Charles Morris
speaker
4,189 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 18 Aug
Charles Morris’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
It was a large army which he thus got together, but they were ill trained, ill disciplined, and ill disposed to their king.
Ninety thousand there were, as Arab historians tell us, while Tariq had but twelve thousand, Musa, having sent him five thousand more.
But the large army was a mob, half armed and lacking courage and discipline.
The small army was a compact and valorous body used to victory, fearless and impetuous.
It was on Sunday the nineteenth of july seven hundred eleven that the two armies came face to face on the banks of the Guadalete, a river whose waters traverse the plain of Sidonia, in which the battle was fought.
It was one of the decisive battles in the world's history, for it gave the peninsula of Spain for eight centuries to Arab dominion.
The story of how this battle was fought is, therefore, among the most important of the historical tales of Spain.
Roderick's army consisted of two bodies of men, a smaller force of cavaliers, clad in male armour, and armed with swords and battle axes, and the main body which was a motley crew without armour, and carrying bows, lances, axe, clubs, scythes, and slings.
Of the Muslim army the greater number wore mail, some carrying lances and scimitars of Damascus steel, others being armed with light longbows.
Their horses were Arabian or Barbary steeds, such as Rodrigue had seen on the walls of the secret chamber.
It was in the early morning of a bright spring day that the Spanish clarion sounded defiance to the enemy, and the Moorish horns and kettledrums rang back the challenge to battle.
Nearer and nearer together came the hosts, the shouts of the Goths met by the shrill lalies of the Moslems.
By the faith of the Messiah, Rodrigue is reported to have said, these are the very men I saw painted on the walls of the chamber of the spell at Toledo.
From that moment, say the chroniclers, fear entered his heart, and yet the story goes that he fought long and well and showed no signs of fear.
On his journey to the south, Rodrigue had travelled in a chariot of ivory, lined with cloth of gold, and drawn by three white mules harnessed abreast.
On the silken awning of the chariot, pearls, rubies, and other rich jewels were profusely sprinkled.
He sat with a crown of gold on his head and was dressed in a robe made of a string of pearls, interwoven with silk.
This splendour of display, however, was not empty ostentation, but the state and dignity which was customary with the Gothic kings.
In his chariot of ivory Rodrigue passed through the ranks, exhorting the men to valor, and telling them that the enemy was a low rabble of heathens, abhorred of God and men.
Remember, he said, that
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