Cid Campeador
THE (real name Don Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar), the national hero of Spain; was born in Burgos about 1040. The facts of his career have been wrapped by his admiring countrymen in such a haze of glorifying myths that it is scarcely possible to detect them. His life, however, appears to have been entirely spent in fierce warfare with the Moors, then masters of a great part of Spain. His exploits are set forth in a special chronicle, and in a poem of considerable interest, written not long after his death. His last achievement was the capture of Valencia, where he died in 1099. His exploits are celebrated in a Spanish poem supposed to have been published in the 12th or 13th century, from which Corneille has taken the subject of his masterpiece, "Le Cid."