Jorge Manrique (1440-1479) was an important Palencian poet, coming from the influential Manrique-Lara family. His pen marked an era in Spanish literature, since his poetry was the bridge that allowed the stylistic transition of the Spanish medieval courtly lyric, towards the new style of the Renaissance..
Manrique was a prominent military man in life. Although he kept both disciplines in balance, that of poet and soldier, much of his worth as a historical figure is due to the battles and wars in which he participated and which determined, in the long run, the course of the history of Spain..
Article index
Jorge Manrique, the fourth of seven children of the noble and powerful Manrique Lara family, was the son of Don Rodrigo Manrique (1406-1476), first count of Paredes de Nava, and of Doña Mencia de Figueroa (1400-1444), second cousin of don Rodrigo.
There are no known data that can accurately specify the date or place of his birth. It is estimated that he could have been born in Paredes de Nava, in the province of Palencia, or with greater probability in Segura de la Sierra, in the province of Jaén, since his father had his main stay there at that time..
About the date of birth of Jorge Manrique it is estimated that it could have been in 1437, an average between 1431, the date of the wedding of his parents, Don Rodrigo and Doña Mencía, and 1444, the year in which his mother died. The fire of the historical archive in Jaén during the French invasion prevents scholars from knowing these data with precision.
The Manrique Lara family was not only very powerful, but also one of the oldest in Spain. He held the duchy of Nájera, the county of Treviño and the marquisate of Aguilar del Campoo, among other noble titles.
Manrique ended up possessing, among other titles, that of lord of Belmontejo de la Sierra, thirteen of Santiago, captain of the men-at-arms of Castile, commander of the castle of Montizón, duke of Montalvo, to name a few..
As with his birth, there is no data on the youth of the noble Jorge Manrique, but it is known about his participation, being 24 years old, in the combat against the sieges of Montizón castle, of which he would end up as commander. His was the motto: "I neither lie nor regret".
After this victory he participated in another campaign: advancing militarily in the city of Baeza to support the Benavides and go against Count Cabra and the Marshal of Baena. However, he was taken into captivity and remained for some time arrested in a prison in Baena.
His brother, who participated with him in the assault on the city, was also arrested, but unfortunately he did not survive the prison.
Jorge Manrique, however, left prison and continued to participate in battles. This time it was with his father, Rodrigo, in what would be one of the most important wars in Spain at the time, if not the most important: the War of the Castilian Succession (1475-1479), which allowed to establish the reign of the catholic kings.
There were several reasons that caused the war. On the one hand there was a rumor that the wife of King Henry IV, Juana de Portugal, had a daughter out of wedlock with Beltrán de la Cueva. On the other, the legitimate daughter of the king, Elizabeth I, and already proclaimed legitimate heir, could not marry without the prior consent of her father.
Thus, it happened that Isabel I violated the Treaty of the Guisando Bulls, secretly marrying Fernando de Aragón. Angry, his father proclaimed his illegitimate daughter, Juana de Trastámara, "la Beltraneja" (alluding to Beltrán, her true parent), successor to the throne. This unleashed the palace intrigues and later, the war.
It is at this point where Don Rodrigo and his son Jorge Manrique, both members of the Order of Santiago, decided to ally their powerful house with Isabel I and Fernando de Aragón..
This fact ended up twisting the balance in favor of the succession of those who became the Catholic Monarchs, who catapulted the greatness of the kingdom to the overseas lands of America..
Jorge Manrique died in 1479, in combat, during the War of the Castilian Succession. Two versions of this event are discussed.
The first version tells that after going to Ciudad Real to raise the siege that the Marqués de Villena had on Uclés, he was mortally wounded in a battle near the Garcimuñoz castle, in Cuenca..
The second version, after the events, relates that he was wounded in his camp in Santa María del Campo Rus, a few days after the battle..
The war ended a few months later. Jorge Manrique died only about 2 and a half years after his father, who died in 1467 from a cancer that completely disfigured his face..
In the end, the support of the noble and powerful Manrique y Lara family was crucial for the Elizabethan victory, whose reign ended up placing Spain among the most powerful kingdoms in the world thanks to two reasons: the marriage with Fernando de Aragón, on the one hand, and the colonizing expedition that ended with the expansion of the Spanish kingdom in the American continent.
Fernando de Aragón meant a powerful alliance for the Spanish crown, since he was already king in other locations in Europe (Sicily, Naples, Navarra, among others). Spain was assured of a prosperous reign, as it had a very wealthy king.
As if that were not enough, the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, supported by the Catholic kings, ended up annexing a large part of the American continent and its wealth to Spain. But things would have been very different if Isabel I and Fernando de Aragón had not had the support of the Manrique y Lara house..
The fact that he was born of noble birth, and in particular in the family that was his lot, allowed Manrique to maintain the balance between sword and pen. Although in life he was better known in the military field, not for this reason his poetic production, which, although brief, ceases to be admirable..
It is also important to take into account in that family that he was lucky enough to have a humanities education that, like all military men of the time, that he received and that he had to complete. This preparation notably influenced his pen.
The poet thing came from his blood. It is enough to mention Gómez Manrique, soldier and great poet, his uncle, and, in the same way, Íñigo López de Mendoza, known as the Marqués de Santillana, also of his lineage.
In short, his poetry was the cornerstone for the entry of the new pre-Renaissance style into Spanish literature..
Among the characteristics of his poetry we can highlight:
The purification of the complex metaphors of the earlier chivalric and troubadour writing. This could be attributed to a certain elite taste typical of a man of the nobility, as well as the distancing of all erudite or rhetorical words.
In the almost fifty works that he composed, the majority touch on the theme of courtly love framed in the troubadour song of the 15th century..
Love as war, conflict, life itself.
Love poems, for example, are rather short. Even the stanza form is also brief: minor art verses: broken foot sextilla (8a-8b-4c-8a-8b-4c) with consonant rhyme.
Which is nothing more than writing an idea briefly and artistically.
Which is appreciated in his only elegy, written in memory of his father. There the seriousness of the subject is approached in a very eloquent way and with new perspectives (in addition to the already customary worldly or religious ones of the Middle Ages).
Manrique wrote some satires in which the surprising, the ironic and the common come together to achieve humor. Thus, he compares a nun to a drunkard in one of his satires, or celebrates a feast of ugliness in honor of his stepmother..
Given the brevity of his work, we will make a list with the verses, satires and love songs of Jorge Manrique:
- "Of Don Jorge Manrique complaining about the God of love and how they reason with each other"
- "Castle of love"
- "To fortune"
- "Because while he was sleeping, his friend kissed him"
- "Saying what love is"
- "Of the profession he made in the Order of Love"
- "Scale of love", "With the great evil that I have left over"
- "In a deadly sore"
- "Remember, for God's sake, ma'am"
- "See that mine distresses"
- "Neither live wants me to live"
- "The fires that they lit in me"
- "Being absent from her friend to a messenger that she sent there"
- "Memorial he made to his heart, which leaves from the ignorance of his friend where he has all his senses"
- “Others hers in which he puts the name of a lady; and it begins and ends in the first letters of all the verses, and says: "
- "Another work of his in which he put the name of his wife, and also named the lineages of the four sides of her, which are: Castañeda, Ayala, Silva and Meneses".
- "Whoever was not in the presence"
- "I don't know why I get tired"
- "Who wants to see you so much"
- "It is a hidden death"
- "For your great deserve"
- "With sore care"
- "The more I plan to serve you"
- "Just was my downfall"
- "Every time my memory"
- "Don't delay, Death, I'm dying"
- "Hallo no power"
- "I shut up evils by suffering"
- "Thinking, lady, of you"
- "I was silent because of great fear"
- "What a miserable lover"
- "My fear has been such"
- "It is my pity to wish"
- "To his nickname that says:" I neither lie nor regret it ""
- "Always love and love to follow"
- "Without God and without you and me"
- "Don Jorge Manrique pulled out a Ferris wheel with its arcades full and said:"
- "To Juan Álvarez Gato"
- "Between two fires launched"
- "Between good and badly folded"
- "To Guevara"
- "To Guevara"
- "To Gómez Manrique"
- "To a cousin of hers who was getting in the way of love affairs"
- "Coplas to a drunk who had a brial pawned in the tavern"
- "A treat he made for his stepmother, Mrs. Elvira de Castañeda"
- "Coplas for the death of his father"
- "Oh world! Well, what do you kill us?
Regarding Jorge Manrique's last work, there is not much certainty as to when he wrote it, since the details of his death are, in themselves, confusing. It is not known if the verses that appeared on his clothes were written while he was dying, or within days of being wounded in battle:
"Oh world! Well, what do you kill us?
was the life you gave
all life
but according to how you treat us here
the best and least sad
is the game "
Whether he wrote them while lying wounded on the battlefield or while convalescing in his camp is something that has not been fully clarified..
There are usually several cases in which men at arms are also men of ideas and of good penmanship. This can be seen in the noble and powerful families of 15th century Spain in which it is common to see men dedicated to the military and the humanities alike..
If there is one thing we can highlight Jorge Manrique among this remarkable group, it is in the fact that both his sword and his pen served as a trigger for something totally new.
Although such transitions are slow, it is the work of individuals like Manrique that serves as a trigger for expressions such as poetry to reach new forms..
With the sword he allowed the coronation of the Catholic kings, with the pen, the arrival of the pre-Renaissance.
Yet No Comments