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LETTER XVI

City of Burgos. Tomb of the Cid, and of King John the Second.

Burgos, 15th August, 1778.

The next day after I had the pleasure of addressing my last letter to you, I set out from the town of Madrid, and passing through Segovia and Valladolid, arrived at the antient city of Burgos, where I propose making a halt for a few days, to enjoy a little rest after a fatiguing journey, and to look about me in this venerable city, dwindled from its former splendour, but still the residence of many noble families, illustrious for their lineage and military achievements. —In this city Edward, of England, eldest son of our king Henry the 3d, was knighted in 1254, by King Alfonso the wise, and married the princess Eleanor of Castile, that amiable woman, who when her husband was wounded with a poisoned arrow in Palestine, sucked the venom out of the wound, and restored him to health. Nor was the English nation wanting in acknowledgments to this affectionate princess, who dying of a fever on her journey to Scotland, was conveyed to Westminster with great funeral pomp, and elegant stone crosses were erected at each place where the corpse rested. —The cathedral of Burgos is a most magnificent structure in the gothic taste, and has a great resemblance to York minster. —As this is the country of that famous Spanish hero Roderic Diaz de Bivar, commonly called the Cid, who lived in the days of Ferdinand the 1st, I did not forget to visit his shrine at the church of San Pedro de Cardena, about six miles from hence, belonging to the Benedictine monks; I went there with the same curiosity as I should to view the tomb of Guy earl of Warwick, or any of our renowned English champions. —I accordingly mounted my courser with becoming gravity, and repaired to his tomb, which is in a particular chapel of the church of San Pedro, with the arms of all his relations depicted on the walls, and a long scroll of his genealogy and exploits. In the vestry they have an original portrait of him, done immediately after his death. —His memory is held in such veneration, that the good man, who shewed me everything, twice called him a saint, but stopped short and corrected himself. No warrior, however, has had so much said of him; he has a separate chronicle of his life and actions, in one volume in folio, printed in 1552 by command of the infant Don Ferdinand afterwards emperor, who gave this commission to Velerado abbot of the convent of San Pedro. The writer says he extracted it from the original chronicle in the archives of that house; but in that he is mistaken, for it was not an original but an antient copy according to the testimony of Barganza, a monk of the same house, who about twenty years ago, published its antiquities, in two volumes in folio, and supposes that the original chronicle of the Cid was first written in Arabic, by a converted moor, with his son, who were servants to the Cid, and was afterwards translated into Spanish. The archbishop of Toledo, and Don Lucas de Tuy, are spoken of in this chronicle, tho’ they flourished in the middle of the 13th century, and the Cid died in 1099, therefore this chronicle must have been continued by another hand as father Sarmiento observes, but without impeaching the veracity of its contents. The general chronicle of Spain was compiled by order of Alfonso the wise, yet whoever reads what is said of the Cid, and vice versa, will doubt whether the general chronicle was copied from that of the Cid, or the latter from the former: but they still have their share of merit as far as they elucidate the manners and customs of the times, when divested of the sables and superstition with which they are clouded. Since the burning of Don Quixote’s library, not only romances but many of the chronicles are become very scarce, and they are now reprinting a general collection of them at Madrid. —In vain have I searched for Artus de Bretana, who was turned into a crow, since which time no Englishman, according to Cervantes, will ever kill a crow. The elucidation of this point I must leave to yourself.

To return to the Cid, everything belonging to this great warrior is sacred; his swords are admired and shewn as great curiosities; one of them is in the king’s armoury at Madrid, and is called Colada, in allusion to its fine temper; on one side it has these four letters SI SI. and on the other NO NO. According to Garibay the historian, the Cid took this sword from the Count of Barcelona, when in arms against the king of Aragon. —The other sword was called the Tizona, “The flaming sword”, which he wrested from Bucar lord of Tunis. This sword belonged after wards to the Infant Don Ramiro of Navarre, from whose house it was given to the family of Peralta. Sandoval, bishop of Pamplona, in his chronicle describes this sword which he saw, and says, on one side it had these words "Yo soy la Tisona que sue hecha en la era de mil y quarenta." On .the other side "Ave Maria gratia plena. Dominus." —The Cid was descended from Lain Calvo, one of the judges of Castile: he left two daughters, Dona Sola, married to the Infant Don Pedro eldest son of Peter king of Aragon, and Dona Elvira to Don Ramon Sancho, eldest son of Sancho Garcias king of Navarre. His panegyrists have entered into endless details in his praise; even his horse Babieca has not been omitted, and is said to have lived forty-four years. Having taken a solemn farewell of this mansion, which was built on the remains of a palace belonging to this hero, I returned back to Burgos, striking off a little to the right, to visit Miraflores a convent of Carthusians, given to that order by John the 2d king of Castile, who is interred in their church before the great altar, and has a beautiful marble monument adorned with infinite workmanship. This tomb the people call here a partheon. —I saw in the choir, an original portrait of his daughter Isabella queen of Castile, who appears to have been very handsome. There is a full length picture of her in the palace of Buen Retiro at Madrid. —You will say that I have quitted my ground since I have penetrated into old Castile, and have deserted the poets for the chronicles, but allow me this digression in favour of a hero who inspired the great Corneille, and furnished a subject for the sublime genius of that celebrated poet. —What would the bold Cid say, if he was to appear again on the horizon? If he, who to preserve his precedency broke the chair of the French ambassador in the presence of the pope, was to see his own countrymen making peace with the moors, and soliciting leave of the pope to eat fish in lent. Not like the devout heroes of those and subsequent times, when the English and French, according to Rapin, fought a bloody battle just before lent, to intercept a convoy of fish, and numbers lost their lives to ascertain who should dine on a herring.

☞ In the reign of Henry VI when John Duke of Bedford was regent of France in 1429, he sent from Paris to the English army then besieging Orleans, a convoy of salt fish, the lent season being come, which with the artillery and ammunition, made near five hundred carts, under the command of sir John Fastolf, one of the bravest generals in the English army. The convoy was attacked on the road to Orleans, by the French under the count of Clermont, at the head of three thousand men, but they were repulsed with great slaughter by the English, losing six score lords and about six hundred men. This action was called “The battle of Herrings”.

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