ALONSO DE ERCILLA: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2024

Alonso de Ercilla (1533-1594) was a notable Spanish military man and renowned poet of the literary Renaissance. At an early age he was immersed in court life thanks to the labors of his family, specifically those of his mother.

He participated as a soldier in the battles of the conquest in the New World, specifically in what is now known as southern Peru and Chile. This is not at all strange for the customs of the time: every man was a knight, and every knight had to be a humanist and stand out in letters and weapons, "having the pen in one hand and the sword in the other."

Alonso de Ercilla and Zuñiga. Source: Antonio Carnicero

However, even more important than his own participation in such campaigns was the fact of narrating the epic of that conquest, this he did in an extensive poem entitled La araucana. This work is considered the highest in its genre (epic poetry) in the Spanish language.

Biography

Madrid and Bermeo fight their birth

Don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga was born in Spain in the year 1533, on August 7. His father was Fortunio García de Ercilla and his mother Leonor de Zúñiga. He was the sixth of several children, two other boys and three other girls, who were born before him.

Although it is said that he was born in Madrid, there are those who maintain that he was actually born in Bermeo, due to the fact that his ancestors lived there or because, although there are no mentions of Madrid in his writings, he does mention Bermeo a lot in his work.

However, it should be noted that little Alonso was presented in Madrid according to the customs of the Catholic Church.

Death of his father

There are few data about his life. A year and a few months after he was born, he was orphaned because his father died, having moved with the entire family from Bermeo to Valladolid, fleeing the plague. After that tragedy, his family entered a first period of financial problems and needs.

Childhood and entry to the court of Charles V

His childhood passed between the towns of Nájera and Bobadilla, where he learned to read and write. After the death of the father, soon after, the mother, Leonor, became a companion of Queen Elizabeth of Spain, and little Alonso became a page for Prince Felipe, future King Felipe II. This is how the family entered the court of Carlos V.

Alonso accompanied Prince Felipe on numerous trips to Italy, Flanders and England over a period of 3 years. During that time the little Alonso learned Latin (he perfected in this case, since he had already learned it at a first level during his stay in Bobadilla), French, German and Italian, in addition to a solid humanist training (Bible, Dante, Bocaccio, Virgilio, Ariosto and Garsilaso).

It is necessary to note that, although Ercilla's training was solid, it was not complete (as a mockery of those around him, he came to be called the "inerudito"), because his library of classical volumes lacked books.

Travels

The trips he made began at the age of 15. In 1548 Prince Philip prepared to visit his father, Emperor Charles V, in Flanders. This “travel season” lasted a total of 7 years and included the destinations mentioned above.

Among the cities he visited during all those trips are Milan, Genoa, Naples, Mantua, Trento, Inspruck, Munich, Heildeberg, Lutzekburg, Brussels, Augsburg, Barcelona, ​​Austria, Bohemia, and some cities in Hungary, France, and London.

Alonso, the soldier

In 1555, the news reached the court that the governor of Chile, Pedro Valdivia, had been assassinated in an uprising of the Araucanians and that Francisco Hernández Girón had taken up arms in Peru.

Monument to Alonso de Ercilla. Source: No machine-readable author provided. Alstradiaan ~ commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., via Wikimedia Commons

At that time Alonso was just 21 years old and was accompanying royalty on a trip to London to celebrate a second nuptials. Obviously de Ercilla put aside the festivities and traveled to the New World to face the revolts of the natives.

Trips to Peru and Chile

Ercilla then traveled to Peru and Chile, and participated in various battles, and was also part of a campaign in Panama. The poet spent 8 years battling these wars on the American continent. While in Chile he witnessed the death of Caupolicán, and in Peru he suffered an unusual setback.

Fight with Pineda and risk of death

Three years after arriving in the New World, in Peru, Ercilla came to have a confrontation with Juan de Pineda during a festival. The men had long been at enmity.

In the violent situation, Ercilla was wounded, and the two soldiers were arrested by order of Governor García Hurtado y Mendoza, who requested the execution of both the following morning.

Amid astonishment and outrage at the radicalness of the governor's resolution, an important group of people with influence in the government decided to seek out two women, a Spanish and an Araucanian (who, in particular, were liked by the governor) to to intercede for the men so that they would not be killed, especially for Alonso.

The Araucanian woman who saved Ercilla's life

The night before the execution, García Hurtado y Mendoza went home, asking not to be disturbed. However, the two women found a way to enter the governor's chamber to convince him to release both prisoners. This is how Alonso managed to get out of prison and avoid death that day.

Alonso de Ercilla continued in the New World until 1562. He constantly participated in the campaigns to conquer and reconquer territories for the Spanish Crown.

During those years he made a record of his adventures, being reflected in the poem La araucana. It is said that the poet named the manuscript in honor of the Araucanian girl who managed to convince the governor to stop his execution.

I return to spain

Having finished the campaigns, and after overcoming the "sentence" in Peru, Alonso directed his steps towards Panama. Although when he arrived in Colombia he had to stay in Cartagena for a while, due to a curious illness that he mentioned in his poem.

A year and a half after his journey, in 1563, Alonso returned to the Old World (Seville, Madrid).

A trip of losses

Alonso de Ercilla's trips to the viceroyalties and provinces of Spain on the American continent were not very productive economically.

Beyond the campaigns and battles he fought, they were times of hunger, misery, vigils, theft of his belongings and debts, not to mention how he almost lost his life in Peru.

Backlog of your book and other events

During the following years, Ercilla then devoted himself to completing the songs of his extensive poem, with the tranquility of someone who should not attend to war matters in a store. However, it took 6 years for him to publish the poem, because he paid for the printing press out of his own pocket.

Although the main reason for the delay was the cost of such printing, there were other developments as well. Alonso had to attend some trips to Vienna, in addition to some love affairs in which he was involved. Added to this was the tragic death of his sister María Magdalena de Zúñiga and, on the other hand, her wedding.

The death of Alonso's sister in 1569 brought him an important inheritance that helped him pay for the printing costs of his work. Later, in 1570, he married Doña María de Bazán, whose dowry of 8 million maravedíes meant for Ercilla a life free of material concerns and, therefore, of happy and full dedication to the rest of his work, between 1578 and 1589, respectively.

Comfortable adulthood and accolades

Ercilla's mature years were spent in economic comfort and the fame gained by the publication of her work, which was finally received with great admiration.

To this affluent life was added, in 1571, the appointment of Knight of the Order of Santiago, as well as that of gentleman, this by Emperor Maximilian.

Ercilla's death

Ercilla's last days were spent in Madrid. His health was gradually declining, worsened by the Madrid climate.

The cold and the winter rains affected him greatly. Ercilla rapidly diminished her worldly activities until, finally, she died on November 29, 1594.

Work

La araucana, Ercilla's masterpiece, is an epic poem in 3 parts (1569, 1578 and 1589) where the author narrated, in real octaves, the raw battles between Mapuches and Araucanians against the Spanish. The genesis of the song occurred on the battlefield itself, where, like Julius Caesar, Ercilla fought by day and wrote by night.

The araucana. Source: Vicente and Simon Portonariis, via Wikimedia Commons

Due to the same complications of the war, Ercilla wrote many of the verses on the reverse of other letters, pieces of leather and even bark of wood. All due to the lack of paper.

The poem intertwined in its verses the events of the war with the mythological comparison and the aggrandizement of the enemy. With that, the moment of victory was made more noble and transcendent. Without neglecting history, the poem has been seen as an authentic war chronicle.

Cervantes himself considered this work as the maximum sample of epics written in the Castilian language, like other great writers of the Golden Age.

Some other writers, such as the Chilean Pedro de Oña, praise Ercilla's work. The work is even considered superior to the conquered Jerusalem, by Lope de Vega.

References

1. Alonso de Ercilla (S. f.). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org
2. Alonso de Ercilla (S. f.). Spain: Cervantes Virtual. Recovered from: cervantesvirtual.com
3. Alonso de Ercilla (S. f.). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: writers.org
4. Alonso de Ercilla (S. f.). (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com
5. Alonso de Ercilla (S. f.). Chile: Chilean Memory. Recovered from: memoriachilena.cl