El Cid Leader

Throughout the semester the topic of what it means to be a leader is brought up in every book. Not only has this topic been brought up, the meaning of a good leader has evolved. In the beginning a good leader only had to have great strength and show he was fearless in the face of death. As the books changed, so did the meaning of a good leader. In El Cid, being a true leader meant so much more than just having an excellent sword arm in battle. A good leader must show selflessness and generosity toward his supporters, he must be able to show a vulnerability, and he must show that he has an objective that they are working toward.
A poor leader is a person that has strong qualities, but doesn’t have an objective. Whether that objective is to
The Cid shows throughout the poem that he has all the qualities that the heroes in the other books have, like strength, intelligence, and fearlessness. The Cid also demonstrates that he is a good leader by working his way through the muslim kingdom’s conquering land and taking as much loot as he can. This may sound like a poor objective, and he may be viewed as a poor leader because he raided a bunch of muslim lands. However, he did these things while he was in exile in order to regain favor with his king. El Cid was a good leader in this was because he wasn’t aimlessly raiding innocent lands for the wealth. After many of the Cid’s raids he had some of his men deliver some of the loot and horses to king Alfonso even though King Alfonso was the one who exiled him from Castille at the beginning of the poem. After one of the Cid’s many raids, he had Minaya bring thirty horses with their saddles, and fully equipped to King Alfonso. This is the first mention of his true objective during his campaigns. At first the raids seem like his mission is to regain a name for himself after he was banished, however sat this point he shows that he isn’t necessarily trying to regain status, he is trying to regain a
He also shows that he is human by having a vulnerability. Many great leaders in any time period show a vulnerability that makes them stronger. This allows them to stay focused because if they aren’t doing a good job as a leader people may exploit their vulnerability to destroy them. An example where vulnerability wasn’t a trait in a good leader was in Beowulf. In Beowulf, Beowulf didn’t express any vulnerabilities until the very end when he is up against the dragon, old age was the only thing that prevented him from easily defeating the dragon. This is different from El Cid because the Cid shows he has a vulnerability at the beginning of the poem, when he is saying goodbye to his wife and daughters. Before the Cid left on his campaign the poem states that “they parted with such pain as when the fingernail is torn from the flesh.” During this scene the Cid shows that he cares deeply for his family and having to leave behind while he is in exile hurts him. This shows that his vulnerability is his family. Later in the poem, the infantes of Carrion try to exploit this vulnerability, but like the strong leader the Cid is he is able to find justice for the infantes beating his daughters in the forest of corpses and abandoning them because he had his loyal vassals to support