Claim that £1m El Cid sword is a forgery provokes a duel of words

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Remember that epic movie starring Charleton Heston?

Claim that £1m El Cid sword is a forgery provokes a duel of words
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
Published: 13 June 2007

The modern-day clash over a sword that once belonged to Spain's medieval hero El Cid may become as legendary as the warrior's fighting skills.

Authorities in the knight's home region recently snapped up La Tizona - not just a weapon, but a potent national symbol - from a Spanish aristocrat for a steely €1.6m (£1m), planning to put it on show next to El Cid's tomb in Burgos cathedral.

But the government has slashed their plans to ribbons, branding the sabre a stylish fake. The Culture Ministry had already been offered the so-called historic relic, it said, but after commissioning multiple scientific studies it was found to be a fraud, worth no more than €300,000.

The new owners are standing firm, however. "The ministry is just jealous because we bought it and they didn't. Historical tradition has always attributed this sword to El Cid," authorities in the Castilla Leon region of northern Spain said. The title El Cid (Andalus Arabic for chief, or leader) was given to Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (1043-1099). His battles against Moorish occupiers prompted Spanish Catholics to adopt him as a national figurehead.

Every Spanish child learns of El Cid's bizarre final confrontation, when Catholic soldiers dragged the swordsman from his deathbed, propped him on his horse, strapped La Tizona to his side, and displayed him to the enemy. The mere sight of the never-defeated warrior prompted the Moors to flee in terror.

Spain's National Heritage, Madrid's Archaeological Museum and the Royal Academy of History have all given the sword the thumbs down, with one specialist dating it from the 15th or 16th century.

The aristocrat who sold the sword, Jose Ramon Suarez de Otero, Marquis of Falces, is livid. "La Tizona has been in my family since the 1400s, and it pains me that political interests are denigrating this sword, symbol of our history," he fumed.

Claim that £1m El Cid sword is a forgery provokes a duel of words - Independent Online Edition > Europe