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 Georg-Wilhelm Oetjen, Peter Haseley
Freeze-Drying

Freeze-Drying. Second Edition. Georg Wilhelm Oetjen, Peter H aseley

Copyright

c 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
ISBN: 978-3-527-30620-6
Also of interest:

Bauer, K., Garbe, D., Surburg, H Mollet, H., Grubenmann, A., Payne, H.
Common Fragrance and Flavor Formulation Technology
Materials Emulsions, Suspension, Solid Foams
Preparation, Properties and Uses 2001

2001 ISBN 3-527-30201-8

ISBN 3-527-30364-2

Piringer, O. G., Baner, A. L.

Ziegler, E., Ziegler, H. Plastic Packaging Materials
Flavourings for Food
Production, Composition, Applications, Barrier Function, Mass Transport,
Regulations Quality Assurance, and Legislation
1998 2000
ISBN 3-527-29786-3 ISBN 3-527-28868-6

Brennan, J. G. (Ed.)
Food Processing Handbook
2003 (planned)
ISBN 3-527-30719-2

McGuire, J. L. (Ed.)
Pharmaceuticals
Classes, Therapeutic Agents,
Areas of Application
2000
ISBN 3-527-29874-6
Georg-Wilhelm Oetjen, Peter Haseley

Freeze-Drying

Second, Completely Revised and Extended Edition

Dr. Georg-Wilhelm Oetjen This book was carefully produced. Nevertheless,
Tondernstraße 7 authors and publisher do not warrant the information
23356 Lübeck contained therein to be free of errors. Readers are
Germany advised to keep in mind that statements, data,
illustrations, procedural details or other items may
Peter Haseley inadvertently be inaccurate.
Bonhoeffer Weg 46
Library of Congress Card No.: Applied for
53340 Meckenheim
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A
Germany
catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.

Bibliographic information published by

Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic
data is available in the Internet at <http://dnb.ddb.de>.

© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,

Weinheim

All rights reserved (including those of translation into

other languages). No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form – by photoprinting, microfilm,
or any other means – nor transmitted or translated
into a machine language without written permission
from the publishers. Registered names, trademarks,
etc. used in this book, even when not specifically
marked as such, are not to be considered unprotected
by law.

Printed on acid-free paper

Cover Illustration Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany

The cover illustration shows the course of a
main drying observed with a cryomicroscope. Composition TypoDesign Hecker GmbH, Leimen
The photographs are taken after 1.5, 3.0, 4.5, Printing Strauss Offsetdruck GmbH, Mörlenbach
and 6 minutes, respectively. Courtesy of Bookbinding Großbuchbinderei J. Schäffer GmbH &
M. Kochs, Ch. Körber, B. Nummer and Co. KG, Grünstadt
I. Heschel, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 34
(1991) 2395 – 2408. ISBN 3-527-30620-X
 V

Table of Contents

Preface IX

Preface to the First Edition XI

1 Foundations and Process Engineering 1

1.1 Freezing 2
1.1.1 Amount of Heat, Heat Conductivity, Heat Transfer and Cooling Rate 3
1.1.2 Structure of Ice, Solutions and Dispersions 13
1.1.3 Influence of Excipients 21
1.1.4 Freezing of Cells and Bacteria 30
1.1.5 Methods of Structure Analysis 32
1.1.5.1 Measurements of Electrical Resistance (ER) 32
1.1.5.2 Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) 43
1.1.5.3 Cryomicroscopy 49
1.1.5.4 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) 57
1.1.5.5 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 65
1.1.5.6 Thermomechanical Analysis (TMA) 70
1.1.5.7 Dielectric Analysis (DEA) 73
1.1.5.8 X-ray Diffractometry–Raman Spectroscopy 74
1.1.6 Changes of Structure in Freezing or Frozen Products 74
1.2 Drying 76
1.2.1 Main Drying (Sublimation Drying) 77
1.2.2 Secondary Drying (Desorption Drying) 96
1.2.3 Temperature and Pressure Measurement 105
1.2.4 Water Vapor Transport During Drying 127
1.2.5 Collapse and Recrystallization 134
1.2.6 Drying Processes Without Vacuum 139
1.3 Storage 140
1.3.1 Measurement of the Residual Moisture Content (RM) 141
1.3.1.1 Gravimetric Method 141
1.3.1.2 Karl Fischer (KF) Method 141
1.3.1.3 Thermogravimetry (TG, TG/MS) 142
1.3.1.4 Infrared Spectroscopy 144
VI Inhalt

1.3.2 Influence of Vial Stoppers on the Residual Moisture Content 148

1.3.3 Qualities of the Dry Substances and Their Changes 151
1.4 References for Chapter 1 154

2 Installation and Equipment Technique 165

2.1 Freezing Installation 165
2.1.1 Cooling by Liquids: Shell-freezing and Spin-freezing 165
2.1.2 Cooled Surfaces 166
2.1.3 Product in the Flow of Cold Air, Foaming and Freezing of
Extracts and Pulps 167
2.1.4 Droplet Freezing in Cold Liquids 170
2.1.5 Freezing by Evaporation of Product Water 173
2.2 Components of a Freeze-drying Plant 173
2.2.1 Installations for Flasks and Manifolds 173
2.2.2 Drying Chambers and Forms of Trays 174
Trays for Special Applications 181
2.2.3 Shelves and their Cooling and Heating 181
2.2.4 Water Vapor Condensers 182
2.2.5 Refrigerating Systems and Refrigerants 190
2.2.6 Vacuum Pumps 205
2.2.7 Inlet Venting Filters 211
2.2.8 Vacuum Measuring Systems 216
2.2.9 Leak Rate Detection 219
2.2.10 Process Control Systems 222
2.2.11 Problems, Failures and Deviations 225
2.3 Installations up to 10 kg Ice Capacity 229
2.3.1 Universal Laboratory Plants 229
2.3.2 Pilot Plants 230
2.3.3 Manipulators and Stoppering Systems for Vials 235
2.3.4 Cleaning Installations, Sterilization by Steam and Vaporized
Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP®) 238
2.4 Production Plants 253
2.4.1 Loading and Unloading Systems 258
2.5 Production Plants for Food 264
2.5.1 Discontinuous Plants 264
2.5.2 Continuous Plants with Tray Transport 265
2.5.3 Continuous Plants with Product Transport by Wipers or by Vibration 267
2.6 Process Automation 268
2.6.1 Prerequisites for Process and Related Plant Automation 270
2.6.2 Control of the Process and Related Plant Data by Thermodynamic
Data Measured During the Process: Thermodynamic Lyophilization
Control (TLC) 273
2.6.2.1 Control of the Process Without Temperature Sensors in the Product 273
2.6.2.2 Measurement of the Ice Temperature at the Sublimation Front and the
Desorption Rate as Process Guides 274
 Inhalt VII

2.6.2.3 Measurement of the Residual Moisture Content (RM) During the

Process 284
2.6.2.4 The Transfer of a Freeze-drying Process from a Pilot to a Production
Plant 287
2.6.2.5 Summary of Prerequisites, Limits and Suggestions for Automated
Thermodynamic Lyophilization Control 291
2.7 References for Chapter 2 291

3 Pharmaceutical, Biological and Medical Products 295

3.1 Proteins and Hormones 295
3.2 Viruses, Vaccines, Bacteria and Yeasts 313
3.3 Antibiotics, Cytostatics, Ibuprofen 324
3.4 Liposomes and Nanoparticles 325
3.5 Transplants, Collagen 333
3.6 References for Chapter 3 340

4 Food and Luxury Food 345

4.1 Vegetables, Potatoes, Fruits and Juices 349
4.2 Coffee 352
4.3 Eggs, Rice 355
4.4 References for Chapter 4 355

5 Metal Oxides, Ceramic Powders 359

5.1 References for Chapter 5 364

6 Trouble Shooting and Regulatory Issues 367

6.1 Trouble Shooting 367
6.1.1 Prolonged Evacuation Time 367
6.1.2 Sublimation Front Temperature Too High 368
6.1.3 Sublimation Front Temperature Irregular 368
6.1.4 Slow Pressure Increase in the Chamber During Main Drying 368
6.1.5 Stoppers ›Pop Out‹ or Slide Into the Vials 369
6.1.6 Traces of Highly Volatile Solvents (Acetone, Ethanol) 369
6.1.7 Different Structure of the Dried Product in the Center and Border
of a Shelf 370
6.2 Qualification and Validation of Processes and Installations 371
6.2.1 Quality of the Product 376
6.2.2 Description of the Process Developed for Manufacturing of the Product 377
6.2.3 Description of Production Installations and Their Handling 379
6.2.4 Equipment Performance Tests 381
6.2.5 Quality of Installation to Document the Ability of Equipment to
Operate Processes (Described in Section 6.2.2). 382
6.2.6 Documentation of the Quality of the Products Manufactured
(in Comparison with 6.2.1) 384
6.3 References for Chapter 6 384
 IX

Preface

Drying of food and herbs is one of the oldest preservation methods of humanity.
Freeze-drying was first carried out, as K. H. Neumann wrote in his book Grundriß
der Gefriertrocknung, 1954, by Altmann, who freeze-dried parts of organs in 1890. In
1932, Gersh designed an effective vacuum plant for freeze-drying of histological
preparations with the help of the diffusion pump just invented by Gaede at that time.
Sawyer, Lloyd and Kitchen successfully freeze-dried yellow fiber viruses in 1929. In-
dustrial freeze-drying began, as E. W. Flosdorf shows in his book Freeze-Drying,
1949, with the production of preserved blood plasma and penicillin.
Vacuum technology and penicillin were also my own first encounter with freeze-
drying. After my studies of physics at the university in Göttingen, I worked in the de-
velopment department of E. Leybold’s Nachf. where I had to build a freeze-drying
plant for penicillin. Since that time I was engaged in vacuum process technology for
almost 25 years, from 1952 on as managing director of Leybold Hochvakuum Anla-
gen GmbH. From this time I know Peter Haseley, whom I employed for the freeze-
drying department. Later, as ‘Geschäftsführer’ of Steris GmbH, he was actively in-
volved with engineering modern freeze-drying plants with all their complex require-
ments of documentation and qualification. Together we have developed an old idea
of mine to control the freeze-drying process not by predetermined time, pressure
and temperature data, but by the data measured during the process. Therefore I was
very happy when Peter Haseley agreed to rewrite the chapters Installation and Equip-
ment Technique and Trouble-shooting and Regulatory Issues for this second edition.
Freeze-drying has always fascinated me as the most complex vacuum process. Me-
chanical and chemical engineering, chemistry and biology, sterility and regulatory is-
sues are all part of the freeze-drying process.
After my retirement from the managing board of Drägerwerke AG, I had the time
to write the German edition of this book, Gefriertrocknen, published in 1997, and the
first English edition in 1999. This year, a translation into Japanese has been pub-
lished.
When I started to write the German edition, Mr. Wolfgang Suwelack, managing
partner of Dr. Otto Suwelack Nachf. GmbH & Co., asked me to work for him as con-
sultant in freeze-drying, and I have to thank him for the permission to use some of
the results achieved in the last years. This activity was the new start of my work in
freeze-drying, and I would therefore like to dedicate this book to Mr. Wolfgang
Suwelack out of gratitude for a harmonic cooperation lasting for over a decade.
X Preface

Several companies and publishing houses have granted permission to use draw-
ings and photographs to which they own the copyright. Mr. Haseley and I are grate-
ful to all of them because they have thus made it possible to present freeze-drying
under many aspects.
We have tried to show the interconnection between the properties of the product,
the goal to make it stable and the necessary processes to achieve this. The problems
of the different process steps are discussed with examples and the parameters influ-
encing each step are described. We have avoided to follow the many theoretical at-
tempts to describe one or more of the freeze-drying steps, but have restricted our-
selves to a few equations which permit calculating process and product data with suf-
ficient accuracy, or to at least allow an estimate based on measuring some of the
data.
The freezing of a product is a very important step, The structure in the frozen
product decides whether the product can be freeze-dried at all, and under which con-
ditions it can be done. Therefore, the consequences of freezing rate, layer thickness
of the product and excipients are discussed in some detail. The second main point is
the measurement and control of the two drying phases, the main and secondary dry-
ing, and the third point concentrates on the residual miosture content, its measure-
ment and the consequences during storage of the dry product. There will be critical
opinions that some of the processes are unilaterally represented. I have tried to show
the limits and advantages of certain procedures to enable the reader to decide for
himself whether the ideas of the quoted authors or my own can be applied best to his
particular task.
The approximately 270 literature references in the 1999 edition have been in part
replaced and furthermore supplemented to a new total of 370.
 XI

Preface to the First Edition

This book is dedicated to my esteemed teacher, the late Prof. Dr. K. H. Hellwege,
from whom I learned to tackle a problem from as many sides as I could imagine,
with wide open curiosity.
One of humanity’s oldest methods of preservation is the drying of food and herbs.
Freeze-drying was first carried out by Altmann, who freeze-dried organ pieces in
1890, as Dr. K. H. Neumann wrote in his book ‘Grundriß der Gefriertrocknung’ in
1954. In 1932 Gersh designed an effective vacuum plant for the freeze-drying of his-
tological preparations with the help of the diffusion pump, just invented by Gaede at
that time.
Sawyer, Lloyd and Kitchen successfully freeze-dried yellow fiber viruses in 1929.
Industrial freeze-drying began with the production of preserved blood plasma and
penicillin, as shown by E. W. Flosdorf in his book ‘Freeze-drying’ in 1949.
Vacuum technology and penicillin were also my introduction to freeze-drying. Af-
ter my studies of physics at the university in Göttingen, I worked in the development
department of F. Leybold’s Nachf. where I had to build a freeze-drying plant for peni-
cillin. From then on, I was engaged in vacuum process technology for almost 25
years, including the time from 1952 as Managing Director of Leybold Hochvakuum
Anlagen GmbH. Freeze-drying has always fascinated me as being the most complex
vacuum process. Mechanical and chemical engineering, chemistry and biology,
sterility and regulatory issues are all part of the freeze-drying process.
I intended to write this book many years ago, but only after my retirement as a
member of the managing board of Drägerwerke AG did I have the time to do so.
It was at this time that Mr. Wolfgang Suwelack, Managing Partner of Dr. Otto
Suwelack Nachf. GmbH & Co., asked me to work for him as a consultant in freeze-
drying and I have to thank him for the permission to use some of the results
achieved in the last years.
Furthermore, I am grateful to Dipl.-Ing. P. Haseley, Managing Director of
AMSCO Finn-Aqua GmbH, now Steris GmbH, for the permission to use results,
drawings and photographs of his company. Several companies and publishing hous-
es have granted permission to use drawings and photographs to which they own the
© copyright. I am grateful to all of them, because they have made it possible to pres-
ent freeze-drying under many aspects.
I have tried to show the interconnection between the property of the product, the
goal to make it stable and the necessary processes to achieve this. The problems of
XII Preface to the first Edition

the different process steps are discussed with examples and the parameters are de-
scribed which influence each step. I have avoided following the many theoretical at-
tempts describing one or more of the freeze-drying steps, but have restricted myself
to a few equations which permit the calculation of process and product data with suf-
ficient accuracy, or at least, allow an estimate, if some data is mentioned.
The freezing of a product is a very important step. The structure in the frozen
product decides whether the product can be freeze-dried at all and under which con-
ditions it can be done. For this reason, the consequences of the freezing rate, layer
thickness of the product and excipients are discussed in some detail. The second
main point is the measurement and control of the two drying phases; the main and
secondary drying and the third concentrates on the residual moisture content, its
measurement and the consequences during storage of the dry product. There will be
critical opinions that some of the processes are unilaterally represented. My aim was
to show the limits and the advantages of certain procedures to enable the reader to
decide whether the ideas of the quoted authors, or my own can be applied to his
tasks.
The approx. 220 references in the 1997 (German) edition are supplemented by ap-
prox. 50 new ones.
 1

1
Foundations and Process Engineering

Freeze-drying or lyophilization is a drying process in which the solvent and/or the

suspension medium is crystallized at low temperatures and thereafter sublimed from
the solid state directly into the vapor phase.
Freeze-drying is mostly done with water as solvent. Figure 1.1 shows the phase dia-
gram of water and the area in which this transfer from solid to vapor is possible. This
step is relatively straightforward for pure water. If the product contains two or more
components in true solutions or suspensions, the situation can become so compli-
cated that simplified model substances have to be used to make the process more un-
derstandable. Such complex systems occur ubiquitously in biological substances.
The drying transforms the ice or water in an amorphous phase into vapor. Owing
to the low vapor pressure of the ice, the vapor volumes become large, as can be seen
in Figure 1.2. During the second step of the drying, the water adsorbed on the solids
is desorbed.
The goal of freeze-drying is to produce a substance with good shelf stability and
which is unchanged after reconstitution with water, although this depends also very
much on the last step of the process: the packing and conditions of storage.

Fig. 1.1. Phase diagram of water

Freeze-Drying. Second Edition. Georg Wilhelm Oetjen, Peter H aseley

Copyright

c 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
ISBN: 978-3-527-30620-6
2 1 Foundations and Process Engineering

Fig. 1.2. Specific volume of water vapor as a function of the water vapor pressure.
The temperature of the vapor in this diagram is that of ice

The advantages of freeze-drying can be summarized as follows:

• The drying at low temperatures reduces degradation of heat-sensitive products.

• The liquid product can be accurately dosed.
• The moisture content of the final product can be controlled during the process.
• The dry product can have an appealing physical form.
• The dry product with a high specific surface area is rapidly reconstituted.

The disadvantages are as follows:

• The high investment, operating and maintenance costs.

• The complexity of the process and the equipment requires a team of skilled and
permanently trained collaborators.

1.1
Freezing

To freeze a substance it must be cooled to a temperature at which the water and the
solids are fully crystallized or at which areas of crystallized ice and solids are enclosed
in zones in which amorphous concentrated solids and water remain in a mechani-
cally solid state (see Section 1.1.2). In the zone of freezing, the ice crystals are first
growing, thus concentrating the remaining solution, which can vary the pH value. In
many substances a eutectic temperature can be determined, but in many others this
value does not exist. The crystallization depends on several factors which influence
each other: cooling rate, initial concentration, end temperature of cooling and the
 1.1 Freezing 3

time at this temperature. In several products no crystallization takes place and the
product remains in an amorphous, glass-like phase or a mixture of both occurs.

1.1.1
Amount of Heat, Heat Conductivity, Heat Transfer and Cooling Rate

For pure water, the melting heat to be withdrawn for freezing (Qtot) can be calculated
by Eq. (1), if the starting and the desired final temperatures are known:
Qtot = cw(T1 – T0) + Qe + ce(T0 – T2) (kJ/kg) (1)
where
cw = specific heat capacity of water;
Qe = melting heat of ice;
ce = specific heat capacity of ice;
T0 = freezing temperature of ice;
T1 = initial temperature of water;
T2 = final temperature of ice.

The temperature dependences of cw between +20 and 0 °C and ce between 0 and

–50 °C have to be adopted as average values.
For solutions and suspensions the solid content has to be recognized. This is re-
flected in Eq. (2):
Qtot = [(cwxw + cf⬘xf)(T1 – T0)] + xwQe + [(cexw + cfxw) (T0 – T2)] (2)
where
xw = part of water above 0 °C;
cf = specific heat of solids, for example:
for animal products ≈ 1.47 kJ/kg °C
for plant products ≈ 1.34 kJ/kg °C
for some solids:
carbohydrates ≈ 1.42 kJ/kg °C
proteins ≈ 1.55 kJ/kg °C
fats ≈ 1.7 kJ/kg °C
salts ≈ 0.8 kJ/kg °C;
xf = part of solids;
xw = part of ice, which freezes until temperature T2 is reached. If not all water is
frozen at T2, an additional term has to be introduced, which reflects the cooling
of the unfrozen water.

Table 1.1.1 shows the unfreezable water (UFW) in various foods. The reasons and
the consequences are described in Sections 1.1.3 and 1.1.4. In comparing these data
with other publications, e.g. [1.3], smaller values may be found. This can depend not
only on the different raw materials and the history of the probe until measurement,
but also on the methods of measurement.
4 1 Foundations and Process Engineering

Table 1.1.1 Percentage of water frozen out at various temperatures for some foods
(part of Table 1 in [1.1] and [1.2]

Product Frozen out water at °C (% of the total water) UFW (% of total water)
–10 –15 –20 –30

Lean beef 82 85 87 88 12
Haddock 84 87 89 91 9
Whole eggs, liquid 89 91 92 93 7
Yolk 85 86 87 87 13
Egg white 91 93 94 6
Yeast 80 85 88 89 11
Fruit juice 85 90 93 96 (3)
Peas 80 86 89 92 (7)

For meat with less than 4% fat content, Riedel [1.1] has published an enthalpy dia-
gram (shown in Figure 1.3). For some other foods Table 1.2 shows enthalpy data at
various temperatures. At –40 °C the enthalpy is set at 0 kJ/kg.
In Table 1.1.2 the UFW data for products used in pharmaceuticals are listed [3.6].
The transport of the calculated energy from the freezing zone of the product to the
cooling medium can be described in a simplified way by the following steps: the prod-
uct is an infinite plate, which is cooled from one site only, and the energy flows only
perpendicular to its infinite expansion. The crystallization energy flows from the crys-
tallization zone, through the already frozen ice, through the container bottom to a
shelf and into the cooling brine.
The freezing time (te) is approximately given by Eq. (3) [1.4]:

te = ∆J/∆Tρg(d2/2λg + d/Ksu) (3)

te = ∆J/∆Tρg(w + u) (3a)

where
te = freezing time;
∆J = enthalpy difference between the the initial freezing point and the final temper-
ature;
∆T = difference of temperature between the freezing point and the cooling medium;
d = thickness of the product parallel to direction of prevailing heat transfer;
ρg = density of the frozen product;
λg = thermal conductivity of the frozen product;
Ksu = surface heat transfer coefficient between cooling medium and the freezing
zone.
 1.1 Freezing 5

Table 1.1.2 Percentage of unfrozen water (UFW), which cannot

be frozen by lower temperature (see Figure 1.15.)

Excipient UFW (%)

Trehalose 16.7
Sorbitol 18.7
Maltose 20
Glycerine 27
Glucose 29.1
Sucrose 35.9
Lactose 40.8
Glycerol 45.9
Fructose 49.0

Fig. 1.3. Enthalpy of lean beef meat as a func- temperatures (Fig. 1 from [1.1] and [1.2]). Ex-
tion of its water content (0 kJ/kg at –40 °C). The ample: Beef meat has 74% water. At +10 °C the
temperatures at the beginning of cooling the enthalpy is ~325 kJ/kg and at –20 °C ~40 kJ/kg;
and the desired end temperatures for freezing therefore, 285 kJ/kg have to be removed and
are plotted as parameters. The dotted lines in- 83% of the water frozen. The maximum possi-
dicate the percentage of water frozen at the end ble (88%) (see Table 1.1) is reached at G30 °C
6 1 Foundations and Process Engineering

Table 1.2 Enthalpy of meat, fish and egg products (part of Table 3 in [1.1] and [1.2]

Product Water content Enthalpy (kJ/kg) at a temperature of °C

(weight %) –30 –20 –10 0 +5 +20

Beef, 8% fat 74.0 19.2 41.5 72.4 298.5 314.8 368.4

Cod 80.3 20.1 41.9 74.1 322.8 341.2 381.0
Egg white 86.5 18.4 38.5 64.5 351.3 370.5 427.1
Whole egg 74.0 18.4 38.9 66.2 308.1 328.2 386.9

The thermal conductivity of ice and of dried products is relatively well known, but
the surface heat transfer coefficient Ksu during freezing and the total heat transfer
coefficient Ktot during freeze-drying vary largely as described in the various chapters.
Table 1.3 gives a survey of some data of interest in freeze-drying.
The influence of the variables in Eq. (3) can be studied by an example. A slice of
lean beef with a thickness which is small compared with its horizontal dimensions is
to be frozen to –20 °C. The influences of the border of the slice are neglected. The
thickness of the slice is d = 2 cm. As can be seen in Figure 1.3, the enthalpy difference
for beef with 74% water is approximately 240 kJ/kg. If the freezing process starts be-
tween 0 and –3 °C and is mostly finished at – 20 °C, the cooling medium has a tem-

Table 1.3 Surface heat transfer coefficient, total heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductivity

Ksu from gases to a solid surface (kJ/m2 h °C): free convection 17–21
Laminar flow 2 m/s 50
Laminar flow 5 m/s 100
Ksu between the shelf of a freeze-drying plant and a product
in vials or trays during freezing (kJ/m2 h °C) 200–400
Ksu between a liquid and a solid surface
(kJ/m2 h °C): oil in tubes, laminar 160–250
LN2 by drops on the product1 900
From liquids similar to water2 1600
From water at 1 bar, Temperature difference < 7 °C3 3600
Ktot between the shelf of a freeze-drying plant and the
sublimationfront in the product contained in vials or
trays under vacuum4 (kJ/m2 h °C) 60–130

λ thermal conductivity (kJ/m2 h °C)

λg frozen product (ice)5 5.9–6.3
λtr dry product6 0.059–0.29

1 Reinsert, A.P.: Factors affecting the erythrocyte during rapid freezing and thawing. Ann. N. Y.
Acade. Sci. 85, 576–594, 1960.
2 [1.2].
3 From VDI- = Wärmeatlas 5. Auflage, Bild 38, P. A 26, VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1988.
4 Figures 1.74 and 1.75.
5 From [1.2].
6 From [1.50], [1.54], [1.55] and [1.56].
 1.1 Freezing 7

perature of –43 °C and an average λ = 1.38 × 10–2 J/ °C cm s is used when the slice is
in contact with a liquid, having a similar behavior to water at 20 °C, Ksu = 4.61 × 10–2
J/ °C cm2 s can be used for the calculation. The freezing time is
tefld20 = 5.4(0.725 × 102 + 0.43 × 102) ≈ 12 min (4)
As shown in Eqs. (3) and (3a), the thickness d has a major influence if the conduc-
tivity term w, which includes d2, is large compared with the transfer term u, which in-
cludes only d.
In Eq. (4), w:u = 1.7:1, showing that the influence of the conductivity is almost dou-
ble that of the transfer. Assuming that d is only 0.2 cm, the freezing time falls to
tefld2 = 5.4(0.725 + 4.35) ≈ 28 s (5)
In this case w:u = 1:6 and the transfer term is overwhelming. The freezing time is nei-
ther reduced by d2 nor by d, since the importance of w and u has changed. An increase
in d by a factor of 3, to 6 cm, prolongs the freezing time:
tefld60 ≈ 70 min (6)
Here w:u = 5:1, and the freezing time depends mostly on the heat conductivity of the
material.
The freezing of a slice of beef in direct contact with a model liquid has been used to
demonstrate the influence of the two terms w and u. To freeze a product for freeze-dry-
ing, two methods are mainly used: (i) freezing of the product in trays or in vials on
cooled surfaces; or (ii) in a flow of cold air. If these methods do not result in a sufficient
freezing rate, liquid nitrogen (LN2) in direct contact with the vials is used (see Figures
2.2.1 and 2.2.2) or droplets of the product are sprayed into LN2 (see Section 2.1.4).
The heat transfer coefficient Ksu in air varies strongly with the gas velocity, surface
conditions of the product and the geometry of the installation. In practical operations
it will be difficult to achieve Ksu values of 1.7–2.5 × 10–3 J/cm2 s °C or ~75 kJ/m2 h °C
and In many applications only half of this value (or less) may be possible. However,
even with this high Ksu the above-discussed slice of beef (2 cm thick) has a freezing
time
telud20 = 5.4(0.72 × 102 + 9.5 × 102) ≈ 92 min (7)
compared with 12 min when cooled by a liquid, since the Ksu of a gas is ≤10% that of
a liquid.
The time to reach a desired temperature level can be expressed as freezing rate vf,
the change in temperature per unit time, e.g. °C/min. Thus the results of Eqs. (4)–(7)
are approximately as follows:
(4) vf = 1.7 °C/min (5) vf = 43 ° C/min
(6) vf = 0.3 °C/min (7) vf = 0.2 °C/min

These data are calculated by using 0 °C as the start and –20 °C as the end temperature
to show the relative data. The exact calculation requires more information, as given
below.
8 1 Foundations and Process Engineering

Figure 1.4.1 is the cooling curve of vials filled with a solution of 4% solid content
and 27 mm filling height. From the curve, vf can be estimated:

0 to –10 °C ~0.15 °C/min

0 to –14° C ~0.18 °C/min
–14 to –30 °C ~0.73 °C/min
0 to –30 °C ~0.3 °C/min

During the freezing of the main part of the water vT is only 25% compared with the
value after most of the water is crystallized. Taking the average value between 0 and
–30 °C can therefore be misleading: The intention to freeze at a rate of 0.3 °C/min has
not occurred during an important part of the operation. The difference between 0.15
and 0.7 °C/min influences the structure of the product. How important the change is
has to be checked from case to case, but the difference between 0.15 and 0.7 °C/min
is most likely important.
With Eq. (3), it is also possible to estimate Ksu.The uncertainties are the differences
between the freezing of the product around the temperature sensor and in the undis-
turbed product, the position of the sensors, the correlation between time and tem-
perature and occasionally also the actual amount of frozen water. From Figure 1.4.1,
the estimated Ksu is approximately 480 kJ/m2 h °C with a possible error of ±10% and
maximum error of ±20%. Such high values can only be expected if the vials are care-
fully selected for their uniformity, especially with respect to a very even and flat bot-
tom. Otherwise, the Ksu can be much smaller, e.g. 230 kJ/m2 h °C as calculated from
data shown in Table 1.4.1.
If the vials are placed in trays and these are loaded on the shelves, Ksu will be re-
duced, very likely to <100 kJ/m2 h °C, with the consequence that the freezing time is
twice or three times longer and freezing rates of 1 °C/min cannot be achieved.

Fig. 1.4.1. Temperatures during freezing

as a function of time. 1 = Shelf tempera-
ture; 2 = product temperatures in a
product with d = 2.7 cm, solid content
~4% (from [97])
 1.1 Freezing 9

Table 1.4.1 Cooling time and freezing rate as a function of layer thickness
for well manufactured vials, not selected for the flatness of the bottom

Layer Time from Cooling rate Time from Cooling rate Cooling rate
(mm) 0 °C to (°C/min) –10 °C to (°C/min) from 0 °C to
–10 °C (min) –30 °C (min)1 –30 °C (°C/min)

6 14 0.71 9.3 2.1 1.29

12 32 0.31 12.9 1.6 0.67
20 60 0.17 19.0 1.1 0.38
30 105 0.095 28.3 0.7 0.23

1 In this time the cooling of the glass of the vials from 0 °C to –30 °C is included.

Eq. (3) can be used to estimate the influence of the variation of the layer thickness
and the shelf temperature, if the Ksu values are measured for the type of vials used.
As shown, e.g., in Figures 1.4.2–1.4.4, the temperature as a function of time can
vary. Therefore, the calculation of freezing rates and the resulting Ksu contain a cer-
tain error. Table 1.4.2 shows a comparison of cooling rates [1.5]. Run 1 is from Fig-
ure 1.4.2, run 3 from Figure 1.4.3 and run 5 from Figure 1.4.4. The percentage indi-
cates the maximum differences between the measurements with three temperature
sensors in three vials.
To increase vt, the following possibilities can be used: (i) reducing d; (ii) reducing
the shelf temperature: (iii) precooling of the vials, e.g. to –80 °C, and filling the pre-
cooled product, e.g. +4 °C, into the cold vials; (iv) cooling of the vials directly with LN2;
and (v) dropping the product into LN2. With precooled vials vt can be of the order of
10–20 °C/min, and with direct cooling by LN2 40–60 °C/min and more is possible.
With droplet freezing up to 1000 °C/min can be achieved.
For laboratory work, different cooling liquids can be used as shown in Table 1.5.
However, these substances are not easy to use, they boil and are partially explosive.
The cooling method shown in Figure 1.5 can be helpful. LN2 is evaporated under vac-
uum, freezing part of the N2 as a solid. In this mixture the solid melts, if energy is

Fig. 1.4.2. Temperatures during freez-

ing as a function of time for two differ-
ent runs in the same plant, with the
same product, Tsh cooled as quickly as
possible. 1. Shelf temperature; 2, prod-
uct temperature
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uncle Garcia of Navarre at Pamplona. Thence, in company with Garcia, and
his mother Theuda, he journeyed to the court of the Caliph at Cordova,
where the distinguished visitors were received with great show of welcome
by Abdur Rahman at Az Zahra; and where Hasdai, the Jew, the most
celebrated physician of the day, succeeded in completely curing Sancho of
the distressing malady—a morbid and painful corpulency—which
incapacitated him from the active discharge of his royal duties.
The study and practice of medicine were alike disregarded by the rude
dwellers in Leon; but the Cordovan doctor, surpassing in his success, if not
in his skill, the most celebrated physicians of the present day, contrived to
reduce the king’s overgrown bulk to normal proportions, and restored him to
his former activity and vigor, both of body and mind. Nor was the skill of
Hasdai confined to the practice of medicine. An accomplished diplomatist,
he negotiated a treaty with his Christian patient, by which Sancho bound
himself to give up ten frontier fortresses to the Caliph, on his restoration to
the crown of Leon, while Don Garcia and Dona Theuda undertook to invade
Castile in order to divert the attention of the common foe, the ever-ready
Fernan Gonzalez.
In due time Sancho, no longer the fat, but the hale, returned to Leon at the
head of a Moslem army, placed at his disposal by his noble host at Cordova,
drove out the usurper, Ordoño the Bad, and reigned in peace in his Christian
dominions. The visit of this dispossessed Ordoño to the court of the Caliph
Hakam at Cordova, in 962, is an interesting specimen of the international
politics or policy of his age and country.
As Sancho had recovered his throne, by the aid of Abdur Rahman, so
Ordoño sought to dethrone him and make good his own pretensions by the
aid of Hakam. The Caliph, already harassed by Fernan Gonzalez, and
doubting the honesty of King Sancho, was not ill-pleased to have another
pretender in hand, and Ordoño was invited to Cordova, and received by
Hakam in the palace at Az Zahra with the utmost pomp and display. The
Leonese prince craved in humble language the assistance of the Moslem, and
professed himself his devoted friend, ally, and vassal; and he was permitted
to remain at the Court of Hakam, to await the issue of events in the north.
Some few days afterward a treaty was solemnly signed between the Caliph
and the Pretender, and once more the glories of Az Zahra were displayed to
the eyes of the astonished barbarian from Leon.
 Nor did the fame of these splendid ceremonies fail to reach Sancho in the
northwest; and his spirit of independence was considerably cooled by the
prospect of a Moslem army, headed by his cousin Ordoño, making its
appearance before his ill-defended frontiers. The maneuver was sufficiently
familiar; and the reigning monarch lost no time in disassociating himself
from the hostile proceedings of Fernan Gonzalez; and sending an important
embassy to Hakam at Cordova, to assure him of his unwavering loyalty, he
hastened to announce his readiness to carry out to the letter all the provisions
of his recent treaty with the Caliph. Hakam was satisfied. Ordoño languished
disregarded at Cordova, despised alike by Moslem and Christian, but
unharmed and in safety as the guest of the Arab. Sancho reigned in peace
until 967, when he was poisoned by the rebel count of the day, Sanchez of
Galicia. His son, who was known as Ramiro III., an unwise and incapable
monarch, reigned at Leon from 967 to 982, without extending the
possessions or the influence of the Christians in Spain; and Bermudo II.,
who usurped the throne, was no match for the fiery Almanzor, who ravaged
his kingdom, took possession of his capital, and compelled the Christian
Court to take refuge in the wild mountains of the Asturias, and once more to
pay tribute to the Moslem at Cordova.
Bermudo died in 999; and on the death of Almanzor, three years later, the
Christian fortunes under the young Alfonso V., who had succeeded his father
Bermudo, at the age of only five, began to mend. Cordova was given up to
anarchy. The Moslem troops retired from Northern Spain. Leon became once
more the abode of the king and his court, and though Alfonso gave his sister
in marriage to Mohammed, an Emir or Vali of Toledo, he extended his
Christian dominion in more than one foray against the declining power of
the Moslem.
Alfonso V., who is known in Spanish history as the Restorer of Leon,
sought to consolidate his own power, as he certainly exalted that of his
clergy, by the summoning of a Council, after the manner of the Visigothic
Councils of Toledo. The Council met at the city of Leon on the 1st of
August, 1020, in the Cathedral Church of St. Mary. The king and his queen
Elvira presided, and all the bishops and the principal abbots and nobles of
the kingdom took their seats in the assembly. And if there was no Leander,
nor Isidore, nor Julian to impose his will upon king or council, the interests
of the Church were not entirely overlooked. Of the fifty-eight decrees and
canons of this Council, the first seventeen relate exclusively to matters
ecclesiastical, the next twenty are laws for the government of the kingdom,
the remaining thirty-one are municipal ordinances for the city of Leon.
But Alfonso V. was not exempted from the usual rebellions, and
marriages, and assassinations, and executions, which constituted the politics
of the day. Garcia, the last Count of Castile, was treacherously slain in 1026;
and Alfonso was himself more honorably killed in an attack upon a Moslem
town in Lusitania in 1027.
The life of Fernan Gonzalez, the Warwick of medieval Spain, is almost as
much overlaid with romantic legends as that of Roderic or Roland. The lives
and deeds of his ancestors, and the origin of his ever-celebrated County of
Castile, are involved in the utmost confusion and obscurity; but Fernan
Gonzalez himself is at least a historical personage. He married Sancha,
daughter of Sancho Abarca of Navarre, and their son, Garcia Fernandez,
succeeded him as hereditary Count of Castile.
As early as the year 905, Sancho, a Christian chief of whose ancestors
and predecessors much has been written, much surmised, and nothing is
certainly known, was king or ruler of the little border state of Navarre. A
prudent as well as a warlike sovereign, he fortified his capital city of
Pamplona, and when his son, in alliance with Ordoño II. of Leon, was
defeated by the Moslems at Val de Junquera, the Navarrese not only made
good their retreat to that celebrated fortress, but succeeded in course of a
short time in driving the Moslems out of their country. The grandson of this
successful general was Sancho El Mayor—or the Great—the most powerful
of the Christian princes in Spain (970-1035). Besides Navarre and Sobrarve
he held the lordship of Aragon; in 1026, in right of his wife, Muña Elvira, he
became king or count of Castile; while his successful interference in the
affairs of Leon made him virtual master of all Christian Spain outside the
limits of the quasi Frankish county of Catalonia.
Sancho the Great died in 1035, when his territories were divided,
according to his will, among his four sons; and from this time forth the
history of Navarre, so far as it is not included in the history of Aragon, of
Castile, and of France, is a confused and dreary record of family quarrels, of
plots and assassinations, of uncertain alliances, of broken treaties. The
marriage of the Princess Berengaria with Richard I. of England, in 1191,
failed to secure for Sancho V. the influence that he had hoped to secure: and
with Sancho VI., who died in 1234, the male line of the house of Sancho
Iniguez or Inigo, the founder of Navarre, was extinct. A French prince was
chosen by the Navarrese to rule over them. And from the death of Sancho
VI., in 1234, to the death of Charles the Bad, in 1387—one hundred and fifty
years—the history of Navarre is that of France.
Bermudo III., who succeeded, on the death of his father, Alfonso V., in
1027, as king of Leon, was at once attacked by his powerful neighbors, and
the little States were distracted by family quarrels and civil war until the
death of Bermudo in battle, in 1037, when the male line of the house of Leon
became extinct.
On the death of Bermudo III. in 1037, Ferdinand I., king of Castile, the
second son of Sancho the Great, succeeded to the kingdom of Leon, and
became, after over twenty years of civil war (1058), the most powerful
monarch in all Spain. The Moslems offered but an uncertain and half-hearted
resistance to his arms. For while the Christians were growing strong, the
Moslem empire was already declining to its fall. And the decay of the
Caliphate of Cordova, and the internal dissensions of the Arabs, enabled
Ferdinand not only to recover all the territory that had been conquered by
Almanzor, but to pursue the disheartened Moslem as far as Valencia, Toledo,
and Coimbra. Ferdinand confirmed the Fueros of Alfonso V., and summoned
a council at Coyanza (Valencia de Don Juan), over which, with his Queen
Sancha, he presided in 1050. All the bishops and abbots, together with a
certain number of lay nobles thus assembled ad restaurationem nostræ
Christianitatis, proceeded to make decrees or canons, after the manner of the
Councils of Toledo, of which the first seven were devoted to matters
ecclesiastical, and the remainder connected with the civil government of the
country. With territories thus recovered and augmented, with cities restored
and fortified, Ferdinand determined to excel all his Christian predecessors,
and to emulate the noble example of the Arab, by enriching his dominion,
not with treasures of art or literature, with schools, with palaces, with
manuscripts—but with the bones of as many martyrs as he could collect.
An army was raised for this sacred purpose, and the country of the Moors
was once more invaded and harried by the Christian arms. Ibn Obeid of
Seville, learning the objects of the invasion, offered Ferdinand every facility
for research in his city; and a solemn commission of bishops and nobles
were admitted within the walls to seek the body of Justus, one of the martyrs
of Diocletian. But in spite of all the diligence of the Christians, and all the
goodwill of the Arabs, the sacred remains could nowhere be found. At length
the spirit of Saint Isidore removed the difficulty by appearing miraculously
before the Commission, and offering his own bones in the place of those of
Justus, which were destined, said he, to remain untouched at Seville. The
Commission was satisfied. And the body of the great Metropolitan, “fragrant
with balsamic odors,” was immediately removed to the Church of St. John
the Baptist at Leon—to the great satisfaction of both Christians and Moors,
in 1063.
It was on the occasion of the return of these blessed relics to the Christian
capital that Ferdinand proclaimed the future division of his kingdom. For
after all the success that had attended the Union of the dominions of Leon
and Castile under the sole authority of Ferdinand, who rather perhaps for his
sanctity than for his wisdom had earned the title of the Great, the king made
the same grievous mistake that his father had done before him, in dividing
his united territories at his death (1065) among his sons and daughters. To
Sancho, the eldest son, he left the kingdom of Castile; to Alfonso, Leon and
the Asturias; to Garcia, Galicia; to his younger daughter, Elvira, the town
and district of Toro, and to her elder sister Urraca the famous border city of
Zamora, the most debatable land in all Spain, and a strange heritage for a
young lady. Thus Castile and Leon were once more separated; and the usual
civil wars and family intrigues naturally followed. Alfonso, though not at
first the most successful, survived all his rivals, and was at length
proclaimed king of Leon and Castile.
But the successes and glories of Alfonso VI., such as they were, are
overshadowed by the prowess of a Castilian hero, whose exploits form one
of the most favorite chapters in the national history of Spain—the Christian
knight with the Moslem title—Ruy Diaz, The Cid.
Two years before William of Normandy landed at Hastings, a Castilian
knight, a youth who had already won for himself the proud title of The
Challenger, from his reckless bravery and his success in single combat, is
found leading the royal armies of Sancho of Castile against the enemy. The
knight was Ruy Diaz de Bivar. The enemy was Alfonso VI. of Leon, the
brother of Sancho, who was endeavoring to reunite the inheritance divided
by his father, in the good old medieval fashion in Spain.
Of noble birth and parentage, a Castilian of the Castilians, Roderic or
Ruy Diaz was born at Bivar, near Burgos, about the year 1040. His position
in the army of Sancho was that of Alferez, in title the Standard-bearer, in
effect the major-general or second in command, if not commander-in-chief
of the king’s army.
 For seven years Alfonso of Leon and Sancho of Castile had been at war,
each seeking to destroy the other; and at length at Golpejara, near Carrion,
on the eve of what promised to be a decisive battle, a solemn engagement
was entered into by the brothers that whichever of the two was worsted in
the encounter should resign his kingdom to the other without further
bloodshed. The Castilians, in spite of Sancho and his famous Champion,
were defeated at Golpejara; and Alfonso of Leon, foolishly trusting his
brother’s word, took no heed to improve his victory, and his unsuspecting
army was overwhelmed the next day by the Castilian troops under Ruy Diaz
de Bivar, the author of this exceedingly characteristic, if not entirely
authentic piece of treachery.
It is scarcely surprising that the Cid was not trusted by Alfonso of Leon,
when he, in his turn, succeeded to the crown of Castile. But for the moment
Alfonso was not only deprived of his throne and of his liberty by his more
successful brother, but he was compelled to purchase his life by a promise to
enter the monastery of Sahagun. Disregarding this vow, and making good his
escape to Toledo, the royal refugee was received with the usual hospitality of
the Arab by El Mamun, the Moslem ruler of the city, who sheltered and
entertained him, as he himself admitted, “like a son.”
Sancho meanwhile had turned his arms against his brother Garcia, whom
he dispossessed of his territories; against his sister Elvira, who met with a
similar fate, and, lastly, against his sister Urraca, who withstood him boldly
in her city of Zamora. And not only did this time-honored fortress resist the
attack of Sancho and his wily major-general, but the king was slain outside
the walls of the city by one of his sister’s knights. Alfonso thus not only
recovered his own kingdom of Leon, but, swearing perpetual friendship with
El Mamun of Toledo, he was elected king of Castile by the Commons
assembled at Burgos; and the defeated refugee of 1071 found himself, in less
than two years, the greatest prince in Christian Spain; Alfonso the Sixth of
Leon and of Castile.
Yet the legend runs that Alfonso was compelled to undergo the indignity
of a public examination, and a triple oath before the knights and nobles
assembled at Burgos, to the effect that he had had no share in the murder of
King Sancho; and the oath was administered by Ruy Diaz of Bivar, the
companion in arms of the Castilian king, sometime the faithless enemy of
Carrion, but now the acknowledged leader of the Castilian nobility.
 Alfonso of Leon may have forgiven the treachery in the field, but he
never forgot the insult in the Council. He restrained his indignation,
however, and was even induced by reasons of State to grant to the bold
Castilian lord the hand of his cousin Ximena in marriage, and to intrust him
with the command of an expedition into Andalusia. But the royal favor was
of brief duration; and in 1081 we find that Roderic, partly owing to the
intrigues of Garcia Ordonez, and partly to the enduring enmity of the king,
was banished from the Christian dominions.
Of all the petty sovereignties that came into existence on the breaking up
of the Ommeyad Caliphate of Cordova, that of Moctadir, the chief of the
Ben-i-hud of Saragossa, was the most powerful in Northern or Central
Spain; and at the Moslem court of Saragossa, Ruy Diaz, with his fame and
his followers, was warmly welcomed (1081) by Moctadir as a Said or Cid—
a lord or leader of the Arabs. He had been driven out of Castile by Alfonso.
He found a home and honorable command at Saragossa. So long as he could
make war upon his neighbors, all countries were alike to Roderic of Bivar.
Nor was it long before his prowess brought honor and profit to Moctadir, or,
rather, to his son and successor, Motamin.
Ramon Berenguer III., count of Barcelona, was engaged, like other
Christian princes of his time, in chronic warfare with his Moslem neighbors;
and Motamin, with his Castilian Cid, marching against the Catalans,
defeated the Christians with great slaughter at Almenara, near Lerida, and
brought Ramon Berenguer a prisoner to Saragossa (1081), where the
victorious Cid was loaded with presents by the grateful Motamin, and
invested with an authority in the kingdom subordinate only to that of the
king himself. Two years later (1083) an expedition was undertaken by the
Moslems, under Roderic, against their Christian neighbors in Aragon. King
Sancho Ramirez was completely defeated by the Castilian champion, who
returned once more to Saragossa loaded with booty and renown. In 1084 the
Cid seems to have paid a friendly visit to the court of Alfonso VI. But
although he was apparently well received, he suspected treachery, and,
returning to the court of the Moslem, once more took service under the
delighted Motamin. His next campaign, undertaken in the following year,
was not against any Christian power, but against the hostile Moslems of
northern Valencia, and was crowned with the usual success. Motamin died in
1085, but the Cid remained in the service of his son and successor, Mostain,
fighting against Christian and Moslem as occasion offered, partly for the
King of Saragossa, but chiefly for the personal advantage of Ruy Diaz of
Bivar. A stranger national hero it is hard to imagine! Nor were his
subsequent proceedings in any degree less strange.
Al Mamun, the host and protector of Alfonso VI., had died in 1075,
leaving, his grandson, Cadir, to succeed him as sovereign of Toledo.
Abdulaziz, the viceroy of the subject city of Valencia, took advantage of the
weakness of the young prince to declare himself independent, and placing
himself under the protection of the Christians, undertook to pay a large
subsidy to Alfonso VI. in return for his recognition and support. The subsidy
was punctually paid, and, in spite of a present of no less than a hundred
thousand pieces of gold handed over by Moctadir of Saragossa to Alfonso as
the price of Valencia, Abdulaziz retained his hold of the city until his death
in 1085. On this, numerous pretenders to the government immediately arose,
including Moctadir of Saragossa, a purchaser for value, and the two sons of
Abdulaziz; while Alfonso took advantage of the confusion that ensued to
persuade Cadir to surrender Toledo, much coveted by the Christian king, and
to accept, or, more exactly, to retain, for himself the sovereignty of Valencia,
under the humiliating protection of Castile. Alfonso cared nothing that
Toledo was the inheritance of his youthful ally, the home of his old protector,
when he himself was a hunted refugee. He cared nothing that the Valencians
were hostile to Cadir, and that powerful neighbors were prepared to dispute
his possession. He cared nothing that Moctadir, who had actually purchased
the city from Alfonso himself, was on the way to make good his claim. A
treaty was forced upon Cadir by which Toledo was surrendered to Alfonso
VI. (1085), and the Christian king was bound to place and maintain the
unhappy prince in possession of his own subordinate city of Valencia.
Toledo thus became the capital of Christian Spain; and the evicted
sovereign, escorted by a large force of Castilian troops under Alvar Fanez,
made his sad and solemn entry into Valencia, despised at once by the citizens
of Toledo, whom he had abandoned to the Christian sovereign, and by the
citizens of Valencia, where his power was maintained by Christian lances.
And costly indeed was this Christian maintenance. Six hundred pieces of
gold is said to have been the daily allowance of the army of Castilian
mercenaries; and the taxes that were necessitated by their presence only
added to the unpopularity of the government. Many of Cadir’s Moslem
subjects fled from the city; and their place was taken by his Christian
supporters or pensioners, whose rapacity was, if possible, exceeded by their
cruelty. But the coming of the Almoravides gave a new turn to the fortunes
of the city. Alvar Fanez and his knights were recalled by Alfonso, and after
the defeat of the Christians at Zalaca, in October, 1086, Cadir found himself
threatened with immediate expulsion by his own citizens, supported by
Mondhir of Lerida, the uncle of Mostain of Saragossa. In this difficulty he
once more sought the protection of Christian lances, and applied for aid to
the Cid, who immediately advanced on Valencia.
An intriguer, at all times and places, Roderic promised his support to
Cadir in return for admission within the walls. He entered into a formal
treaty with Mostain that the city should be his, if all the booty were handed
over to the Campeador; and he sent envoys to Alfonso to assure him that in
all these forays and alliances he thought only of the advantage of
Christendom and the honor of Castile. Mondhir, overawed by the appearance
of the allied army from Saragossa, hastily retired from before Valencia,
where Mostain and his Christian Said were welcomed as deliverers by Cadir.
But although the Cid imposed a tribute upon the unhappy Valencians, he
failed to give over the city to Mostain, and assuring Cadir of his constant
support, as long as a monthly allowance of ten thousand golden dinars was
punctually paid, he withdrew himself from the remonstrances of the
disappointed Mostain—to whom he continued to protest his continued
devotion—on the plea of a necessary visit to his Christian sovereign in
Castile, to explain or excuse his position, and to engage some Castilian
troops for his army. Mostain, during his absence, perceiving that he could
not count upon so versatile and so ambitious a Said in the matter of the
handing over of Valencia, entered into an alliance with his old enemy,
Ramon Berenguer, of Barcelona; and the Catalans had actually laid siege to
the city when the return of the Cid induced them to abandon their trenches
and retire to Barcelona.
If the Cid was a hero of romance, he did not wield his sword without the
most magnificent remuneration. At this period of his career (1089-92), in
addition to the eighty thousand golden pieces received from Ramon
Berenguer, he is said to have drawn fifty thousand from the son of Mondhir,
one hundred and twenty thousand from Cadir of Valencia, ten thousand from
Albarracin, ten thousand from Alpuente, six thousand from Murviedro, six
thousand from Segorbe, four thousand from Jerica, and three thousand from
Almenara.
 With such an amount of personal tribute, the Cid cannot, says Lafuente,
have been greatly inconvenienced by the action of Alfonso VI. in despoiling
him of his estates. Supporting his army of seven thousand chosen followers
on the rich booty acquired in his daily forays upon Eastern Spain, from
Saragossa to Alicante; regardless of Christian rights, but the special scourge
of the Moslems; no longer a Saragossan general, but a private adventurer,
the Cid could afford to quarrel at once with Mostain and with Alfonso, and
to defy the combined forces of Mondhir and Ramon Berenguer.
The rivalry between the Cid and the Catalan was ever fierce in Eastern
Spain. The opposing armies met at Tebar del Pinar in 1090, and although the
Cid was wounded in the battle, his army was completely successful.
Mondhir fled from the field; and Ramon Berenguer was once more a
prisoner in the hands of Roderic. Nor was the Christian count released from
a confinement more harsh than was generous or necessary until he had given
good security for the payment of the enormous ransom of eighty thousand
marks of gold.
It is not easy, nor would it be fruitful, to follow the various movements of
the Cid at this period of his career. His quarrels and his intrigues with
Alfonso of Castile, with Cadir of Valencia, with the various parties at the
court of Saragossa, with Ramon Berenguer at Barcelona, and even with the
Genoese and Pisans, are neither easy nor interesting to follow. But his
principal objective was the rich city of Valencia. Alfonso of Leon, ever
jealous of his great and most independent subject, resolved to thwart him in
his design; and having secured the co-operation of the Pisans and Genoese,
who had arrived with a fleet of four hundred vessels to assist the Cid, the
king took advantage of the absence of his rival on some foray to the north of
Saragossa to advance upon Valencia, and to push forward his operations to
the very walls of the city. Ruy Diaz riposted after his fashion.
Leaving the Valencians to make good the defense of their own city, he
carried fire and sword into Alfonso’s peaceful dominions of Najera and
Calahorra, destroying all the towns, burning all the crops, slaughtering the
Christian inhabitants; and razing the important city of Logrono to the
ground. This savagery was completely successful, and met with no reproach.
The Cid is one of those fortunate heroes to whom all things are permitted.
His excesses are forgotten; his independence admired; his boldness and his
success are alone remembered. Alfonso, thus rudely summoned to the north
of the Peninsula, abruptly raised the siege of Valencia.
 Nor was the king’s action at Valencia without a favorable influence upon
the fortunes of the Cid. Far from wresting the city from the grasp of Roderic,
Alfonso had rather precipitated the crisis which was ultimately to lead to his
triumphal entry as the independent ruler of the city. Cadir was murdered by a
hostile faction within the walls; and the Cid, advancing with his usual
prudence, spent some time in possessing himself of the suburbs and the
approaches to the city, before the siege was commenced in good earnest, in
July, 1093.
The operations were carried on in the most ferocious fashion by the
attacking force. Roderic burned his prisoners alive from day to day within
the sight of the walls, or caused them to be torn in pieces by his dogs under
the very eyes of their fellow-townsmen.
The blockaded city was soon a prey to the utmost horrors of famine.
Negotiation was fruitless. Succor came not. Neither Christian nor Moslem,
neither Alfonso the Castilian, nor Yusuf the Almoravide, nor Mostain of
Saragossa, appearing to defend or to relieve the city, Valencia capitulated on
the 15th of June, 1094.
The Moslem commander, Ibn Jahaf, was burned alive. The Moslem
inhabitants were treated with scant consideration, and the Cid, as might have
been supposed, proclaimed himself sovereign of Valencia, independent of
either Christian Alfonso or Moorish Mostain; and at Valencia he lived and
reigned until the day of his death, but five years afterward, in 1099. His rule
was often threatened by the Almoravides; but as long as the champion lived
they could effect no entry within the walls of his city.
For full three years after his death, moreover, his widow Ximena, and his
cousin Alvar Fanez, maintained a precarious sovereignty at Valencia. At
length, unsupported by Alfonso of Leon, and unable to stand alone in the
midst of the Moslems, they retired to Burgos, carrying with them the body of
the Cid embalmed in precious spices, borne, as of old, on his faithful steed
Babieca, to its last resting place in Castile. Valencia was immediately
occupied by the Almoravides, and became once more a Moslem stronghold;
nor did it finally pass into Christian hands until it was taken by James the
First of Aragon in 1238. The Cid was buried in the Monastery of Cardena,
near Burgos; and the body of his heroic wife, Dona Ximena, who died in
1104, was laid by his side in the tomb.
The legend of the marriage of the Cid’s daughters with the Infantes of
Carrion, of their desertion, and of the vengeance of the Cid upon their
unworthy husbands, is undoubtedly an invention of the Castilian minstrels.
The legend of the death of the Cid’s son at the battle of Consuegra is
certainly fallacious. There is no evidence that a son was ever born to him at
all. But he had undoubtedly two daughters, one of whom, Christina, married
Ramiro, Infante of Navarre, and the other, Maria, became the countess of
Ramon Berenguer III. of Barcelona. The issue of Ramon Berenguer III. was
a daughter who died childless, but a granddaughter of Ramiro of Navarre
married Sancho III. of Castile, whose son, Alfonso VIII., was the grandfather
both of St. Ferdinand and of St. Louis. And thus in a double stream, through
the royal houses of Spain and of France, the blood of the Cid is found to
flow in the veins of his Majesty Alfonso XIII., the reigning king of Spain.
To understand or appreciate the position that is occupied by the Cid in
Spanish history is at the present day supremely difficult. A medieval
condottiere in the service of the Moslem, when he was not fighting to fill his
own coffers with perfect impartiality against Moor or Christian: banished as
a traitor by his Castilian sovereign, and constantly leading the forces of the
Infidel against Aragon, against Catalonia, and even against Castile, he has
become the national hero of Spain. Warring against the Moslem of Valencia,
whom he pitilessly despoiled, with the aid of the Moslem of Saragossa,
whose cause he cynically betrayed, while he yet owned a nominal allegiance
to Alfonso of Castile, whose territories he was pitilessly ravaging; retaining
conquered Valencia for his personal and private advantage, in despite of
Moslem or Christian kings, he has become the type of Christian loyalty and
Christian chivalry in Europe. Avaricious, faithless, cruel and bold, a true
soldier of fortune, the Cid still maintains a reputation which is one of the
enigmas of history.
The three favorites of medieval Spanish romance, says Senor Lafuente,
Bernardo del Carpio, Fernan Gonzalez, and the Cid, have this at least in
common, that they were all at war with their lawful sovereigns, and fought
their battles independently of the crown. Hence their popularity in Spain.
The Castilians of the Middle Ages were so devoted to their independence, so
proud of their Fueros, such admirers of personal prowess, that they were
disposed to welcome with national admiration those heroes who sprang from
the people, who defied and were ill-treated by their kings.
The theory is both ingenious and just, yet it by no means solves the
difficulty. Ruy Diaz of Bivar, who was one of the proudest nobles of Castile,
can scarcely be said to have sprung from the people, nor do we clearly
perceive why his long service under Moslem kings, even though he was a
rebel against his own sovereign, should have endeared him to the Christian
Spaniards, however independent or however democratic. Yet we may learn
at least from the character of the hero, ideal though it be, that the medieval
Castilians were no bigots, and that they were slaves neither to their kings nor
to their clergy.
The people of Aragon no doubt held their king in a more distinctly
constitutional subjection. No Castilian chief-justice was found to call the
sovereign to order: no Privilege of Union legalized a popular war in defense
of popular liberties. But Roderic took the place of the justiciary in legend, if
not in history, when he administered the oath to Alfonso at Burgos; and he
invested himself with the privilege of warring against an aggressive king,
when he routed Alfonso’s forces, and burned his cities, to requite him for his
attack upon Valencia.
It is this rebellious boldness which contributed no doubt very largely to
endear the Cid to his contemporaries. It is one of the most constant
characteristics of his career; one of the features that is portrayed with equal
clearness by the chroniclers and the ballad-makers of Spain. For the Cid is
essentially a popular hero. His legendary presentment is a kind of poetic
protest against arbitrary regal power. The Cid ballads are a pæan of
triumphant democracy. The ideal Cid no doubt was evolved in the course of
the twelfth century; and by the end of the fifteenth century, when the rule of
kings and priests had become harder and heavier in Spain, an enslaved
people looked back with an envious national pride to the Castilian hero who
personified the freedom of bygone days.
The Cid is the only knight-errant that has survived the polished satire of
Cervantes. For his fame was neither literary nor aristocratic; but, like the
early Spanish proverbs, in which it is said he took so great a delight, it was
embedded deep in the hearts of the people.[3] And although the memory of
his religious indifference may not have added to his popularity in the
sixteenth century in Spain, it is a part of his character which must be taken
into account in gauging the public opinion of earlier days.
From the close of the eighth century to the close of the fifteenth, the
Spanish people, Castilians and Aragonese, were, if anything, less bigoted
than the rest of Europe. The influence of their neighbors the Moors, and of
their Arab toleration, could not be without its effect upon a people naturally
free, independent, and self-reliant, and the Cid, who was certainly troubled
with no religious scruples in the course of his varied career, and who,
according to a popular legend, affronted and threatened the Pope on his
throne in St Peter’s, on account of some fancied slight,[4] could never have
been the hero of a nation of bigots. The degenerate Visigoths from the time
of Reccared the Catholic to the time of Roderic the Vanquished could never
have produced a Cid. Yet, even in the dark days of Erwig and Egica, there
was found a Julian, who boldly maintained the national independence
against the pretensions of the Pope of Rome. For a thousand years after the
landing of St. Paul—if, indeed, he ever landed upon the coast—the Spanish
Church was, perhaps, the most independent in Europe. The royal submission
to the Papal authority, first by Sancho I. of Aragon, in 1071, and afterward
by Alfonso VI. of Leon, in 1085, in the matter of the Romish Ritual, was
distinctly unpopular. Peter II. found no lack of recruits for the army that he
led against the Papal troops in Languedoc, and King James I., the most
popular of the kings of Aragon, cut out the tongue of a meddlesome bishop
who had presumed to interfere in his private affairs (1246). It was not until
the Inquisition was forced upon United Spain by Isabella the Catholic, and
the national lust for the plunder of strangers was aroused by the destruction
of Granada, that the Spaniard became a destroyer of heretics. It was not until
the spoliation and the banishment of Jews and Moriscos, and the opening of
a new world of heathen treasure on the discovery of America, that the
Castilian, who had always been independent himself, became intolerant of
the independence of others. Then, indeed, he added the cruelty of the priest
to the cruelty of the soldier, and wrapping himself in the cloak of a proud
and uncompromising national orthodoxy, became the most ferocious bigot in
two unhappy worlds.
But in the beginning it was not so. And if the Cid could possibly have
been annoyed by Torquemada, his knights would have hanged the Inquisitor
upon the nearest tree. No priests’ man, in good sooth, was Roderic of Bivar,
nor, save in that he was a brave and determined soldier, had the great
Castilian Free Lance anything in common with the more conventional heroes
of United Spain.
If history affords no reasonable explanation of his unrivaled renown
beyond that which has already been suggested, we find but little in the early
poetry to assist us. The Cid ballads impress us “more by their number than
their light.” They are neither very interesting in themselves, nor are they
even very suggestive. Only thirty-seven ballads are considered by Huber to
be older than the sixteenth century. “La plupart de ces romances,” says M.
Dozy, “accusent leur origine moderne”; and, according to Mr. Ormsby, they
do but little toward the illustration of the Cid, either as a picturesque hero of
romance or as a characteristic feature of medieval history.
The great French dramatist scarcely touches the true history of his hero.
The scene of the play is laid at Seville, where no Christian king set his foot
for a hundred and fifty years after the death of Roderic. The title which he
accepted from his employer, Mostain of Saragossa, is said to have been
granted by Alfonso of Leon, after the capture of two imaginary Moorish
kings, unknown to history, in an impossible battle on the banks of the
Guadalquivir, which was never seen by the Cid. The whole action of the play
turns upon the moral and psychological difficulties arising from the purely
legendary incident of the killing of Chimene’s father by her lover, avenging
an insult offered to his own sire, and of the somewhat artificial indignation
of the lady, until she is appeased by a slaughter of Moors. Corneille’s drama
abounds in noble sentiments expressed in most admirable verse; but it does
not assist us to understand the character of the Cid, nor the reasons of his
popularity in his own or in any other country. But certain at least it is that
from the earliest times the story of his life and his career took a strong hold
upon the popular imagination in Spain, and his virtues and his vices, little as
they may seem to us to warrant the popular admiration, were understood and
appreciated in the age in which he lived, an age of force and fraud, of
domestic treason and foreign treachery, when religion preached little but
battle and murder, and patriotism was but a pretext for plunder and rapine.
Admired thus, even in his lifetime, as a gallant soldier, an independent
chieftain, and an ever successful general, fearless, dexterous, and strong, his
free career became a favorite theme with the jongleurs and troubadours of
the next generation; and from the Cid of history was evolved a Cid of
legendary song.
It is most difficult at the present day to know exactly where serious
history ends and where poetry and legend begin. Yet the Cid as represented
to us by M. Dozy, one of the most acute of modern investigators of historic
truth, is not so very different from the Cid represented by Southey, or even
by earlier and less critical poets, but that we may form a reasonable estimate,
from what is common to both history and tradition, of what manner of man
he was. The Cid of the twelfth century legends, indeed, though he may be
more marvelous, is by no means more moral than the Cid of history. It was
reserved for the superior refinement of succeeding generations, and more
especially for the anonymous author of the poem of the thirteenth century to
evolve a hero of a gentler and nobler mold; a creature conforming to a higher
ideal of knightly perfection. From this time forward we have a glorified Cid,
whose adventures are no more historically false, perhaps, than those of the
unscrupulous and magnificent Paladin of the legends and romances of the
twelfth century, but whose character possesses all the dignity and all the
glory with which he could be invested by a generous medieval imagination.
And it is this refined and idealized hero; idealized, yet most real; refined, yet
eminently human, that has been worshiped by nineteen generations of
Spaniards as the national hero of Spain.
Ruy Diaz—as he lived and died—was probably no worse a man than any
of his neighbors. Far better than many of them he was, and undoubtedly
bolder and stronger, more capable, more adroit, and more successful.
Seven of the Christian princes of Spain at this period fell in battle warring
against their own near relations, or were murdered by their hands in cold
blood. Garcia of Castile was slain by the sword of the Velas. Bermudo III. of
Leon and Garcia Sanchez of Navarre died fighting against their brother,
Ferdinand of Castile. Sancho II. of Castile was assassinated by order of his
sister Urraca, besieged by him in her city of Zamora. Among the Christian
kings of the century immediately before him, Garcia of Galicia was
strangled in prison by the hands of his brothers, Sancho and Alfonso; Sancho
Garcia of Navarre was assassinated by his brother Ramon, at Peñalva;
Ramon Berenguer II. of Barcelona died by the dagger of his brother
Berenguer Ramon; Sancho the Fat, in 967, was poisoned at a friendly repast
by Gonzalo Sanchez; Ruy Velasquez of Castile, in 986, murdered his seven
nephews, the unfortunate Infantes de Lara; Sancho of Castile, in 1010,
poisoned his mother, who had endeavored to poison him. At the wedding
festivities at Leon, in 1026, Garcia, Count of Castile, was assassinated at the
church door, and the murderers were promptly burned alive by his friends;
Garcia of Navarre, in 1030, as an incident in a family dispute about a horse,
accused his mother of adultery. Such was the standard of the eleventh
century in the north of the Peninsula.
To judge the Cid, even as we now know him, according to any code of
modern ethics, is supremely unreasonable. To be sure, even now, that we
know him as he was, is supremely presumptuous. But that Ruy Diaz was a
great man, and a great leader of men, a knight who would have shocked
modern poets, and a free lance who would have laughed at modern heroes,
we can have no manner of doubt. That he satisfied his contemporaries and
himself; that he slew Moors and Christians as occasion required, with equal
vigor and absolute impartiality; that he bearded the King of Leon in his
Christian council, and that he cozened the King of Saragossa at the head of
his Moslem army; that he rode the best horse and brandished the best blade
in Spain; that his armies never wanted for valiant soldiers, nor his coffers for
gold pieces; that he lived my Lord the Challenger, the terror of every foe,
and that he died rich and respected in the noble city that had fallen to his
knightly spear—of all this at least we are certain; and, if the tale is
displeasing to our nineteenth century refinement, we must be content to
believe that it satisfied the aspirations of medieval Spain.
 CHAPTER IV

M O O R I S H S PA I N
THE LAST OF THE CALIPHS—THE RISE AND FALL OF
GRANADA—FERDINAND AND ISABELLA—THE GREAT
CAPTAIN
Moslem rule in Spain may be conveniently summarized as consisting—
first, in the Caliphs of Cordova; second, in the dynasty of the Almoravides;
third, in that of the Almohades; and, finally, the kings of Granada.
Concerning the first it may be noted that in the long reign of the last
Abdur Rahman were the seeds of its dissolution. Brooking no rival during
his lifetime, at his death he found no successor. Then upon the ruins of the
great Caliphate twenty independent and hostile dynasties surged. Meanwhile
Alfonso was eyeing them from his citadel. At the gates of Valencia was the
Cid. For common safety the Moslem rivals looked for a common defender.
In Africa that defender was found in Yusuf, the Berber chief of a tribe of
religious soldiers known as the Almoravides.
Invited to Spain, he crossed over, and, meeting Alfonso at Zalaca, near
Badajoz, on the 23d of October, 1086, he routed him with great and historic
slaughter.

Yusuf [says Burke] had come as a Moslem defender, but he remained as a

Moslem master. And once more in Spanish history, the over-powerful ally
turned his victorious arms against those who had welcomed him to their
shores. Yet Yusuf was no vulgar traitor. He had sworn to the envoys of the
Spanish Moslems that he would return to Africa, in the event of victory,
without the annexation to his African empire of a field or a city to the north
of the Straits. And his vow was religiously kept. Retiring empty-handed to
Mauritania, after the great battle at Zalaca, he returned once more to Spain,
unfettered on this new expedition by any vow, and set to work with his usual
vigor to make himself master of the Peninsula. Tarifa fell in December. The
next year saw the capture of Seville, and of all of the principal cities of
Andalusia. An army sent by Alfonso VI., under his famous captain, Alvar
Fanez, was completely defeated, and all Southern Spain lay at the feet of the
Berber, save only Valencia, which remained impregnable so long as the Cid
lived to direct the defense. In 1102, after the hero’s death, Valencia
succumbed, and all Spain to the south of the Tagus became a province of the
great African empire of the Almoravides.
The rule of these hardy bigots was entirely unlike that of the Ommeyad
Caliphs of the West. Moslem Spain had no longer even an independent
existence. The sovereign resided not at Cordova, but at Morocco. The poets
and musicians were banished from court. The beauties of Az Zahra were
forgotten. Jews and Christians were alike persecuted. The kingdom was
governed with an iron hand. But if the rule of the stranger was not generous,
it was just, and for the moment it possessed the crowning merit that it was
efficient. The laws were once more respected. The people once more
dreamed of wealth and happiness. But it was little more than a dream.
On the death of Yusuf in 1107 the scepter passed into the hands of his son
Ali, a more sympathetic but a far less powerful ruler. In 1118 the great city
of Saragossa, the last bulwark of Islam in the north of the Peninsula, was
taken by Alfonso I. of Aragon, who carried his victorious arms into Southern
Spain, and fulfilled a rash vow by eating a dinner of fresh fish on the coast
of Granada.
Yet it was by no Christian hand that the empire of the Almoravides was to
be overthrown.
Mohammed Ibn Abdullah, a lamplighter in the mosque at Cordova, had
made his way to remote Bagdad to study at the feet of Abu Hamid Algazali,
a celebrated doctor of Moslem law. The strange adventures, so characteristic
of his age and nation, by which the lowly student became a religious
reformer—a Mahdi—and a conqueror in Africa, and at length overthrew the
Almoravides, both to the north and the south of the Straits of Gibraltar,
forms a most curious chapter in the history of Islam; but in a brief sketch of
the fortunes of medieval Spain, it must suffice to say that having established
his religious and military power among the Berber tribes of Africa, Ibn
Abdullah, the Mahdi, landed at Algeciras in 1145, and possessed himself in
less than four years of Malaga, Seville, Granada, and Cordova. The empire
of the Almoravides was completely destroyed; and, before the close of the
year 1149, all Moslem Spain acknowledged the supremacy of the
Almohades.
 These more sturdy fanatics were still African rather than Spanish
sovereigns. Moslem Spain was administered by a Vali deputed from
Morocco; and Cordova, shorn of much of its former splendor, was the
occasional abode of a royal visitor from Barbary. For seventy years the
Almohades retained their position in Spain. But their rule was not of glory
but of decay. One high feat of arms indeed shed a dying luster on the name
of the Berber prince who reigned for fifteen years (1184-99) under the
auspicious title of Almanzor, and his great Moslem victory over Alfonso II.
at Alarcon in 1195 revived for the time the drooping fortunes of the
Almohades. But their empire was already doomed, decaying, disintegrated,
wasting away. And at length the terrible defeat of the Moslem forces by the
united armies of the three Christian kings at the Navas do Tolosa in 1212, at
once the most crushing and the most authentic of all the Christian victories
of medieval Spain, gave a final and deadly blow to the Moslem dominion of
the Peninsula. Within a few years of that celebrated battle, Granada alone
was subject to the rule of Islam.
It was in the year 1228 that a descendant of the old Moorish kings of
Saragossa rebelled against the Almohades and succeeded in making himself
master not merely of Granada, but of Cordova, Seville, Algeciras, and even
of Ceuta, and, obtaining a confirmation of his rights from Bagdad, assumed
the title of Amir ul Moslemin—Commander of the Moslems—and Al
Mutawakal—the Protected of God.
But a rival was not slow to appear. Mohammed Al Ahmar, the Fair or the
Ruddy, defeated, dethroned, and slew Al Mutawakal, and reigned in his
stead in Andalusia. Despoiled in his turn of most of his possessions by St.
Ferdinand of Castile, Al Ahmar was fain at length to content himself with the
rich districts in the extreme south of the Peninsula, which are known to
fame, wherever the Spanish or the English language is spoken, as the
Kingdom of Granada. And thus it came to pass that the city on the banks of
the Darro, the home of the proud and highly cultivated Syrians of Damascus,
the flower of the early Arab invaders of Spain, became also the abiding place
of the later Arab civilization, overmastered year after year, and destroyed, by
the Christian armies ever pressing on to the southern sea. Yet, in the middle
of the thirteenth century, the flood tide of reconquest had for the moment
fairly spent itself. The Christians were not strong enough to conquer, and
above all they were not numerous enough to occupy, the districts that were
still peopled by the Moor; and for once a wise and highly cultivated
Christian shared the supreme power in the Peninsula with a generous and
honorable Moslem. Alfonso X. sought not to extend his frontiers, but to
educate his people, not to slaughter his neighbors, but to give laws to his
subjects, not to plunder frontier cities, but to make Castile into a kingdom,
with a history, a civilization, and a language of her own. If the reputation of
Alfonso is by no means commensurate with his true greatness, the
statesmanship of Mohammed Al Ahmar, the founder of the ever famous
Kingdom of Granada, is overshadowed by his undying fame as an architect.
Yet is Al Ahmar worthy of remembrance as a king and the parent of kings in
Spain. The loyal friend and ally of his Christian neighbor, the prudent
administrator of his own dominions, he collected at his Arab court a great
part of the wealth, the science, and the intelligence of Spain. His empire has
long ago been broken up; the Moslem has been driven out; there is no king
nor kingdom of Granada. But their memory lives in the great palace fortress
whose red towers still rise over the sparkling Darro, and whose fairy
chambers are still to be seen in what is, perhaps, the most celebrated of the
wonder works of the master builders of the world.
After his long and glorious reign of forty-two years, Mohammed the Fair
was killed by a fall from his horse near Granada, and was succeeded by his
son, Mohammed II., in the last days of the year 1272. Al Ahmar had ever
remained at peace with Alfonso X., but his son, taking advantage of the
king’s absence in quest of an empire in Germany, sought the assistance of
Yusuf, the sovereign or emperor of Morocco, and invaded the Christian
frontiers.
Victory was for some time on the side of the Moors. The Castilians were
defeated at Ecija in 1275, and their leader, the Viceroy Don Nunez de Lara,
was killed in battle, as was also Don Sancho, Infante of Aragon and
Archbishop of Toledo, after the rout of his army at Martos, near Jaen, on the
21st of October, 1275; and the victorious Yusuf ravaged Christian Spain to
the very gates of Seville.
In the next year, 1276, the Castilian armies were again twice defeated, in
February at Alcoy and in the following July at Lucena. To add to their
troubles, King James of Aragon died at Valencia in 1276. Sancho of Castile
sought to depose his father Alfonso, at Valladolid. All was in confusion
among the Christians; and had it not been for the defection of Yusuf of
Morocco, the tide of fortune might have turned in favor of Islam. As it was,
the African monarch not only abandoned his cousin of Granada, but he was
actually persuaded to send one hundred thousand ducats to his Christian
rival at Seville in 1280.
The value of this assistance was soon felt. Tarifa was taken in 1292, and
the progress of the Moor was checked forever in Southern Spain.
Mohammed II. died in 1302, and was succeeded by his son, Mohammed III.,
who was usually considered by the Moslem historians to have been the
ablest monarch of his house. But he reigned for only seven years, and he was
unable to defend Gibraltar from the assaults of his Christian rivals.
From this time the court of Granada became a sort of city of refuge for
the disaffected lords and princes of Castile, who sometimes, but rarely,
prevailed upon their Moslem hosts to assist them in expeditions into
Christian Spain, but who were always welcomed with true Arab hospitality
at the Moslem capital. To record their various intrigues would be a vain and
unpleasing task. The general course of history was hardly affected by
passing alliances. The Christian pressed on—with ever-increasing territory
behind him—on his road to the southern sea.
In 1319, Abdul Walid or Ismail I. of Granada defeated and slew Don
Pedro and Don Juan, Infantes of Castile, at a place near Granada, still known
as the Sierra de los Infantes. But no important consequences followed the
victory.
In the reign of Yusuf (1333-54) was fought the great battle of the Salado
(1340), when the Christians, under Alfonso XI., were completely successful;
and the capitulation of Algeciras three years later deprived the Moslems of
an important harbor and seaport. Day by day—almost hour by hour—the
Christians encroached upon Granada, even while cultivating the political
friendship and accepting the private hospitality of the Moslem. Their
treacherous intervention reached its climax in 1362, when Peter the Cruel
decoyed the King Abu Said, under his royal safe-conduct, to the palace at
Seville, and slew him with his own hand.
With Mohammed or Maulai al Aisar, or the Left-handed, the affairs of
Granada became more intimately connected with the serious history of
Spain. Al Hayzari, proclaimed king in 1423, and dethroned soon after by his
cousin, another Mohammed, in 1427 sought and found refuge at the court of
John II., by whose instrumentality he was restored to his throne at the
Alhambra in 1429. Yet within four years a rival sovereign, Yusuf, had
secured the support of the fickle Christian, and Muley the Left-handed was
forced a second time to fly from his capital. Once again, by the sudden death
of the new usurper, he returned to reign at Granada, and once again for the
third time he was supplanted by a more fortunate rival, who reigned as
Mohammed IX. for nearly ten years (1445-54). At the end of this period,
however, another pretender was dispatched from the Christian court, and
after much fighting and intrigue, Mohammed Ibn Ismail, a nephew of
Maulai or Muley the Left-handed, drove out the reigning sovereign and
succeeded him as Mohammed X.
Yet were the dominions of this Christian ally unceasingly ravaged by his
Christian neighbors. Gibraltar, Archidona, and much surrounding territory
were taken by the forces of Henry IV. and his nobles; and a treaty was at
length concluded in 1464, in which it was agreed that Mohammed of
Granada should hold his kingdom under the protection of Castile, and should
pay an annual subsidy or tribute of twelve thousand gold ducats. It was thus,
on the death, in 1466, of this Mohammed Ismail of Granada, that a vexed
and harassed throne was inherited by his son Muley Abul Hassan, ever
famous in history and romance as “The old king”—the last independent
sovereign of Granada.
Meanwhile, Henry’s only daughter Joanna being regarded as the fruit of
the queen’s adultery, he was deposed, but restored after acknowledging as
his heiress his sister Isabella, who subsequently, through her marriage with
Ferdinand of Aragon, joined the two most powerful of Spanish kingdoms
into one yet more powerful State.
To return now to Muley Abul Hassan.[5] For many years after his
accession he observed with his Christian neighbors the treaties that had been
made, nor did he take advantage of the civil war which arose by reason of
Joanna’s pretensions to add to the difficulties already existing, and in the
spring of 1476 sought a formal renewal of the old Treaty of Peace.
Ferdinand, however, made his acceptance of the king’s proposal
contingent upon the grant of an annual tribute; and he sent an envoy to the
Moslem court to negotiate the terms of payment. But the reply of Abul
Hassan was decisive. “Steel,” said he, “not gold, was what Ferdinand should
have from Granada!” Disappointed of their subsidy, and unprepared for war,
the Christian sovereigns were content to renew the treaty, with a mental
reservation that as soon as a favorable opportunity should present itself they
would drive every Moslem not only out of Granada, but out of Spain.
For five years there was peace between Abul Hassan and the Catholic
sovereigns. The commencement of hostilities was the capture of Zahara by
the Moslems at the close of the year 1481; which was followed early in next
year, 1482, by the conquest of the far more important Moorish stronghold of
Alhama, not by the troops of Ferdinand and Isabella, but by the followers of
Ponce de Leon, the celebrated Marquis of Cadiz. Alhama was not merely a
fortress. It was a treasure-house and a magazine; and it was but five or six
leagues from Granada. The town was sacked with the usual horrors. The
Marquis of Cadiz, having made good his position within the walls, defied all
the attacks of Abul Hassan, and at the same time sent messengers to every
Christian lord in Andalusia to come to his assistance—to all save one, his
hereditary enemy, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, chief of the great family of
the Guzmans. Yet it was this generous rival, who, assembling all his chivalry
and retainers, was the first to appear before the walls of Alhama, and relieve
the Christians from the threatened assault of the Moslem. The days of civil
discord had passed away in Castile; and against united Christendom, Islam
could not long exist in Spain.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand, seeing that war had finally broken out, started
from Medina del Campo, and marched with all speed to Cordova, where he
was joined by Isabella early in April, 1482. The Inquisition had now been for
over a year in full blast at Seville. The fires of persecution had been fairly
lighted. The reign of bigotry had begun, and the king and queen were
encouraged to proceed from the plunder of the Jews or New Christians to the
plunder of the Moslems. Ferdinand accordingly repaired in person to
Alhama, with a large train of prelates and ecclesiastics of lower degree. The
city was solemnly purified. Three mosques were consecrated by the Cardinal
of Spain for Christian worship. Bells, crosses, plate, altar cloths were
furnished without stint; and Alhama having been thus restored to
civilization, Ferdinand descended upon the fruitful valley or Vega of
Granada, destroyed the crops, cut down the fruit trees, uprooted the vines,
and, without having encountered a single armed enemy in the course of his
crusade, returned in triumph to Cordova. A more arduous enterprise in the
following July was not attended with the same success, when Ferdinand
attacked the important town of Loja, and was repulsed with great loss of
Christian life. An expedition against Malaga, later in the year, undertaken by
Alfonso de Cardenas, Grand Master of Santiago, and the Marquis of Cadiz,
was even more disastrous, for a small body of Moors in the mountain defiles
of the Axarquia fell upon the Christian marauders, and no less than four
hundred “persons of quality” are said to have perished in the retreat,
including thirty commanders of the great military order of Santiago. The
Grand Master, the Marquis of Cadiz, and Don Alfonso de Aguilar escaped as
by a miracle, and the survivors straggled into Loja and Antequera and
Malaga, leaving Abul Hassan and his brother Al Zagal, or the Valiant, with
all the honors of war.
But the successes of the Moor in the field were more than
counterbalanced by treason in the palace. By Zoraya, a lady of Christian
ancestry, Muley Abul Hassan had a son, Abu Abdallah, who has earned a sad
notoriety under the more familiar name of Boabdil. Jealous of some rival, or
ambitious of greater power, the Sultana and her son intrigued against their
sovereign, and having escaped from the State prison, in which they were at
first prudently confined, raised the standard of revolt, and compelled Abul
Hassan, who was thenceforth more usually spoken of as the Old King, to
seek refuge on the sea-coast at Malaga.
Boabdil, jealous of the success of his father and his undo at Loja and in
the Axarquia, and anxious to confirm his power by some striking victory
over the Christians, took the field and confronted the forces of the Count of
Cabra, near Lucena. The battle was hotly contested, but victory remained
with the Christians. Ali Atar, the bravest of the Moorish generals, was slain
by the hand of Alfonso de Aguilar, and Boabdil himself was taken prisoner
by a common soldier, Hurtado by name, and fell into the hands of the
victorious Count of Cabra.
The captivity of Boabdil, the Little King, el Rey Chico, as he was called
by the Castilians, was the turning point in the history of the Moorish
dominion in Spain. Released on payment of a magnificent ransom provided
by his mother Zoraya, and bound to his Christian captors by a humiliating
treaty, he returned to Granada, disgraced and dishonored, as the ally of the
enemies of his country. Driven out of the capital by the forces of his father,
who had returned to occupy the great palace-fortress of Alhambra, Boabdil
and his mother retired to Almeria, the second city in the kingdom; and the
whole country was distracted by civil war.
Yet for four years the Castilians refrained from any important expedition
against Granada. Their tactics were rather those of Scipio at Numantia. For
Delay was all in favor of Disintegration.
Yet the merciless devastation of fields and crops was carried on with
systematic and dreadful completeness. Thirty thousand destroyers of
peaceful homesteads, granaries, farmhouses, and mills were constantly at
work, and ere long there was scarce a vineyard or an oliveyard, scarce an
orchard or an orange-grove existing within reach of the Christian borders.
Under cover of the treaty with Boabdil, this devilish enginery of destruction
was steadily pushed forward, while the old king and his more vigorous
brother El Zagal were prevented by domestic treason from making any
effectual defense of their fatherland. Some of the border towns, moreover,
fell into the hands of the Christians, and many forays were undertaken which
produced rich booty for the marauders. Ferdinand in the meantime occupied
himself rather with the affairs of the Inquisition and of foreign policy, while
Isabella was personally superintending the enormous preparations for a final
attack on Granada. Artillery was cast in large quantities, and artificers
imported from France and Italy; large stores of ammunition were procured
from Flanders. Nothing was hurried; nothing was spared; nothing was
forgotten by Isabella. A camp hospital, the first, it is said, in the history of
warfare, was instituted by the queen, whose energy was indefatigable, whose
powers of organization were boundless, and whose determination was
inflexible. To represent her as a tender and a timid princess is to turn her true
greatness into ridicule. But her vigor, her prudence, and her perseverance are
beyond the vulgar praise of history.
Meanwhile, Granada was gradually withering away. The “pomegranate,”
as Ferdinand had foreseen and foretold, was losing one by one the seeds of
which the rich and lovely fruit had once been all compact. The old king,
defeated but not disgraced, blind, infirm, and unfortunate, was succeeded too
late by his more capable brother, El Zagal, a gallant warrior, a skillful
commander, and a resolute ruler. But if “the valiant one” might hardly have
held his own against the enormous resources of the Christians in Europe, he
was powerless against the combination of foreign vigor and domestic
treachery. The true conqueror of Granada is Boabdil, the rebel and the
traitor, who has been euphemistically surnamed the Unlucky (El Zogoibi).
Innocent, perchance, of the massacre of the brave Abencerrages, he is guilty
of the blood of his country.
The capture of Velez Malaga by Ferdinand, already well supplied with a
powerful train of artillery, in April, 1487—while El Zagal was fighting for
his life against Boabdil in Granada—was soon followed by the reduction,
after a most heroic defense, of the far more important city of Malaga in
August, 1487. But the heroism of the Moslem woke no generous echo in the
hearts of either Ferdinand or Isabella. The entire population of the captured
city, men, women, and children—some fifteen thousand souls—was reduced
to slavery, and distributed not only over Spain, but over Europe.
A hundred choice warriors were sent as a gift to the Pope. Fifty of the
most beautiful girls were presented to the Queen of Naples, thirty more to
the Queen of Portugal, others to the ladies of her court, and the residue of
both sexes were portioned off among the nobles, the knights, and the
common soldiers of the army, according to their rank and influence.
For the Jews and renegades a more dreadful doom was reserved; and the
flames in which they perished were, in the words of a contemporary
ecclesiastic, “the illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of
Ferdinand and Isabella.” The town was repeopled by Christian immigrants,
to whom the lands and houses of the Moslem owners were granted with
royal liberality by the victors. The fall of Malaga, the second seaport and the
third city of the kingdom of Granada, was a grievous loss to the Moors; and
the Christian blockade was drawn closer both by land and by sea. Yet an
invasion of the eastern provinces, undertaken by Ferdinand himself in 1488,
was repulsed by El Zagal; and the Christian army was disbanded as usual at
the close of the year, without having extended the Christian dominions.
But in the spring of 1489 greater efforts were made. The Castilians sat
down before the town of Baza, not far from Jaen, and after a siege which
lasted until the following December, the city surrendered, not, as in the case
of Malaga, without conditions, but upon honorable terms of capitulation,
which the assailants, who had only been prevented by the arrival of Isabella
from raising the siege, were heartily glad to accept. The fall of Baza was of
more than passing importance, for it was followed by the capitulation of
Almeria, the second city in the kingdom, and by the submission of El Zagal,
who renounced as hopeless the double task of fighting against his nephew at
the Alhambra, and resisting the Christian sovereigns who had already
overrun his borders. The fallen monarch passed over to Africa, where he
died in indigence and misery, the last of the great Moslem rulers of Spain.
In the spring of 1490, Ferdinand, already master of the greater part of the
Moorish kingdom, sent a formal summons to his bondman, Boabdil, to
surrender to him the city of Granada; and that wretched and most foolish
traitor, who had refrained from action when action might have saved his
country, now defied the victorious Christians, when his defiance could only
lead to further suffering and greater disaster.
 Throughout the summer of 1490, Ferdinand, in person, devoted himself
to the odious task of the devastation of the entire Vega of Granada, and the
depopulation of the town of Guadix. But in the spring of the next year,
Isabella, who was ever the life and soul of the war, took up her position
within six miles of the city, and pitched her camp at Ojos de Huescar at the
very gate of Granada.
And here was found assembled, not only all the best blood of Castile, but
volunteers and mercenary troops from various countries in Europe. France,
England, Italy, and even Germany, each provided their contingent; and a
body of Swiss soldiers of fortune showed the gallant cavaliers of the
Christian army the power and the value of a well disciplined infantry.
Among the foreigners who had come over to Spain in 1486 was an English
lord, the Earl of Rivers, known by the Spaniards as El Conde de Escalas,
from his family name of Scales, whose magnificence attracted the
admiration of all, even at the magnificent court of Isabella.
But the destruction of Granada was not brought about by these gilded
strangers, nor even by the brilliant knights and nobles of Spain. It was not
due to skillful engineers nor to irresistible commanders. The gates were
opened by no victory. The walls were scaled by no assault. The Christian
success was due to the patient determination of Isabella, to the decay and
disintegration of the Moorish Commonwealth, and, to some extent, to the
skillful negotiation and diplomatic astuteness of a young soldier whose early
influence upon the fortunes of Spain has been overshadowed by the
greatness of his later achievements.
For among all the splendid knights and nobles who assembled in the
camp of Isabella, the chroniclers wellnigh overlooked a gay cavalier of
modest fortune, the younger brother of Alfonso de Aguilar, distinguished
rather as a fop than a warrior—Gonsalvo Hernandez of Cordova, whose
fame was destined to eclipse that of all his companions in arms, and who has
earned an undying reputation in the history of three countries as “The Great
Captain.”
The life of Gonsalvo de Cordova is interesting as being the history of a
brave soldier and an accomplished general, who flourished at a very
important period of the history of Europe. But it is further and much more
interesting as being the history of a man who united in himself many of the
characteristics of ancient and of modern times. His bravery was the bravery
of an old Castilian knight, and although he had many splendid rivals, he was
pronounced by common consent to be their superior. Yet his individual
courage was the least remarkable of his qualities. He was a general such as
the Western world had not known for a thousand years, and he was the first
diplomatist of modern Europe. In personal valor, in knightly courtesy, in
brave display, he was of his own time. In astute generalship, and in still more
astute diplomacy, he may be said to have inaugurated a new era; and
although greater commanders have existed after him, as well as before him,
he will always be known as “The Great Captain.”
The conquest of Granada marks an epoch, not only in the history of
Spain, but in the history of Europe; and Gonsalvo was the hero of Granada.
The expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy is a subject of almost romantic
interest, very nearly preferred by Gibbon to his own immortal theme; and
Gonsalvo in Italy was the admired of all French and Italian admirers. The
succeeding expedition of Louis XII. was scarcely less interesting, and the
part played by Gonsalvo was even more remarkable. At his birth artillery
was almost unknown. At his death it had become the most formidable arm of
offense; it had revolutionized the rules and manner of warfare; and it was
employed by The Great Captain in both his Italian campaigns with marked
skill and success.
Gonsalvo Hernandez was born at Montilla, near Cordova, in 1453, of the
noble and ancient family of the Aguilars. After a boyhood and youth
devoted, not only to every manly sport and pursuit, and to the practice of
arms, but to the study of letters, and more especially of the Arabic language,
he made his first appearance in serious warfare on the field of Olmedo,
fighting under the banner of the Marquis of Villena. On the death of Prince
Alfonso, Gonsalvo returned to Cordova. His father had already died; and
according to the Spanish law of primogeniture the whole of the rich estates
of the family of Aguilar passed, on the death of Don Pedro, to his eldest son
Alfonso, while nothing but a little personal property, a great name, a fine
person, and “the hope of what he might gain by his good fortune or his
valor” was inherited by Alfonso’s younger brother.
Cordova was obviously too small a field for Gonsalvo de Aguilar; and in
the course of the eventful year 1474, having just arrived at man’s estate, he
proceeded to Segovia, and distinguished himself among the young nobles
who crowded to the Court of Isabella, by his prowess at tournaments and all
warlike games and exercises; and he soon became celebrated for his personal
beauty as well as for his valor, distinguished for his fascinating manners,
and, above all, by an eloquence rarely found in a young soldier of two-and-
twenty. He was generally known as “the Prince of the Youth”; and he
supported the character by an almost royal liberality and ostentatious
expenditure entirely incompatible with his modest fortune.
In the war of succession between Isabella and her niece, Gonsalvo served
under Alfonso de Cardenas, Grand Master of Santiago, in command of a
troop of one hundred and twenty horsemen; and he particularly distinguished
himself at the battle of Albuera.
And now, in the camp before Granada, he was well pleased once more to
sun himself in the smiles of his queen and patroness, whose presence in the
camp inspired every soldier with enthusiasm. Isabella appeared on the field
superbly mounted and dressed in complete armor, and continually visited the
different quarters, and held reviews of the troops. On one occasion she
expressed a desire to have a nearer view of the city, and a picked body of
men, among whom was Gonsalvo de Cordova, commanded by the Marquis
Duke of Cadiz, escorted her to the little village of Zubia, within a short
distance of Granada. The citizens, indignant at the near approach of so small
a force, sallied out and attacked them. The Christians, however, stood their
ground so bravely, and performed such prodigies of valor under the very
eyes of Isabella herself, that no less than two thousand Moslems are said to
have fallen in that memorable affray.
It happened one night, about the middle of July, that the drapery of the
tent or pavilion in which Isabella was lodged took fire, and the conflagration
was not extinguished until several of the neighboring tents had been
consumed. The queen and her attendants escaped unhurt, but a general
consternation prevailed throughout the camp, until it was discovered that no
more serious loss had been experienced than that of the queen’s wardrobe.
Gonsalvo, however, who on more than one occasion showed himself at
least as practical a courtier as Sir Walter Raleigh, immediately sent an
express to Illora, and obtained such a supply of fine clothes from his wife,
Doña Maria Manrique, that the queen herself was amazed, as much at their
magnificence as at the rapidity with which they had been obtained.
But this incident led to even more important results than the amiable
pillage of Doña Maria’s wardrobe; for in order to guard against a similar
disaster, as well as to provide comfortable winter quarters for the troops,
Isabella determined to construct a sufficient number of houses of solid
masonry to provide quarters for the besieging army, a design which was