Jorge Manrique

Spanish poet and soldier

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History

Jorge Manrique (born 1440, probably at Paredes de Nava, Castile [now in Spain]—died March 27, 1479, in front of Castle Garci-Muñoz, near Calatrava, Spain) was a Spanish soldier and writer, best known for his lyric poetry.

Manrique was born into an illustrious Castilian family that numbered among its members the statesman Pedro López de Ayala and the poets Gómez Manrique and the Marquess de Santillana. He entered the Castilian military service at an early age and by 1474 was made captain. He died in battle in the civil war, in which he supported the succession of Isabella of Castile as queen of a united Castile and Aragon.

Manrique’s best-known literary work, Coplas por la muerte de su padre (1492; “Stanzas for the Death of His Father”), is a lyric poem in honour of his father, Rodrigo Manrique, Count de Paredes and grand master of the Military Order of Santiago. Written in pie quebrado, a 12-line stanza having 4 triplets of 8-, 8-, and 4-syllable lines and with a rhyme scheme of abcabcdefdef, the Coplas achieved a haunting, timeless quality. It was translated into English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique (1833). Selections of Manrique’s poetry appeared in Hernando de Castillo’s anthology Cancionero general (1511).