PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616)Other forms

Dates of existence/Biographical dates:

Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, España) 1547 - Madrid (España) 1616-04-23

History:

Spanish writer and soldier. Son of the surgeon Rodrigo de Cervantes y Leonor de Cortinas. He studied in Madrid as a student of Juan López de Hoyos, rector of the Estudio de la Villa. At the age of 20 he wrote his first poems dedicated to the birth of the infanta Catalina Micaela, second daughter of Philip II and Elisabeth of Valois. In 1569, he went to the Spanish domains in Italy, lived in Rome as a waiter of the Monsignor Acquaviva and enrolled as a soldier in the company Diego de Urbina. In 1571, he fought in the Battle of Lepanto, where he lost the use of his left hand. In 1575, he embarked in Naples to go back to Spain and he was captured by the Berber corsairs and was held captive for five years in Algiers. When the rescued was paid and he was back in Madrid, he began a period of destination applications as a reward for his military services. He could not manage to be assigned a vacancy, but he adapted perfectly to the literary environment of the Court, developing friendships with the most notable poets (Laýnez, Figueroa, Montalvo, Padilla, Maldonado, Dantisco, etc.) and he dedicated himself to write ?La Galatea?, which he would publish in 1587. He got married with Catalina de Salazar, daughter of Catalina de Palacios and native of Esquivias. In 1587, he got the position of Royal Commissioner of Supplies for the Spanish Armada, at the service of Antonio de Guevara, general commissioner of the provision of the royal galleys. He began then a hectic period to which he would be dedicated for about fifteen years and that would cause him lots of disruptions, including periods in jail. Between 1603 and 1606, the couple lived in Valladolid, where the Court was transferred by the King Philip III and there he lived surrounded by his female part of the family: Andrea, Constanza, Magdalena and his natural daughter, Isabel de Saavedra. In 1605, he published "El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha", dedicated to the duke of Béjar. Following the Court, Cervantes went definitely back to Madrid until the end of his days. In this final period he published numerous works: ?Las Novelas Ejemplares? (1613), ?Viaje al Parnaso? (1614), ?La segunda parte del Quijote? (1615), ?Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda? (1617), also, the first part of the Quixote was translated (1612). Sick with dropsy, he died in April 1616 and was buried at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, in the current street de Lope de Vega, in Madrid.

Battle of Lepanto, 1571