CATHEDRAL OF TOLEDO, SPAIN
SPAIN AND GIBRALTAR
Toledo, the Ancient Capital
ONE
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.