ABSTRACT
Possibly it was in Arabic literature that the Cid came across the story of how the last King of the Goths lost Spain. The hero’s proud boast, recorded by Ibn Bassam, that “a Rodrigo lost this Peninsula, but another Rodrigo shall regain it”, has already been quoted. The more malicious Ibn Alcama attributes to him a similar phrase, which, he infers, was inspired by mere personal ambition : “I will subdue all Andalusia; though, like King Rodrigo, I be not of royal stock, I too shall reign and shall be King Rodrigo the Second.” In this connection, although several Arab historians assert that King Rodrigo was not of royal descent, all the Christian chronicles that have come down to us are either silent on the point or claim that he was descended from former kings. It is possible, however, and even likely, that the Cid obtained his information from some now lost Latin or Mozarab legend; for the Arab historians themselves admit that it was in Christian books they read that King Rodrigo was not of royal lineage.
