of the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII of France. His affection for arms had not diminished, however, and in March, 1497 he bore a leading part under the Grand Captain, Gonzalo de Córdoba, in the capture of Ostia. His plain speech to Alexander VI finally made him unpopular with that pontiff and he left Rome on July 1, 1499, returning to Spain in the company of Queen Juana of Naples, sister of Ferdinand V. At the Court he soon found himself high in the councils of the King and Queen and honors and rewards were showered upon him. In his absence he had been appointed governor of Jerez de la Frontera and he now received a similar office at Vera and Gibraltar.2 In 1502 he was made a member of the Privy Council and upon the death of Gutierre de Cárdenas on January 21, 1503 was appointed in his stead as Comendador Mayor de León. At the Cortes held in Toro in January, two years later, Garcilaso acted as its president. The beloved Queen Isabella had died in the preceding year

and when her daughter Juana with the consort, Philip I, landed at Corunna on April 28, 1506, the great majority of the Castilian nobles hastened to pay to them the tribute of their loyalty. When Ferdinand V met Philip near Puebla de Senebria on June 20, Garcilaso was among the knights of Castile in the latter's suite who appeared upon the field with a suit of armor beneath his cloak and it is related that as Ferdinand greeted him and slapped his shoulder, he said, like Caesar to Brutus, in a voice filled with disappointment, "You, too, García ? (¿Y tú, García, también ? )

)"'1

For his devotion to Philip he was rewarded during the summer by an appointment as tutor and chief chamberlain to the Infante Fernando, second son of Philip and Juana and later king of Bohemia and emperor of Germany, who was then three years old. Philip's death on September 25th of the same year deprived him of his protector and when Ferdinand returned as regent he found that his de

L

sertion of his cause had cost him his favor. The latter years of his life were uneventful; he died in the monastery of San Juan at Burgos, on September 8, 1512.1

Garcilaso de la Vega had married Doña Sancha de Guzmán, whose lineage was as illustrious as his own, for the Guzmanes traced their ancestry to the earliest days of the County of Castile and boasted three queens from their stock.2 Her grandfather was Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, "a soldier and a man of letters belonging to the high aristocracy of the country, and occupied in its affairs," famous as the author of the Generaciones y semblanzas. Through the death of her brother, Pedro Suárez de Guzmán, she had inherited the estates of Batres and in 1502 she and her husband acquired the estate of Cuerva. Later the estates of Arcos, established by Garcilaso's parents, were inherited and added to the patrimony.3

Such are the antecedents of the man whose life we would study. They are

strong men, brave fighters for their kings, accomplished courtiers, men who have risen and who have fallen with the intricacy of royal whim, and yet men of letters, who have cherished a regard for the masters of the past and have striven to emulate their example. Their spirit is clearly reflected in the soldier and poet of Charles V.

CHAPTER II

SCHOOL DAYS

Garcilaso de la Vega, born as we have seen in 1501 or 1502, was the second of seven children.1 The heir to the family estates, Pedro Laso de la Vega, who was destined to become notorious as one of the leaders of the Junta of the Comunidad in Toledo in 1520 and 1521, was apparently much older than he, if we may judge by the position of leadership which he had won by 1520, and was probably born before 1495. His youngest brother, Fernando de Guzmán, was killed during the siege of Naples by Lautrec in 1527, at the age of twenty;2 the older of his two sisters, Doña Leonor de la Vega, married Luis Fernández Puertocarrero, Count of Palma. Concerning the boyhood of Garcilaso the only information which we possess is the statement of Herrera that "he was brought