Lazarillo de Tormes: Biography. Anonymous

      Introductory

       Table of Contents

      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 of the Marquis of Santillana was the Comedieta de Ponza, founded on the story of a great sea-fight, near the island of Ponza, in 1435, between the Aragon fleet and the Genoese. At the request of King Juan II. he also made a collection of proverbs for his son Enrique IV. This was the earliest collection of proverbs made in modern times.

      Children of the

       Marquis of

       Santillana.The noble poet married Catalina Suarez de Figueroa, daughter of Don Lorenzo Suarez de Figueroa, Lord of Feria and Zafra. The Marquis died in 1454, leaving ten children:—

      1. Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, first Duke of Infantado.

      2. Don Pedro Laso de Mendoza, married to Ines Carillo, Lady of Mondejar. They had two daughters:—

      1. Maria, married to the second Count of Tendilla.

      2. Catalina, married to Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Celi.

      3. Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, first Count of Tendilla, of whom we treat.

      4. Don Lorenzo de Mendoza, first Count of Coruña.

      5. Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Cardinal.

      6. Don Juan de Mendoza, Lord of Colmenar.