Cantar de los Siete Infantes de Lara facts for kids
The Cantar de los Siete Infantes de Lara ("Song of the Seven Lara Princes") is a legend, perhaps derived from a lost cantar de gesta, that relates a tale of family feuding and revenge, centering on the murder of the eponymous seven infantes (princes) of Lara or Salas. The legend survives in prose form in medieval chronicles, the oldest being in the extended version of the Estoria de España (History of Spain) compiled during the reign of Sancho IV of Castile before 1289 (edited by Ramón Menéndez Pidal under the name Primera Crónica General).
From the account found in this chronicle as well as mention in the Crónica de 1344 (Segunda Crónica General) and interpolations into a copy of the Tercera Crónica General dating from 1512, Menéndez Pidal found evidence for the existence of an ancient lost cantar de gesta that scholars have since partially reconstructed, dating back to the year 1000. This work would, along with the Cantar de Mio Cid and the Poema de Fernán González, represent one of the most important epic cantares of Castilian literature, and the most primitive example of the Spanish epic. The legendary tradition of the Infantes de Lara has also been developed through ballads. Some more recent scholars have rejected this, dating the story to shortly before the surviving prose versions.
The Infantes de Lara were the children of Castilian nobleman Gonzalo Gustioz of Lara or Salas and his wife "Doña Sancha" (lady Sancha). The story revolves around a family feud, an escalating tit-for-tat cycle of revenge, between their family and that of Sancha's brother, Ruy Velázquez and his wife Doña Lambra.
The legend
According to the version transmitted by the Estoria de España, at the wedding between Doña Lambra, from Bureba, and Ruy Velázquez of Lara, a confrontation arose between the bride's family and the sons of Sancha, the infantes. In this confrontation, Alvar Sánchez, cousin of Doña Lambra, was killed by Gonzalo González, the youngest of the seven Lara princes. To avenge the death of her cousin Alvar, Lambra orders her servant to humiliate Gonzalo González in front of her brothers. The irate Gonzalo and his brothers respond by killing the servant at Lambra's feet.
Thirsting for revenge, Lambra and her husband Ruy Velázquez come up with a plan to send the father of the infantes, Gonzalo Gustioz, lord of Salas, as envoy to the ruler of Córdoba, Almanzor, to request money to help pay for their lavish wedding. Unbeknownst to him, he carries a letter that tells Almanzor of Ruy's plans to have the infantes ambushed and murdered, and requesting that their father, letter's bearer, likewise be killed. Ruy Velásquez carries out the ambush of his nephews using Muslim troops. Almanzor takes pity on Gonzalo Gustioz and merely has him imprisoned. In the earliest surviving version, a female servant is assigned to tend to him, and they fall in love. In the later version of the Crónica de 1344, she is a sister of Almanzor himself and is offered up to Gonzalo. She becomes pregnant and has a son named Mudarra González.
Shortly before his release, when Gonzalo Gustioz learns his lover is expecting a child, he sees the opportunity for help in his planned revenge against Ruy Velázquez. He takes a ring and breaks it in two, keeping one half and leaving the other to be given the child, so that later they will be able to recognize each other by matching the two sides. The child, Mudarra González, grows up and goes north to Castile to find his father, and they unite the two halves of the ring, which fit perfectly. The version in the Crónica de 1344 has the aged Gonzalo Gustioz become blind and when the halves of the ring are aligned, he miraculously regains his sight and the ring is permanently rejoined. It is Mudarra, the son born to the captive Gonzalo, who eventually avenges the killing of his half-brothers by murdering Ruy Velásquez and Lambra.
Sarcophagi and tombs
Since ancient times several monasteries have exhibited relics of the legendary Siete Infantes. Such links with prestigious heroes (be they real or fictional) and the pilgrims attracted by them provided these ecclesiastical establishments with increased economic resources. Thus, the supposed sarcophaguses of the seven infantes are exhibited in the Monastery of San Millan de Suso, although the authenticity of the claimed remains of the brothers is disputed by other monasteries, such as San Pedro de Arlanza; also the church of Santa María de Salas de los Infantes claims to have their heads, and long exhibited seven skulls as those of the brothers; on the other hand, the tomb of Mudarra is said to be in Burgos Cathedral. The contest for possession of relics of famous heroes from legend has been common since the Middle Ages.
