Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marques de Santillana
(1398 - 1458)


Spanish poet and literary patron, he was born at Carrion de los Condes in Old Castile on the 19th of August 1398. From his eighteenth year onwards he became an increasingly prominent figure at the court of Juan II of Castile, distinguishing himself in both civil and military service; he was created Marques de Santillana and Conde del Real de Manzanares for the part he took in the battle of Olmedo (I9th of May 1455). From the death of Juan II in 1454 Mendoza took little part in public affairs, devoting himself mainly to the pursuits of literature and to pious meditation.

Influenced by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, his work marks the transition between medieval and Renaissance Spanish literature. He wrote the first Spanish ars poetica; an allegorical poem, Comedieta de Ponza (1436); and several songs called serranillas.

Mendoza shares with Juan de Villalpando the distinction of introducing the sonnet into Castile, but his productions in this class are conventional metrical exercises. He was much more successful in the serranuia and vaqueira— highland pastorals after the Provencal manner. Santillana’s refranes, or proverbs, were translated into English in 1579.

He died at Guadalajara on the 25th of March 1458.