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Artistic License History / El Cid (2020)

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    El Cid 
  • The show juggles traditional and modern historiography in presenting Ruy as being born in Vivar to a Castilian father and Leonese mother, with his father being disgraced to King Fernando and his maternal grandfather being involved in a conspiracy against him. Ironically, it is more likely that said grandfather and mother were Castilian (at the very least they had most of their properties there), while a new theory emerged that his father, Diego Laínez, was a cadet (or bastard) member of the Flaínez family of Leon, but gained most of his lands in Castile due to his marriage and the wars with Navarre.
    • Diego lost his lands in Leon for unknown reasons. There is a theory, though very minoritary, that they were confiscated for being involved in Count Flaín's rebellion. If true, his participation must have been limited because he retained his properties in Castile (in the show, Ruy claims he only left him his sword) and he would be still alive in the 1060s, while traditional historiography (e.g. Menéndez-Pidal) placed his death around 1058. The show has him die even earlier, in 1054, from injuries at the Battle of Atapuerca.
  • Rodrigo gaining the title Campeador at the 1063 Battle of Graus is Dated History. In real life, he might have been as young as 15 and not present in the battle. Today, it is believed that he got the title from winning duels in the 1060s, the 1072 Battle of Golpejera (most favored), or even the 1079 Battle of Cabra.
  • Season 2 ends with tensions between Rodrigo and Sancho building until they can barely tolerate each other during the siege of Zamora, culminating with Sancho sending Rodrigo away. In Real Life, sources are unanimous that they got along perfectly and Rodrigo was in Zamora until the siege ended.

    Flaín 
  • Count Flaín lost his titles and lands after a revolt against Fernando between 1062 and 1065, the details of which are lost to history. In the show, this revolt is a Conspicuously Public Assassination, but it fizzles out and Fernando dies of unrelated causes, without knowing of Flaín's involvement or taking action against him. As a result, Flaín's titles and power pass to his son after his own death intact.
  • Flaín was indeed a widower, but he remarried and had three sons with his second wife (he's not known to have had children with the first). The second wife (named Toda) likely survived him.
  • Flaín was not feudal lord over Oviedo. He was briefly Duke of Astorga, which is outside modern Asturias but shares an etymology with it.
  • Flaín was the brother of Jimena's father and possibly also a distant relative of Diego Laínez. In the show they are unrelated and he arranges his son's marriage to Jimena.

    Other 
  • Orduño replaces García Ordóñez, likely because of One-Steve Limit. Ordóñez was not related to Flaín nor Count of León; he was a Castilian who was made Count of Nájera the year El Cid was exiled. However, he was also a personal friend of Alfonso VI (like Orduño), a distant relative, and went quickly into his service.
  • Jimena's father was named Diego, not Celso. He might have been dead already by 1046.
  • Alfonso's tutor Pedro Ansúrez, who was his lord's mainstay during his exile, is Adapted Out. In the series Alfonso's tutor is Flaínnote , he escapes with help of Urraca and Bishop Bernardo, and is guided to Toledo by Amina of Zaragoza.
  • Sádaba is loosely based on Sadaro or Sadada, a Zaragozan Muslim who infiltrated the Aragonese camp during the Battle of Graus dressed as a Christian and assassinated Ramiro I, then made the Aragonese leave by "alerting" that the king had died. Sadaro was presumably white, in order to pose as an Aragonese, while in the show he is a Scary Black Man One-Man Army who kills the king in open battle. The Aragonese then leave because Ramiro's son (called Beltrán in the show instead of Sancho) yells that the King of Aragon has died.
  • The only things known about Queen Alberta are her name and marriage to Sancho. She's presumed foreign because Alberta was not a name used in Spain at the time, but the name "Oiubreda" seems invented for the show (the Old English version of Albert is Aethelbeorht). Her father in the show, Aelfgar of Mercia, really existed, but he is not recorded to have had a daughter named Alberta/Oiubreda or any connection to Castile (Aelfgar's one documented daughter, Ealdgyth/Edith, married none other than Harold Godwinson).

Culture

    Architecture 
  • Zaragoza has a stereotypical "Arabian Nights" Days design and build (with mosques or palaces crowned by absolutely gigantic domes, visible from a long distance away), when in real life it would have been much more plain-looking and similar to its Christian neighbours.
  • The series is set in the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, but is shot in Soria and Burgos, showing the Frías Bridge built in the 13th century. Other castles used as locations are Torrelobatón, Adrada, Ampudia, and Almenar, which have buildings from the 14th and 15th centuries.
  • The first time Sancho and Ruy leave for Zaragoza, they pass under a stone gate that clearly lost some battlements to decay and was restored without adding them back.

    Heraldry 
  • The show uses heraldry extensively to establish the different kingdoms. In reality, heraldry was created in the following century, largely as a result of the Crusades.
  • The purple lion of Leon was introduced by Alfonso VII in 1127, and the golden castle of Castile in 1170 by Alfonso VIII because of his marriage to Eleanor of England, yet the series shows them as early as 1063. Sometimes the flag of Leon is incorrectly colored golden and red, as in an infamous promotional tweet that assigned a 13th century version of the flag of Zaragoza to the Kingdom of Leon and claimed that Leon and Castile were united because of "love" rather than Fernando's conquest.
  • The placing of heraldry sometimes gets downright random. For instance, there's a large Castilian cuartelado crest in the rooms of Queen Sancha (overlooking that said crest wasn't used until 1230), as well as Castilian flags next to Leonese flags in the city of Leon.
  • The Kingdom of Aragon uses a black cross pattée with a pointed lower end (called "Cross of Íñigo Arista"). While this symbol was associated with Ramiro I, it was first identified as such by Pedro IV in the 14th century, three hundred years after Ramiro's death.
  • The Kingdom of Galicia uses a golden chalice on a dark blue field, with one large, prominently-displayed banner in Ribadavia depicting the chalice surrounded by golden crosses. The chalice as a symbol of Galicia was first depicted in the Segar's Roll, from England, in the 13th century, while the chalice on a blue field with crosses was flown as part of Charles V's funerals in the 16th century.
  • The Kingdom of Navarre (which historically would have been the Kingdom of Pamplona) uses an older version of the Royal Standard of Navarre, which was recorded from the 13th century onwards only.

    Military 
  • Jousting, especially in the Paso Honroso style portrayed in the series, wouldn't appear until several centuries later.
  • Season 1's MacGuffin is a richly-decorated stiletto dagger (explicitly identified as such) which is used in an assassination attempt against Fernando I, and then frequently reappears throughout the season. Stiletto daggers date from the 15th century, not the 11th. Additionally, the dagger is said to have belonged to the late King García of Navarre, yet it has a distinctive "ear hilt" design which was typical of 15th-century Muslim Granada.
  • Rodrigo's sword in the series is a reproduction of Joyeuse, which, though claimed to be Charlemagne's sword, is dated to the 13th century.
  • Likewise, the sword Rodrigo is gifted by al-Muqtadir of Zaragoza after the Battle of Graus is a 15th-century Granadan jineta.
  • Related to the above, while the Moors are correctly shown using straight-bladed swords in battle (bar a few background extras with curved scimitars at the Battle of Golpejera), these swords are jinetas too. It's likely they were used because they have a distinct design compared to the swords used by the Christian kingdoms; in reality, the swords used by the Moors and the Christians would have been practically identical.
  • The armour used by the Moorish horsemen of Zaragoza consists of either leather armour or a chainmail-and-armour-plates combination. The latter armour type was more typical of 15th-17th century Ottomans. Historically, the Moors would have equipped themselves very similarly to Christian knights, favouring chainmail over leather, and there would have been few differences in equipment.
  • The Zaragozans use heart-shaped shields, decorated with tassels. While this type of shield did exist in Spain, it actually appeared during the 13th century.
  • The Saxon Oiubreda equips herself in High Fantasy/LARP-looking leather armour with Pelts of the Barbarian, wields a similarly unrealistic-looking axe, and in general looks like she stepped off the set of Vikings. In reality, there's little reason she wouldn't use equipment similar to the Castilians, like hauberk, nasal helm, and a round shield, as these were typically used by Anglo-Saxon nobility.
  • While only making a brief appearance at the end of Season 2, the Moorish guards escorting Alfonso in Toledo are clearly holding glaives, which wouldn't be widely used in Europe until the 15th-16th centuries.
  • Urraca's armor (admittedly symbolic in-universe) has a plate gorguerin and shoulders, which started being added to mail in the late 13th century.

    Religion 
  • The Catholic Church is generally portrayed as more unified and influential than it was, with the opinion of "Rome" being invoked as a deciding factor in the legitimacy of kings. In this time, Rome had just broken with Constantinople, while Western Spain was coming out of isolation due to the Muslim conquest. It was precisely Fernando and his children who helmed this process by promoting the St. James pilgrimage, the entry of the Cluniac monks and their reforms. The show misses a chance to portray this as the End of an Age and add another conflict between Cluniacs and traditionalists opposed to their new ways, which would be intertwinned with the deeper Castilian-Leonese conflict.
  • Bernard of Sedirac, the presumed basis of Bishop Bernardo, was one of said Cluniacs and arrived in Leon in 1080, almost two decades after the start of the series. Bernardo uses the Roman Rite in the show, likewise introduced in 1080 to replace the native Mozarabic Rite.
  • Bernardo's speech of Holy War and defeating Islam are decades early and evoking of the fervor around the First Crusade in 1096. If Bernardo is a version of Sedirac, he could have been written as a zealous foreigner not familiar with sharing borders and foreign relations with infidels, but there is no indication of this. As far as the show is concerned, Bernardo is Leonese and representative of the Astur-Leonese church.
  • The first season has no idea about Medieval funerary practices. Fernando's body is placed in his grave without a shroud, and the scene where the victorious army at Graus brings a pile of their own battle dead naked on a cart back to Leon, "Bring out yer dead!"-style, is gratuitous shock-value. Today it would take a man five days walking non-stop to cover that distance, so imagine a Medieval army. Battle casualties were buried in the nearest cemetery unless unretrievable; only people who had made a will expressing their desire to be buried elsewhere and paid for the transport would be transported, and they were embalmed to stave off decomposition. Treating the deceased better than dead meat was not simply a matter of respect, but common sense. It gets better in the second season, with Sancha being shown in burial shroud and the cost of a personalized gravestone being alluded to.
  • Much like Bernardo is an embodiment of the clergy, the Basilica of St. Isidore is a replacement for all relevant religious locations in Leon. The real Basilica was a monastery and private chapel for the royal family, kings were crowned in the Cathedral of Leon, and Alfonso was forced to become a monk in Sahagún monastery. Moreover, the Basilica wasn't consecrated to St. Isidore until December 1063, several months after the Battle of Graus. Before, the monastery was dedicated to St. Pelagius and the church to St. John the Baptist.

    Other 
  • Fernando I is called both King and Count of Castile in the same scene, implying that he created the Kingdom of Castile at one point before the series, while still retaining the Count title. Historically he rose the County of Castile to Kingdom when he divided the realm on his deathbed so all of his sons would have the dignity of King.
  • Contrary to the female characters' claims, Leonese women weren't powerless and subjected to a "law of men" in the Kingdom of Leon. The Fuero de León gave women multiple rights, and also had the figure of the Infantado, an institution by which noblewomen who kept themselves single (as well as some who married, in special cases) had the right to own and manage their own lands and riches. The claim that being a woman would stop Urraca from reaching the throne is especially funny, because at the time there was no law explicitly barring women from the throne in any case. In fact, when Fernando divided the kingdom, his decree included his daughters Elvira and Urraca, who became ladies of Toro and Zamora (confusingly, the show includes this detail, though Season 2 has Urraca imply that it was only due to her intervention). Knowing this, it's little wonder that the historical daughter of Alfonso VI, Urraca I of Leon, would go on to become the first reignant queen of Western Europe.
    • The "powerless" Leonese noblewomen are contrasted with Zaragoza's free-spirited princess Amina, almost implying that the former would have it better if they were Muslim. The idea that Muslim Spain was somehow more progressive towards women than their Christian neighbors is oddly persistent in pop culture, but has no basis in reality. The golden age of al-Ándalus did feature a certain presence of women in arts and law, but those were limited to rich elites and actually represented a departure from Islamic customs rather than a result of those (al-Ándalus was known by its relaxation due to its remoteness from other centers of Islam, with its inhabitants consistently violating all other prohibitions on alcohol, partying hard and heterodoxy), and tellingly, it would be all undone long before the events of the series, as the territory deterioriated and foreign dynasties like the Almoravids reverted to a more rigorous enforcement of Islam. Season 2 makes an attempt at an Author's Saving Throw at this by implying that Amina is an unusually spoiled Daddy's Girl from an equally progressive holdover.
    • Season 2, in turn, also introduces Saxon warrior princess Oiubreda. Put both together and it would seem Christian Spain was a No Woman's Land compared to its neighbors of both sides. Yet historically, Moors and Franks alike were amused, when not condemning of the Spanish for giving women too much power.
  • The first season has a similarly misguided class warfare message. In one scene, Orotz tells Ruy that they may hang with "kings, princes, and nobles" but that they "aren't like them", meaning they are commoners. Yet Orotz is the king's firstborn's master-at-arms and Ruy is his squire and the son of a knight, which would realistically be limited to nobles - or, in the rare occasion a commoner got near such position, guarantee they became a nobleman. In fact, a commoner that owned a horse and rode it to battle was a caballero villano ("villain-knight" - note "villain" means "villager" here, not the meaning we give it today) and legally entitled to the same privileges as an infanzón, the lowest nobility rank that fought on foot (the latter being what Menéndez-Pidal believed Diego Laínez's family had been).
    • In short, the show simplifies the feudal system into a dichotomy with the royalty and (high) nobility on one side, and commoners who are one hair away from destitution on the other. This ignores how costly it actually was to be a warrior (since so many poor commoners in the show have no trouble getting horses and weapons and making it their sole occupation), how this stuff was paid for (in land and agriculture rents), and in turn how someone, particularly in Spain compared to other places in Western Europe, could gain them and advance in social rank (the institution of presura allowed anyone to take some borderland in war and cultivate it, as long as they could defend it; kings also gave extensive rights to people willing to live in frontier towns, called fueros). It makes no sense that Trifón would be Sancho's champion and at the same time his wife and children would be raggedy and starving in Leon, unless he was pilfering their income and did not care for the shame and potential retaliation this would bring him (we have no indication that this is the case, of course, and his wife clearly loves him).
    • Season 2 also makes an Author's Saving Throw about this. Sancho allows Orotz to remain his master-at-arms despite his injury and finally knights Ruy in reward for his loyalty; Alfonso offers Ruy land and a noble wife while reminding him that he is from an old Leonese lineage (all but settling that past hardships were because of his father's disgrace to Fernando).
  • The costumes used by the characters are a mix of anachronistic fashion (everything from the 13th to the 17th century, even) and High Fantasy-style clothing, like unrealistically large cleavages for female characters, very dark colors instead of the light hues used at the time and setting, and a lot of Game of Thrones-esque leather and fur instead of textiles (as well as an instance where a character is clad in white for no reason, a color that was used solely in mourning dress). Similarly, the goatee worn by Count Flaín is characteristic of the 17th century, absolutely not of the Middle Ages.
  • The crowning ritual in the second season wasn't used until the end of the 12th century. The classical ceremony of knighting shown in the series is also from this period.
  • The Galicians use bagpipes before battle. While the bagpipe is an iconic instrument in Galicia, they're not recorded or depicted in Spain until the mid-13th century.

Other events

    Events 
  • Vikings attacking Asturias in the first season. While Vikings were recent enough to be cited as a reason to fortify Galicia in the 1050s (along with Muslim pirates), their last documented attack in Christian Spain (also in Galicia) was in 1014, and the last in Muslim Spain in 1031. The last mention of Vikings in Asturias is from the 1020s, but they fought as allies of the Asturians against Basque pirates, funnily enough (some historians believe these weren't actually Vikings but mercenaries from Britain). By the 1060s maritime Scandinavia was Christian, and raiding fellow Christians was taboo.
  • The Season 2 plot of Ruy attacking Zaragoza to make them resume tribute to Castile is loosely based on Fernando attacking in 1065 for the same reason, before the division of the kingdom. Fernando then proceed to Valencia with the intention of vassalizing it, but became ill during the siege and returned to Leon, where he died months later. Thus, Fernando's health was not shattered by news of Ramiro's death, nor was Urraca likely involved in the halting of tribute or the king's death.
  • What actually had Sancho's attention at the beginning of his reign was the War of the Three Sanchos against his cousins Sancho Garcés IV of Navarre and Sancho I of Aragon in 1065-1067. In the show, this war is shoved into the leadup to the Battle of Graus and reduced to the semi-legendary 1066 Combat by Champion at Pazuengos (some believe it was a battle rather than a duel).
  • Sancha did not move to Castile and become Sancho's counsellor after her husbands's death; she retired to St. Isidore's monastery (where she had been abbess in her youth) and presumably died of natural causes. In the series she is rather spectacularly thrown off a balcony by her daughter Urraca.
  • The war between Sancho and García happens almost immediately after their mother dies. While no date is given in the episode when Sancha dies, the battle at Galicia is explicitly dated in 1071. Galicia was invaded in 1071, but Sancha died in 1067, a full four years before.
  • Mendes is named after Nuno Mendes, the Count of Portugal. Instead of encroaching in Toro, Mendes rebelled against García and was killed at the Battle of Pedroso. García won with troops from Galicia proper, but to secure them he had to let the recent assassination of his ally the Bishop of Santiago go unpunished (replaced in the show by the assassination of García's privado). The news made García's brothers (and sisters) get together and decide that he was unfit to rule and had to be removed. The battle in the show is a mix of Pedroso (northern forest environment, bagpipes, García winning in the beginning) and García's capture at Santarem (which may or may not have involved a battle).
  • Sancho didn't annex the whole of Galicia for himself, but gave the southern half (Portugal) to Alfonso (briefly).
  • García and Alfonso were held prisoner in Burgos, not Leon (though their conversation in the show is true to their thoughts on the matter).
  • As far as we know, the Battle of Golpejera did not involve Muslim troops, and Alfonso really honored his promise to fight a Trial by Combat-like battle instead of ambushing his brother earlier when he was at a disadvantage.
  • Historical sources are divided on whether Alfonso escaped to Toledo with Urraca's help, or she just talked Sancho into allowing him to become a exile there. Obviously the show has her try the latter and do the former. The siege of Zamora happened because the city refused to recognize Sancho as king, rather than Sancho's desire for revenge on Urraca, though Urraca's presence doubtlessly helped the Zamorans take their stance.

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