MENDOZA, Inigo Lopez de, commonly known as the Marques de Santillana, the most elegant scholar and poet of the brilliant court of Juan II. of Spain, was born in 1398 of a highly distinguished family, which has sometimes claimed its origin from the Cid himself. His father, the Grand Admiral of Castile, having died while Inigo was yet young, the family possessions, then the largest in the kingdom, were almost entirely wrested from the young heir by those bold and rapacious barons who then divided among themselves the resources as well as the power of the crown. But it did not accord with the temper of a Mendoza to submit to such wrong. As early as the age of eighteen we find that, partly by law and partly by force of arms, the young nobleman had succeeded in recovering his estates; and, as Oviedo quaintly informs us, "so began forthwith to be accounted much of a man." From this period we find him acting an important part in the stirring and wild times from which the reign of even the polished Juan II. was not free. If he suffered a defeat from the Navarrese, he gained enduring glory by his personal bravery and military skill; and attained to the rank of a marquis after the battle of Olmedo in 1445. While Santillana was frequently compelled to oppose the policy and conduct of the royal favourite, the constable Alvaro de Luna, he seems to have had but little share in the last scenes of the singular tragedy which found its catastrophe in the sacrifice of that able minister. From the fall of the constable till the death of Santillana in 1485, the marquis spent the greater part of his time in literary retirement.
During the confusion and violence of a turbulent age, the active part which he was called upon to take in state affairs never for a moment destroyed Santillana's earnest
Mendoza, attachment to elegant literature. He remarked to Prince Henry, that "knowledge neither blunts the point of the lance nor weakens the arm that wields a knightly sword." His poetical works reflect distinctly the several influences of education and literary intercourse peculiar to his position and time. His works connect themselves more or less with the Provençal, Italian, and Spanish schools. The most graceful of all his poems is entirely in the Provençal manner, and yet for beauty and sweetness it has never been surpassed either in the Provençal or in the Spanish. It is called Una Serranilla (a little mountain song), and was composed on a little girl whom he found, when pursuing his military life, tending her father's flocks on the hills; and "the charming milk-maiden of sweet Finojosa" has borne some portion of her charms, even through the clumsy medium of translations, to many readers far beyond her native hills. The Marques has likewise the reputation of being the first to introduce the Italian sonnet into Spain; and which, since the time of Boscan, has gained for itself such a prominent place in the poetry of that country. The sonnets of Santillana possess little merit, however, except that of smooth and graceful versification. In his poem on the death of the Marques of Villena he imitates the opening of the Inferno; and his piece on the coronation of Jordi reminds the reader not unfrequently of the Purgatorio of the great Italian. His principal works, however, were chiefly in the manner then popular at the Spanish court; and many of them are so filled with conceits and affectation as to be almost destitute of value. Yet occasional passages are to be found in his Ages of the World, and Fall and Death of the Constable, which for strength, fluency, and grace, are worthy of the highest praise. But the most important, if not the most popular, of the poetical works of Santillana is the Comedieta de Ponza, founded on a great naval engagement near the island of Ponza in 1435, and approaching in its structure the form of a drama. It is, however, a sort of dream or vision, and as the poem was written shortly after the occurrence of the national calamity at Ponza, the principal figures are those of his own time. It is written in the old Italian octave stanza, in easy verse, pranked full of all manner of ancient learning, awkwardly introduced, and frequently displaying very bad taste. The most popular of all this nobleman's works is his collection of proverbs, made at the request of Juan II. for the instruction of Prince Henri. It is made up of a hundred sentences in rhyme of no poetical value, each containing one proverb. The Marques made another collection of unrhythmed proverbs, gathered, as he phrases it, "from the lips of the old women in their chimney-corners." In these "short sentences drawn from long experience," as Cervantes calls them, Spain is in advance of all other countries. One of the most important documents we possess respecting the earlier Spanish literature is from the pen of this nobleman, and consists of a letter on the poetic art, written about 1455, and addressed to the young Constable of Portugal, who had asked the Marques for a copy of his poems.
The leading facts in the life of this remarkable man are to be gathered from the Chronicle of Juan II.; but a very excellent sketch of him is to be found in Pulgar's Claros Varones, c. iv.; and a clumsy but elaborate biography in Sanchez, Poesias Anteriores, vol. i. (Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish Lit., vol. i, 1849).