Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/162

18 18 REIGN OF JOHN 11., OF CASTILE. PART primitive history of Spanish verse, although con- - taining notices sufficiently curious from the age and the source whence they proceed, has perhaps done more service to letters by the valuable illus- trations it has called forth from its learned editor.^^ This great man, who found so much leisure for the cultivation of letters amidst the busy strife of politics, closed his career at the age of sixty, in 1458. Though a conspicuous actor in the revolu- tionary scenes of the period, he maintained a char- acter for honor and purity of motive, unimpeached even by his enemies. The king, notwithstanding his devotion to the faction of his son Henry, con- ferred on him the dignities of count of Real de Manzanares and marquis of Santillana ; this being the oldest creation of a marquis in Castile, with the exception of Villena.^^ His eldest son was sub sequently made duke of Infantado, by which tith his descendants have continued to be distinguished to the present day. But the most conspicuous, for his poetical talents, of the brilliant circle which graced the court of John the Second, was John de Mena, a native of fair Cordova, " the flower of science and of chival- 25 See Sanchez, Poesias Caste- torn. i. p. 218. — Idem, Orfg-en de lianas, torn. i. pp. 1-119. — A las Dignidades Seglarcs de Castilla copious catalogue of the marquis y Leon, (Madrid, 1794,) p. 285. — de Santillana's writings is given in Oviedo makes the marquis much the same volume, (pp. 33 et scq.) older, seventy-five years of age, Several of his poetical pieces are when he died. He left, besides collected in the Cancionero Gen- daughters, six sons, who all became eral, (Anvers, 1573,) fol. 34 et the founders of noble and powerful seq. houses. See the whole genealo- 26 Pulgar, Glares Varones, tit. 4. gy, in Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., — Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, bat. 1, quinc. l,dial. 8. „onn de Me-