Cantar de los Siete Infantes de Lara

The legend survives in prose form in medieval chronicles, the oldest being in the extended version of the Estoria de España (History of Spain) compiled during the reign of Sancho IV of Castile before 1289 (edited by Ramón Menéndez Pidal under the name Primera Crónica General).

[3] According to the version transmitted by the Estoria de España, at the wedding between Doña Lambra, from Bureba, and Ruy Velázquez of Lara, a confrontation arose between the bride's family and the sons of Sancha, the infantes.

Taking advantage of this to avenge the death of her cousin Alvar, Lambra orders her servant to strip and humiliate Gonzalo González in front of her brothers, throwing a blood-covered cucumber at him.

Thirsting for revenge, Lambra and her husband Ruy Velázquez come up with a plan to send the father of the infantes, Gonzalo Gustioz, lord of Salas, as envoy to the ruler of Córdoba, Almanzor, to request money to help pay for their lavish wedding.

Ruy Velásquez carries out the ambush of his nephews using Muslim troops and supervises their beheading, sending the severed heads to Córdoba to torment their father.

[6] It is Mudarra, the son born to the captive Gonzalo, who eventually avenges the killing of his half-brothers by murdering Ruy Velásquez and burning Lambra alive.

[5] Menéndez Pidal argued that the rendition of the existing legend found in the chronicles likely used an epic poem and ancient cantar de gesta composed around the year 990 as sources.

In this regard, Mercedes Vaquero has identified signs in the prose texts of oral delivery, suggesting that at some point there was a lay that was either spoken or sung.

These include the importance of blood ties, the cruelty of revenge as a way of imposing an individual justice not supported by social institutions or a body of law, and the aggressiveness of passionate sexually-charged relationships.

Orderic Vitalis tells an analogous story relating to Bohemond I of Antioch, while such an episode also appears in the Prise d'Orange, a 12th-century Chanson de geste.