Jimena Díaz de Oviedo

   Another name for Jimena was Jimena de Ovideo.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Web Reference: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Jimena Díaz.
Jimena Díaz married don Rodrígo Díaz de Vivar "El Cid Campeador", son of Diego Laínez & Teresa Rodríguez, the alférez of Sancho II King of Castile 1066 and, lord and independent ruler of Valencia 1094-1099.

• Web Reference: Biography of Jimez Díaz from Wikipedia.
Jimena was the daughter of Diego Fernández, Count of Oviedo and son of Count Fernando Flaínez, and his wife Cristina. She was a sister of Fernando Díaz.

Upon marrying Rodrigo Díaz, Jimena Díaz accompanied her husband although it has remained unclear if she lived with him in the Taifa of Zaragoza during his first exile (from 1080-1086) as leader of the Andalusian army in service of Ahmah al-Muqtadir, Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, and Al-Mustain II. There is also little historical certainty as to whether or not she moved with him in this period to Asturias, although there exists some documentation to suggest that she maintained a presence even during periods of separation (a legal action from Tol in 1083).

At the beginning of the second exile of the Cid, in 1089, Jimena was imprisoned with her children, Cristina (born around 1075), Diego (1076?) and María (1077?) by mandate of Alfonso VI of León and Castile. Nothing else is known about Jimena until the end of 1094, when Rodrigo Díaz, on October 21, winning the battle of Cuarte, secured his control over Valencia (that he had conquered on June 17 of that year) and she was reunited with her husband until his death in 1099.

From this point she was Lady of Valencia until 1102 when Alfonso VI, her cousin, decided to set fire to and abandon the city to the Almoravids in response to the impossibility of defending it. Alfonso VI escorted Jimena in her return to Castile. Around this period there remains a document of donation made by Jimena Díaz to the Cathedral of Valencia in 1101 containing her signature.

In 1103 she signed a document in the Monastery of San Pedro of Cardeña for the sale of a monastery that she owned to two canons of Burgos, although this fact does not mean that Jimena would have lived in the abbey during her old age, as was the legend maintained by the monastery until the 18th century in the hagiographic texts known as The Legend of Cardeña. More likely is that she lived her last years in Burgos or in a nearby outlying area. She died sometime between August 29 of 1113 and 1116, probably in that final year.

• Background Information. ¹⁶⁰
El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar) was born around 1043 and died in Valencias on 10 Jul 1099. El Cid, "el Campeador," is a great national her of Spain, as the subject of epic poems and ballads, and ruled Valencia 13 Jun 1094 until 1099. He was the son of Diego Lainez de Bibar of Castile & his wife Jimena, daughter on Count de Ovicdo.

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, 113A:23

Jimena married Rodrígo "El Cid" Díaz de Vivar "El Cid," conde de Valencia, son of Diego Láinez de Vivar and Teresa Rodríguez, on 14 Jul 1074.¹⁸² (Rodrígo "El Cid" Díaz de Vivar "El Cid," conde de Valencia was born in 1043-1045 in Vivar, Burgos, Castile-León, España, Iberia,¹⁸² died on 10 Jul 1099 in Valencia, España ^182,217 and was buried in Castilla, España, Iberia.)