Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 5 . T niE narratives concerning the life andexploits of the Cid are, to a greatextent, merely poetic. Yet it has beenwisely said, that much which must be re-jected as not fact may still be accepted astruth ; that is, there is often to be foundunder the husks of legend and myth, asound kernel of historical reality. Thismay be the case with respect to the Cid,who probably was a warrior so remark-able for genius or bravery above his fel-lows that he gat
Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 5 . T niE narratives concerning the life andexploits of the Cid are, to a greatextent, merely poetic. Yet it has beenwisely said, that much which must be re-jected as not fact may still be accepted astruth ; that is, there is often to be foundunder the husks of legend and myth, asound kernel of historical reality. Thismay be the case with respect to the Cid,who probably was a warrior so remark-able for genius or bravery above his fel-lows that he gathered up in a single famethe reputation of many others, with whosedeeds he was credited, and whom, as aclass, he accordingly represents in , long one of the most flourish-ing provinces of the Roman Empire, wasamong the first to tall under the sway of the Visigoths, a warlike but enlight-ened race, which soon embraced Christianity. For three centuries the country. NtuvlLLE PlNKI EDITH SEARCHING FOR THE BODY OF HAROLD. THE CID 57 remained under Gothic rule, but fell, in 712, by the invasion of the Arabian con-querors of Africa—a remnant of Christians only preserving an independent mon-archy in the mountains of Asturia. This little seed of freedom grew and borefruit. France proved a formidable barrier against further invasion ; and inSpain itself internal jealousies among the Arab families weakened the Moslemand strengthened the Christian power. In the eleventh century there wereseveral states in Spain wholly unfettered by a foreign yoke. The enmity be-tween the two races and creeds was bitter, and w^ar raged perpetually. Aet itoften happened that, at the prompting of private revenge or family quarrels,alliances were made between kingdoms thus naturally opposed to each recollection of this fact is essential to a clear understanding of Spanish his-tory at this period. At the commencement of the eleventh century the chief Christian states
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
