The Story
Supposedly the nephew of Alfonso II of Asturias, stories feature him striving against Alfonso to release his father from prison. Other stories have him as the rival and slayer of Roland at Roncesvaux.
Bernardo was said to be the son of Sancho, the Count of Saldaña and Dona Ximena (Alfonso II's sister, therefore grandson of King Fruela I of Asturias). Alfonso was not happy with the marriage, so he had Sancho blinded and thrown into prison and took Bernardo. He was raised in Alfonso II's court. Everybody was ordered not to tell the young Bernardo who his father was.
Alfonso invited Charlemagne into Iberia to defeat the Moors, promising to name him as heir. Bernardo's victory at Roncesvaux ended that plan. But Bernardo then joined up with the Moors, hoping to force Alfonso into action; but Alfonso secretly had Sancho killed while in prison.
Read more about this topic: Bernardo Del Carpio
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“The old world stands serenely behind the new, as one mountain yonder towers behind another, more dim and distant. Rome imposes her story still upon this late generation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)