He was admitted a Jesuit in 1612, and afterwards sent on mission work to Chile and Peru, where he became rector of the college of Cuenca.
At length the Almoravides, whom he had several times beaten, marched against him in great force, inflicting a crushing defeat at Cuenca upon the Cid's army, under his favourite lieutenant, Alvar Fanez.
In 1772 important glass works were established at Recuenco in the province of Cuenca, mainly to supply Madrid.
In 1833 Old Castile was divided into the provinces of Avila, Burgos, Logrono, Palencia, Santander, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid; while New Castile was similarly divided into Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid and Toledo.
The existing frontier is marked on the north by the Cantabrian Mountains; on the east by the Sierra de la Demanda with its offshoots, and by the Serrania de Cuenca; on the south by the Sierra Morena; and on the west by various minor ranges which link together the three more or less parallel chains of the Sierra de Gredos, Sierra de Guadalupe and Sierra Morena.