El Cid

(From "In The Footsteps of George Borrow" by Guy Arnold)

El Cid is Spain's best-known hero, and there were so many legends surrounding his name that at one time he was thought to be a purely mythical character. He came from a noble family of Castile and lived in the eleventh century. Although he was a prominent supporter of Sancho of Castile, in fact he became the captain of a free company and offered his mercenary services to both the Spaniards and the Moors in the endless wars and faction fights of that century. He earned the contemptuous description from the Arab chronicler Abu Bassam of "a Galicion dog, without honor or loyalty or faith".

Hollywood's film El Cid with Charton Heston in the title role gave the legend one more modern boost when at the end it had the dead Heston placed on his horse to ride out into the sunset against the Moors.