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DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA (1503-1575)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 126 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIEGO HURTADO DE See also:

MENDOZA (1503-1575)  , See also:Spanish novelist, poet, diplomatist and historian, a younger son of the See also:count of Tendillas, See also:governor of See also:Granada, was See also:born in that See also:city in 1503 . The celebrated See also:marquis of See also:Santillana was his See also:great-grandfather . On leaving the university of See also:Salamanca, See also:Mendoza abandoned his intention of taking orders, served under See also:Charles V. in See also:Italy, and attended lectures at the See also:universities of See also:Bologna, See also:Padua and See also:Rome . In 1537 he was sent to See also:England to arrange a See also:marriage between See also:Henry VIII. and the duchess of See also:Milan, as well as a marriage between See also:Prince See also:Louis of See also:Portugal and See also:Mary Tudor . Despite the failure of his See also:mission, he preserved the confidence of the See also:emperor, and in 1539 was appointed See also:ambassador at See also:Venice; there he patronized the Aldi, procured copies of the See also:Greek See also:manuscripts belonging to See also:Cardinal See also:Bessarion, and acquired other rare codices from the monastery of See also:Mount See also:Athos . The first edition of See also:Josephus was printed (1544) from the texts in Mendoza's collection . He acted for some See also:time as military governor of See also:Siena, represented See also:Spain diplomatically at the See also:council of See also:Trent, and in 1547 was nominated See also:special plenipotentiary at Rome, where he remained till 1554 . He was never a favourite with See also:Philip II., and a See also:quarrel with a courtier resulted in his banishment from See also:court (See also:June 1568) .. The remaining years of his See also:life, which were spent at Granada, he devoted to the study of Arabic, to See also:poetry, and to his See also:history of the Moorish insurrection of 1568-1570 . He died in 1575 . His Guerra de Granada was published at See also:Lisbon by Luis Tribaldos de See also:Toledo in 1627; the delay was doubtless due to Mendoza's severe See also:criticism of contemporaries who survived him . In some passages the author deliberately imitates See also:Sallust and See also:Tacitus; his See also:style is, on the whole, vivid and trenchant, his See also:information is exact, and in See also:critical insight he is not inferior to See also:Mariana .

The attribution to Mendoza of Lazarillo de Tames is rejected by all competent scholars, but that he excelled in See also:

picaresque malice is proved by his indecorous verses written in the old Castilian metres and in the more elaborate See also:measures imported from Italy . Mendoza is believed to be the author of the letters to Feliciano de See also:Silva and to See also:Captain Salazar, published by See also:Antonio Paz y Melia in Sales Espanolas (See also:Madrid, 1go0) . See A . Senan y Alonso, D . Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, apuntes biogrdfico-criticos (Granada, 1886) ; See also:Calendar of Letters and Papet's See also:foreign and domestic, Henry VIII., vols. xii. and xiii.; C . Graux, Essai sur l'origine du fonds grec de l'Escurial (See also:Paris, 188a); R . Foulch6-Delbosc, " Etude sur la Guerra de Granada " in the Revue hispanique (Paris, 1894), vol. i .

End of Article: DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA (1503-1575)
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PEDRO GONZALEZ DE MENDOZA (1428-1495)

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