In 1094, after a long blockade, El Cid captured the wealthy taifa city of Valencia and held it against the Almoravids, ruling it as an independent Christian lordship until his death.
The Conquest of Valencia was El Cid's capture of the great eastern taifa city in 1094, the crowning achievement of his career. After a long blockade the city surrendered, and Rodrigo Díaz ruled it as an independent Christian lordship.
Holding Valencia meant facing the Almoravids, then the rising power of Muslim Iberia, and El Cid's defeat of an Almoravid relief army was one of the first serious checks to their advance. The city remained his until his death in 1099.
Valencia was wealthy, divided and coveted. El Cid, campaigning on his own account in the east, brought it under pressure and, when an Almoravid-backed party took control, closed a starving blockade around it until it capitulated in June 1094.
As lord of Valencia he consecrated the main mosque as a cathedral and organised the defence of his new realm, beating off the Almoravid army sent to retake the city at Cuarte. It was a personal principality, held by force of arms rather than by any crown's grant.
El Cid's death in 1099 left Valencia to his widow Jimena, who could not hold it indefinitely. In 1102, with the Almoravids advancing and no relief in sight, the Christians evacuated and burned the city, which returned to Muslim rule.
Valencia would not be permanently reconquered until James I of Aragon took it in 1238. El Cid's brief lordship became one of the great stories of the Reconquista, magnified by legend far beyond its immediate strategic weight.