Cid, El, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1040-1099)

Spanish soldier, nicknamed El Cid (‘the lord’) by the Moors. Born in Castile of a noble family, he fought against the king of Navarre and won his nickname el Campeador (‘the Champion’) by killing the Navarrese champion in single combat. Essentially a mercenary, fighting both with and against the Moors, he died while defending Valencia against them, and in subsequent romances became Spain's national hero.

Much of El Cid's present-day reputation is the result of the exploitation of the legendary character as a model Christian military hero by the Nationalists during the Civil War, with Franco presented as a modern equivalent in his reconquest of Spain.