Note 19 — Chapter VII · ERA OF THE SPANISH CRUSADES, 1031-1276

Less famous than the Cid, but quite as representative of his time, was the figure of Bishop Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela, who played an important part in the events of Urraca’s reign. He was a vigorous, ambitious, restless, not overscrupulous man, breaking pledges and changing from one side to another with the usual facility of men of that age. He was not only ambitious for himself but was also an ardent votary of the extension of church authority. He was a fighting bishop, who engaged in military campaigns himself and encountered many vicissitudes both in the civil wars of the kingdom and in the local uprisings of his own subjects. On one occasion the citizens of Santiago besieged him in his church, and set fire to a tower in which he took refuge. Nevertheless, the bishop escaped in the guise of a beggar. In the end he was usually successful. He procured the erection of Santiago de Compostela into an archbishopric, and enjoyed the distinction, equally with the church of Rome, of having seven cardinals as canons. He also gained the influential post of chaplain to Alfonso VII.