Jimena Díaz

El Cid and Doña Jimena as Gigantes in Burgos

Jimena Díaz (sometimes just Doña Jimena ) (* around 1045 in Oviedo (?); † around 1116 in Burgos ) was the wife of the Spanish national hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , better known as El Cid , from 1074 to 1099 . After his death, she remained the mistress ( señora ) of the city of Valencia for three years .

Life

Doña Jimena was possibly the daughter of Count Diego Fernández of Oviedo ( Asturias ), who died shortly after her birth. According to the Historia Roderici , a biography of the Cid written at the end of the 12th century and already bearing many legendary features , she was the niece of Alfonso VI. from León . In 1074 she married the military leader ( campeador ) Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in the Church of San Lorenzo in Palencia . It is not known whether she followed her husband in his first exile to the court of the Emir of Zaragossa (1080-1086). During the second exile of her husband (1093) she was ordered by Alfonso VI. placed under arrest with her three children. In 1094, however, her husband won a decisive victory over the Moors at Valencia and entered the city victorious; his wife followed him there. He died in 1099 and his widow remained the mistress of the city for the next three years until it was handed over to the Almoravids . In her preserved will of May 1101, she bequeathed all of her possessions to the Cathedral of Valencia . She probably spent the last years of her life in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña near Burgos, where she was also buried at the side of her husband. In 1921, the remains of both were transferred to Burgos Cathedral.

Movie

In Anthony Mann's 1961 film adaptation El Cid , Díaz was played by Sophia Loren .

literature

• Manuel Carriedo Tejedo: La ascendencia de doña Jimena Díaz, mujer del Cid. in: Boletín del Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos (113, year 38) , 1984, ISSN  0020-384X , pp. 999-1066 ( PDF; 8.3 MB ).
• Margarita C. Torre Sevilla-Quiñones de León: El linaje del Cid . In: Anales de la Universidad de Alicante - Historia Medieval 2000–2002, ISSN  0212-2480 ( PDF; 0.3 MB ).

Web links

• Doña Jimena Diaz de Asturias - Info (Spanish)