Gmez Manrique, Statesman and Poet

Gómez Manrique (c.1412-c.1490) had a long and active life, engaging in military activity as a typical medieval knight before becoming a diplomat and statesman. He was deeply involved in the political turbulence of fifteenth-century Castile, playing an important role in bringing together Fernando of Aragon and the infanta Isabel of Castile whose marriage sealed the union of these two kingdoms. Although Don Gómez has long rested in the shadow of his more famous nephew, Jorge, he produced a larger and more varied corpus of verse: courtly love poetry, elegies, moral and political poetry, verse dialogues with friends, consolatory poems and the first play by a known author in Spanish. This study focuses on the social, economic and political context in which the poet lived and draws comparisons with some other poets who were his contemporaries.

Gisèle Earle studied at the University of Oxford and King’s College, London, and is now an independent researcher.