Images of Rodrigo: the construction of past and present in late medieval iberian chronicles

Many recent critical studies of the reign of the last of the Visigothic kings have concentrated on the extent to which medieval and early modern representations of the period depict the reign of Rodrigo as a parable of sexual misconduct. A return to late medieval narrative accounts of the events surrounding the invasions of 711 suggests that most medieval chroniclers saw the fall of Visigothic Spain in a different light. The present article examines chronistic narratives of the period and points to the necessity of considering a full range of contextual information when analysing the discourse of medieval chronicles.