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Lazarillo de Tormes: Biography
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2019 OK Publishing
EAN 4064066052447
Table of Contents
Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Author of “Lazarillo de Tormes”
The Book, “Lazarillo de Tormes”
Notes on the Character of Lazaro
Introductory
The Family of Mendoza
Descent of the
author of Lazarillo de Tormes.
The author of Lazarillo de Tormes was a scion of one of the noblest families of Spain, and some account of it should precede a notice of the author’s life.1
Don Diego Lopez, Lord of Mendoza, in 1170 married Doña Eleanor Hurtado, heiress of Mendibil. She was the daughter of Fernan Perez de Lara called Hurtado, son of Pedro Gonzalez de Lara and of the Queen Urraca of Castille and Leon.
Don Lopez and Eleanor Hurtado had four sons: Inigo, Lord of Mendoza; Diego, Lord of Mendibil; Pedro Diaz, who was ancestor of the Mendozas of Seville; and Fernando, who founded the line in Portugal.
Inigo Lopez de Mendoza married Maria de Haro, and was father of Maria, the wife of her first cousin, Juan de Mendoza, son of her uncle Diego. Their son, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, in the time of Fernando II., married Maria Gonzalez de Aguero, and had a son Gonzalo.
This Gonzalo Hurtado de Mendoza married Juana Fernandez de Orozco, and was the father of a very distinguished son—of Pedro Gonzalez.
A Mendoza saved
the life of King
Juan I. of Castille.Pedro Gonzalez Hurtado de Mendoza married Aldonza, daughter of Fernan Perez de Ayala. He was with Juan I., of Castille, at the battle of Aljubarrota. In the flight the King’s horse was killed. Mendoza dismounted and said to the King:—
El cavallo vos han muerto,2
Subid Rey en mi cavallo.
The King rode away. Mendoza was overtaken and slain. The date of the battle was August 14, 1385. His father survived him, dying in 1405.
The son of this chivalrous knight and successor to his grandfather was Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, married first to Maria, daughter of Enrique II., King of Castille, and secondly to Eleanor de la Vega. His son, Inigo Lopez, was by his second wife.
The Poet Marquis
of Santillana.Inigo Lopez Hurtado de Mendoza was born in 1396. He served with distinction at the battle of Olmedo, and was created Marquis of Santillana in 1445. He was opposed to Alvaro de Luna, the famous Minister of Juan II.
Born in the Asturias, the Marquis was a poet. Among his writings was a little Serranilla.
Moza tan fermosa
No vi en la frontera
Como una vaquera
De la Finojosa.
En un verde prado
De rosas y flores
Guardando ganado
Con otros pastores,
La vi tan fermosa
Que apenas creyera
Que fuese vaquera
De la Finojosa.
Translation
The sweetest girl without compare
In all my days I’ve ever seen
Was that young maid, so lithe and fair,
On Finojosa’s frontier green.
In pleasant shade of beech and pine
A verdant meadow did appear;
And here she watched the browsing kine
With other girls, but none like her.
By nature deck’d and well arrayed
She looked like some bright Summer Queen;
And not a common village maid
Of Finojosa’s frontier green.
But the chief poetical work
