Jorge Manrique

Who was Jorge Manrique?

Jorge Manrique was a major Spanish poet, whose main work, the Coplas a la muerte de su padre, is still read today. He was a supporter of the great Spanish queen, Isabel I of Castile, and actively participated on her side in the civil war that broke out against her half-brother, Enrique IV, when the latter attempted to make his daughter, Juana, crown princess. Jorge died in 1479 during an attempt to take the castle of Garcimuñoz, defended by the Marquis of Villena, after Isabel gained the crown.

Manrique was a great-nephew of Iñigo López de Mendoza, a descendant of Pero López de Ayala, chancellor of Castile, and a nephew of Gómez Manrique, corregidor of Toledo, all important poets of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was, therefore, a member of a noble family of great literary consequence.