de Cardeiia, near Burgos. 



The Cid's career cannot be better summed up 

 than in the words of a contemporary and an 

 enemy, Ibn Bassam of Seville, who wrote only 

 ten years after his death, and could cite the 

 testimony of one who knew him and was an eye- 

 witness of his deeds in Valencia. Of the Cid 

 whom he calls ' a Galician dog, one Roderic, sur- 

 named the Canbitur, the scourge of the country ' 

 he says : ' It was the Beni Hud who raised him out 

 of obscurity, and they delivered over to him divers 

 provinces of the Peninsula, so that he overran the 

 plains like a conqueror, and planted his banner in 

 the fairest cities. His power grew very great, nor 

 was there any district that he did not ravage. 

 Nevertheless this man, the scourge of his time, 

 was, in his love of glory, strength of character, and 

 heroic courage, one of the marvels of the Lord. 

 Victory always followed his banner God's curse 

 be on him.' The character of the Cid was, how- 

 ever, a somewhat complex one. There can be no 

 doubt of his cruelty, rapacity, and duplicity, for 

 the statements of the Moorish authorities are sub- 

 stantially confirmed by the Spanish, the Cronicas, 

 the Gesta Roderici Campidocti, and even the 

 Poema itself. But it may fee said for him that to 

 strike terror was one of the necessities of his 

 position, outnumbered as he was by a hundred to 

 one ; and had he not made plunder his prime 

 object the army he led would soon have melted 

 away. Unscrupulous condottiere as he was, fight- 

 ing for paymaster or plunder, he was nevertheless a 

 staunch patriot at heart. Ibn Bassam had it from 

 one who neard him that he said : ' This peninsula was 

 conquered under one Roderic, but another Roderic 

 shall deliver it.' He was an imperfect hero ; but he 

 was a born leader of men, and it was only natural 

 that a career like his should take a strong hold of 

 the popular imagination, and in an age when 

 minstrelsy flourished become a favourite theme 

 with the jongleurs and trovadores. These, when 

 facts began to run short, met the demand by draw- 

 ing upon their invention, and treated the Cid pre- 

 cisely as they treated Charlemagne. As they 

 invented the journey to Jerusalem, the expedition 

 to Galicia, the Bridge of Mantible, and the Emir 

 Balan for Charlemagne, so they devised an invasion 

 of France for the Cid, made him defy the emperor 

 Henry, beard the pope, cut off the head of the 

 count of Gormaz and marry his daughter ; and to 

 allow time for all, they put' back his birth twenty 

 years, and even extended the life of his charger 

 Bavieca to sixty. They also married his daughters 

 to the Infantes of Carrion, princes of the blood- 

 royal of Leon. Historically, the Cid's daughters 

 were married, one to a count of Barcelona, the 

 other to a prince of Navarre, a union by which his 

 blood passed into the royal line of Castile, and 

 thence into the Bourbon, Hapsburg, and our own 

 royal families. Alfonso X. adopted all the ampli- 

 fications of the minstrels in the Cronica General, 

 from which they found their way almost un- 

 questioned into the history of Spain ; and their 

 inconsistencies and absurdities have in some in- 

 stances led uncritical and somewhat indolent 

 historians like Masdeu and Dr Dunham to treat 

 the whole story of the Cid as a fable, and himself 

 as no better than a creature of popular fancy. 



Of the Cid literature it is impossible to give more 

 than a summary here. By far the most important 

 in every way of the works belonging to it is the 

 Poem, written undoubtedly in the last half of the 

 12th century, and probably the oldest document in 

 the Spanish language. It is more properly an epic 

 than a chanson de geste, and unquestionably the 

 most Homeric piece of medieval poetry in existence. 



