The Legend of Don Roderick

King of Hispania Don Roderick achieved fame, despite ruling only for a year or two, primarily for being the last king of the Goths.  His demise, credited by Arabic sources (per Bernard Bachrach) as occurring on July 26, 711, came at the hands of the muslim Tariq ibn Zayad.  Zayad had been sent to Iberia initially to survey territory by Musa ibn Nasayr, who was based in Saudi Arabia.  Zayad ended up conquering much of the Iberian Peninsula, with an army of Arabs and Berbers.

Roderick's fate seems to have hinged on an indiscretion committed with a court-woman named Florinda, who was the daughter of Count Julian of Ceuta.  Julian was based in North Africa, and had successfully withstood the Umayyad conquest of North Africa at Tangiers.  But when he learned that his daughter had been impregnated by Roderick, so the story goes, he turned to Musa ibn Nasayr, offering his assistance in conquering Iberia.  Roderick's death occurred during, or as a result of, the Battle of Guadalete.

Don Roderick's brief reign, and the historical circumstances surrounding this reign, inspired several works of poetry and fiction.  Notable writers on the topic include Southey, Landor, Irving, and of course, Scott.  Scott wrote his poem "The Vision of Don Roderick" about the event.  A segment of the poem is below, with the full poem available at: http://www.online-literature.com/walter_scott/2562/.

VIII.



"And if Florinda's shrieks alarmed the air,
If she invoked her absent sire in vain,
And on her knees implored that I would spare,
Yet, reverend Priest, thy sentence rash refrain!
All is not as it seems--the female train
Know by their bearing to disguise their mood:"
But Conscience here, as if in high disdain,
Sent to the Monarch's cheek the burning blood -
He stayed his speech abrupt--and up the Prelate stood.


IX.


"O hardened offspring of an iron race!
What of thy crimes, Don Roderick, shall I say?
What alms, or prayers, or penance can efface
Murder's dark spot, wash treason's stain away!
For the foul ravisher how shall I pray,
Who, scarce repentant, makes his crime his boast?
How hope Almighty vengeance shall delay,
Unless, in mercy to yon Christian host,
He spare the shepherd, lest the guiltless sheep be lost?"


X.


Then kindled the dark tyrant in his mood,
And to his brow returned its dauntless gloom;
"And welcome then," he cried, "be blood for blood,
For treason treachery, for dishonour doom!
Yet will I know whence come they, or by whom.
Show, for thou canst--give forth the fated key,
And guide me, Priest, to that mysterious room,
Where, if aught true in old tradition be,
His nation's future fates a Spanish King shall see."

Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville

PREFACE

TO
THE VISION OF DON RODERICK
by Walter Scott

I am too sensible of the respect due to the Public, especially by one who has already experienced more than ordinary indulgence, to offer any apology for the inferiority of the poetry to the subject it is chiefly designed to commemorate. Yet I think it proper to mention, that while I was hastily executing a work, written for a temporary purpose, and on passing erents, the task was most cruelly interrupted by the successive deaths of Lord President Blair 1, and Lord Viscount Melville. In those distinguished characters, I had not only to regret persons whose lives were most important to Scotland, but also whose notice and patronage honoured my entrance upon active life; and, I may add, with melancholy pride, who permitted my more advanced age to claim no common share in their friendship.



1 [The Right Hon. Robert Blair of Avontoun, President of the Court of Session, was the son of the Rev. Robert Blair, author of " The Grave." After long filling the office of Solicitor-General in Scotland with high distinction, he was elevated to the Presidency in 1808. He died very suddenly on the 20th May 1811, in the 70th year of his age; and his intimate friend, Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, having gone into Edinburgh on purpose to attend his remains to the grave, was taken ill not less suddenly, and died there the very hour that the funeral took place, on the 28th of the same month.]

The text above references Henry Dundas' death.  But on this day (April 28) in 1742, the future Lord Melville was born.  The family Dundas took to law.  Father Robert Dundas of Arniston served as Lord President of the Court of Sessions, as did Henry's half-brother Robert.

Lord Melville's career was closely tied to that of William Pitt (the Younger), under whom he served as War Secretary (1794-1801), then Treasurer and later First Lord of the Admiralty.  Dundas has the dubious distinction of being the last individual to be tried under articles of impeachment in the House of Lords.  The charges, for which he was acquitted, arose out of his term as Treasurer of the Admiralty.

At his peak, Melville's power was substantial, earning him the nickname "Harry the Ninth, Uncrowned King of Scotland".