Rodrigo, last of the Gothic Kings of Spain, heard in his palace at
Toledo that the Moors had crossed from Africa to Gibraltar. A little
army led by Tarik landed in 711 and marched northward, conquering as
it went. King Rodrigo, with a great force of Spaniards, met them in
Andalusia. He commanded the center. The wings were led by King Witiza’s
sons, who, hoping to recover the country that Rodrigo had taken from
their father, joined the Moors, and pressed with them into battle.
Rodrigo was surrounded and cut down. The Moors marched northward,
taking city after city in the name of Mohammed, till all Spain was
theirs. The last of the Gothic kings had fallen.
From that day to this Toledo has never regained her position as the
capital of Spain. In the royal palace Tarik found twenty-five crowns of
the old Gothic kings, golden and richly jeweled; the Psalms of David
written on goldleaf with dissolved rubies, and the emerald table of
Solomon. Those crowns may still be seen; but no one has ever seen the
other treasures.
The Moorish kings, though they ruled Toledo mildly, had no end of
trouble from the haughty nobility, who, robbed of their high position,
were always in revolt against the conquerors. At last Sultan Hakim
decided to punish his unruly subjects. He gave them a governor of their
own race, who pretended to hate the foreigners, but was secretly in
league with Hakim.
Amron soon won the hearts of his people and built a great castle in the
middle of the city. There he held a reception for Prince Abd-er-Rahman,
to which all the nobles and rich citizens of Toledo were invited.
Feeling the honor of royal presence, which their city had not enjoyed
for many years, the Toledans went by thousands to the castle. Told to
enter one by one, noble and grandee went in--but not to feast. Five
thousand lost their heads in the trap. Amron thought, no doubt, that it
was a good joke; but he had not much time to enjoy it. When the people
realized what he had done a mob gathered and burned his castle, with
Amron in it.
Toledo was early freed from Moorish rule, and the greatest of those
who helped to maintain her independence was Rodrigo Diaz the Cid, who,
next to Napoleon, is held by many to be the foremost heroic figure in
European history. He held important court offices under Alfonso, living
in the Alcázar at Toledo. Many poems and stories have been written
about the Cid. He belonged to a noble family, married the granddaughter
of Alfonso V, and later made himself a king. The fate of a battle
was never in doubt if the Cid was fighting; for his side was sure of
victory. Toward the end of his life, after hundreds of battles and
duels, he made his most famous conquest, the taking of Valencia from
the Moors, in 1094. He ruled well and justly for the next five years
over Valencia and Murcia, and in 1099 died of anger over the defeat of
his favorite lieutenant. The Cid is Spain’s hero and saint, familiar to
all in legend and in song.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 31
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: ROYAL PALACE, MADRID, SPAIN]
_SPAIN AND GIBRALTAR_
_Madrid, the Capital_