XII. After this was King Don Alfonso crowned King of Castille, and
Leon, and Galicia, and Portugal; and he called himself King and Emperor
of all Spain, even as his father had done before him. And in the
beginning of his reign he did in all things according to the counsel of
the Infanta Doña Urraca his sister; and he was a good King, and kept
his kingdom so well, that rich and poor alike dwelt in peace and
security, neither did one man take arms against another, nor dare to do
it, if he valued the eyes in his head. And if the King was noble and
high of lineage, much more was he of heart; and in his days justice
abounded in the land so, that if a woman had gone alone throughout the
whole of his dominions, bearing gold and silver in her hand, she would
have found none to hurt her, neither in the waste, nor in the peopled
country. The merchants and pilgrims also who passed through his lands
were so well protected, that none durst do them wrong. Never while the
kingdom was his, had they of his land to do service to any other Lord.
And he was a comforter of the sorrowful, and an increaser of the faith,
and a defender of the churches, and the strength of the people; a judge
without fear; there was not in Spain a consoler of the poor and of
those who were oppressed, till he came. Now there was a mortal enmity
between my Cid and Count Garcia Ordoñez, and in this year did my Cid
gather together those of his table, and all his power, and entered into
the lands of Logroño, and Navarre, and Calahorra, burning and spoiling
the country before him. And he laid siege to the Castle of Faro and
took it. And he sent messengers to the Count his enemy, to say that he
would wait for him seven days, and he waited. And the mighty men of the
land came to the Count Don Garcia, but come against my Cid that they
dared not do, for they feared to do battle with him.
XIII. In the second year of the reign of King Don Alfonso, the King of
Cordova made war upon Alimaymon, King of Toledo, and did great damage
in his land, and held him besieged in Toledo; and King Don Alfonso drew
forth a great host and went to help the King of Toledo. When Alimaymon
knew that he was coming with so great a power, he was greatly dismayed,
thinking that he came against him; and he sent to remind him of the
love and the honour which he had shown unto him in the days of his
brother King Don Sancho, and of the oath which he had taken; and to
beseech him that he would continue in peace with him. And the King
detained his messengers, giving them no reply, and went on advancing
into the land, doing no hurt therein. And when he came to Olias, he
ordered the whole army to halt. And when the King of Cordova knew that
King Don Alfonso was coming, he rose up from before Toledo, and fled
away, and the men of Toledo pursued him, and inflicted great loss upon
him in his flight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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