In the meanwhile, a Moor named Ali Abenaxa, who was a chief of those Almoravides, the moors who had recently come from North Africa, came with a great force of the Moors of Andalusia to besiege the Castle of Aledo. He did this, thinking that Alfonso would come against him with a small army and that he would be able to take or kill the king. When the king heard of this, he gathered a very large army, and sent word to the Cid to come to his help.
The Castle of Aledo is on the far left.
The Cid went to Requena, thinking he should meet the king there, but Alfonso went by another way, and the Cid waited for him several days, as that was the chief road on which he might be expected to come. But when the Moors knew that Alfonso was coming with so large an army, they fled as quickly as they could. Don Alfonso came to the castle, and there found that he was short of provisions, but he supplied the castle with arms and food as best he could.
The enemies of the Cid now told Alfonso that the Cid had delayed at Requena, knowing that the king had gone another way and hoping that the Moors might fall upon him. The king believed this, and was very angry, and ordered that all of the Cid’s possessions in Castile be taken from him, and sent orders that his wife and daughters should be made prisoners. When the Cid heard this, he sent a knight to the king to defend himself, saying that if there was a knight who would maintain that he had a better will to serve the king than he had, he would do battle with him body to body. But the king was so angry that he would not listen to this messenger.
Alfonso VI of León and Castile
Alfonso decided to go against Ali. The queen of Alfonso and the knights who were friends of the Cid wrote to the Cid that he should now come and help the king in his need in such a way that Alfonso should know he was his friend. When he had gotten these letters, the Cid left Zaragoza, where he was at this time, and went with a great following to Martos, where he found the king. Alfonso received him gladly, and they went on together for a time, but presently the Cid went into the plain and continued on before the king. The envious men who hated the Cid now said, “The Cid came after you like one who was wearied, and now he goes before you.” In this way they again set the king against him.
The Moors now were afraid to give Alfonso battle, and they retreated. When the Cid saw that the king was once more angry with him, he returned to Valencia, while Alfonso went back to Toledo.
After this Alfonso took a great army and went toward Valencia, and sent word to all the castles in that land, saying that for five years they should pay him the tribute that they had been paying the Cid. When the Cid learned this, he sent word to the king, saying he could not understand why the king sought thus to dishonor him, and that he trusted soon to make him know what bad advisors he had about him.
Presently the Cid gathered a great army of Moors and Christians and entered the land of King Don Alfonso, burning and destroying whatever he found, and he took Logrono and Alfaro also and sacked it. While he was at Alfaro, Count Garcia Ordonez and other knights sent word to him that if he would wait seven days they would give him battle. He waited for them twelve days, but they did not dare to come. And when the Cid saw this, he returned to Zaragoza.
When Alfonso learned that the Cid had been burning and destroying in his land, and that his chiefs dared not fight him, he saw that he had been wrong when he listened to evil counsel against him. He sent letters to the Cid, saying that he forgave him all that he had done, since he had given him the occasion to do it; and he urged him to come to Castile, where his property should all be restored to him. At this, the Cid was greatly rejoiced, and he wrote the king thanking him and asking that he would never again listen to bad counsel against him, as he was always at the king’s service.
Calvin Dill Wilson, The Story of the Cid: For Young People (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1901), 122–25.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 853
