An 11th-century warlord who fought for both Christian and Muslim rulers left behind a reputation that expanded into myth.

As Berend examines El Cid’s legacy ... coupled with the lofty rhetoric of crusade and Reconquista made The Cid particularly relevant as a heroic precursor to Franco,” who consciously portrayed ...

El Cid—a Spanish title derived from the Arabic ... there was no “clear-cut ideology of ‘Reconquest’”—Reconquista, in Spanish—driving Christian soldiers onward. That fabled noun ...