Miguel de Cervantes

Biography

Despite his subsequent renown, many details of Cervantes's life remain uncertain, including his name, background, and physical appearance. He signed his name as "Cerbantes", but his printers used "Cervantes", which became the common form. In later life, Cervantes used "Saavedra", the name of a distant relative, rather than the more usual "Cortinas", after his mother. Historian Luce López-Baralt has suggested that "Saavedra" comes from the Arabic dialect word shaibedraa, meaning "one-handed", a reference to his nickname during his captivity. Further linguistic and historical evidence for this claim, however, remains debated.

Another area of dispute is Cervantes's ethnic background. It has been suggested that one or both of his parents may have been New Christians, that is, Catholics of Jewish ancestry. There is no wide following for the view that Cervantes had converso origins. The Cuban writer Roberto González Echevarría argues that the claims of Cervantes' converso origins are based on "very flimsy evidence", namely Cervantes' lack of social and financial progression which was not unusual for Spaniards of his time, regardless of their ancestry, as many did not receive these rewards during this period.

It is generally accepted Miguel de Cervantes was born around 29 September 1547, in Alcalá de Henares. He was the second son of barber-surgeon Rodrigo de Cervantes and his wife, Leonor de Cortinas (c. 1520–1593). Rodrigo came from Córdoba, Andalusia, where his father Juan de Cervantes was an influential lawyer.

1547 to 1566: Early years

Rodrigo was frequently in debt, or searching for work, and moved constantly. Leonor came from Arganda del Rey, and died in October 1593, at the age of 73; surviving legal documents indicate she had seven children, could read and write, and was a resourceful individual with a keen eye for business. When Rodrigo was imprisoned for debt from October 1553 to April 1554, she supported the family on her own.

In his Novelas ejemplares, Cervantes claims to be a stutterer. Some authors believe it to be a figure of speech to describe himself as endowed with little verbal eloquence. Others, conversely, take it as a true speech impediment, citing similar commentaries made by Cervantes in three more of his writings aside from Novelas.

Cervantes's siblings were Andrés (born 1543), Andrea (born 1544), Luisa (born 1546), Rodrigo (born 1550), Magdalena (born 1554) and Juan. They lived in Córdoba until 1556, when his grandfather died. For reasons that are unclear, Rodrigo did not benefit from his will and the family disappears until 1564 when he filed a lawsuit in Seville.

Seville was then in the midst of an economic boom, and Rodrigo managed rented accommodation for his elder brother Andres, who was a junior magistrate. It is contended that Cervantes attended the Jesuit college in Seville, where one of the teachers was Jesuit playwright Pedro Pablo Acevedo, who moved there in 1561 from Córdoba. However, legal records show his father got into debt once more and in 1566 the family moved to Madrid.

1566 to 1580: Military service and captivity

In the 19th century, a biographer discovered an arrest warrant for a Miguel de Cervantes, dated 15 September 1569, who was charged with wounding Antonio de Sigura in a duel. Although disputed at the time, largely on the grounds such behaviour was unworthy of so great an author, it is now accepted as the most likely reason for Cervantes leaving Madrid.

Cervantes eventually made his way to Rome, where he found a position in the household of Giulio Acquaviva, an Italian bishop who spent 1568 to 1569 in Madrid, and was appointed Cardinal in 1570. When the 1570 to 1573 Ottoman–Venetian War began, Spain formed part of the Holy League, a coalition formed to support the Venetian Republic. Possibly seeing an opportunity to have his arrest warrant rescinded, Cervantes went to Naples, then part of the Crown of Aragon. The military commander in Naples was Álvaro de Sande, a friend of the family, who gave him a commission in the Tercio of Sicily under the Marqués de Santa Cruz. At some point, he was joined in Naples by his younger brother Rodrigo.

In September 1571, Cervantes sailed on board the Marquesa, part of the Holy League fleet under Don John of Austria, illegitimate half brother of Phillip II of Spain; on 7 October, they defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto. According to his own account, although suffering from malaria, Cervantes was given command of a 12-man skiff, a small boat used for assaulting enemy galleys. The Marquesa lost 40 dead, and 120 wounded, including Cervantes, who received three separate wounds, two in the chest, and another that rendered his left arm useless. This last wound is the reason why he later was called "El manco de Lepanto" (English: "The one-handed man of Lepanto", "The one-armed man of Lepanto"), a title that followed him for the rest of his life. His actions at Lepanto were a source of pride to the end of his life, while Don John approved no less than four separate pay increases for him.

In Journey to Parnassus, published two years before his death in 1616, Cervantes claimed to have "lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right". As with much else, the extent of his disability is unclear, the only source being Cervantes himself, while commentators cite his habitual tendency to praise himself. However, they were serious enough to earn him six months in the Civic Hospital at Messina, Sicily.

Although he returned to service in July 1572 in the Tercio de Figueroa, records show his chest wounds were still not completely healed in February 1573. Based mainly in Naples, he joined expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, and took part in the 1573 occupation of Tunis and La Goulette, which were recaptured by the Ottomans in 1574. Despite Lepanto, the war overall was an Ottoman victory, and the loss of Tunis a military disaster for Spain. Cervantes returned to Palermo, where he was paid off by the Duke of Sessa, who gave him letters of commendation.

In early September 1575, Cervantes and Rodrigo left Naples on the galley Sol; as they approached Barcelona on 26 September, their ship was captured by Ottoman corsairs, and the brothers taken to Algiers, to be sold as slaves, or – as was the case of Cervantes and his brother – held for ransom, if this would be more lucrative than their sale as slaves. Rodrigo was ransomed in 1577, but his family could not afford the fee for Cervantes, who was forced to remain. Turkish historian Rasih Nuri İleri found evidence suggesting Cervantes worked on the construction of the Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex, which would mean he spent at least part of his captivity in Istanbul. This is yet to be proven and no evidence has been published on the matter.

By 1580, Spain was occupied with integrating Portugal, and suppressing the Dutch Revolt, while the Ottomans were at war with Persia; the two sides agreed to a truce, leading to an improvement of relations. After almost five years, and four escape attempts, in 1580 Cervantes was set free by the Trinitarians, a religious order that specialised in ransoming Christian captives, and returned to Madrid.

1580 to 1616: Later life and death

While Cervantes was in captivity, both Don John and the Duke of Sessa died, depriving him of two potential patrons, while the Spanish economy was in dire straits. This made finding employment difficult; other than a period in 1581 to 1582, when he was employed as an intelligence agent in North Africa, little is known of his movements prior to 1584.

In April of that year, Cervantes visited Esquivias, to help arrange the affairs of his recently deceased friend and minor poet, Pedro Laínez. There he met Catalina de Salazar y Palacios (c. 1566 – 1626), eldest daughter of the widowed Catalina de Palacios; her husband died leaving only debts, but the elder Catalina owned some land of her own. This may be why in December 1584, Cervantes married her daughter, then between 15 and 18 years old. The first use of the name Cervantes Saavedra appears in 1586, on documents related to their marriage.

Shortly before this, his illegitimate daughter Isabel was born in November. Her mother, Ana Franca, was the wife of a Madrid innkeeper; they apparently concealed it from her husband, but Cervantes acknowledged paternity. When Ana Franca died in 1598, he asked his sister Magdalena to take care of his daughter.

In 1587, Cervantes was appointed as a government purchasing agent, Commissary of the Royal Galleons in Seville, obtaining wheat and oil for the doomed Spanish Armada. He became a tax collector in 1592 and was briefly jailed for "irregularities" in his accounts, but quickly released. Several applications for positions in Spanish America were rejected i.e. to the Council of Indies in 1590, though modern critics note images of the colonies appear in his work.

From 1596 to 1600, he lived primarily in Seville, then returned to Madrid in 1606, where he remained for the rest of his life. In later years, he received some financial support from the Count of Lemos, although he was not included in the retinue Lemos took to Naples when appointed Viceroy in 1608. In July 1613, he joined the Third Order Franciscans, then a common way for Catholics to gain spiritual merit.

It is generally accepted Cervantes died on 22 April 1616 (NS; the Gregorian calendar had superseded the Julian in 1582 in Spain and some other countries). The date of 23 April 1616 was long considered his death date, but is now understood to be his date of burial. 23 April, which is also the death date of William Shakespeare (also in 1616, but not on the same day, as England then used the Julian calendar), is now celebrated as World Book Day.

The symptoms described leading to his death, including intense thirst, correspond to diabetes, then untreatable.

In accordance with his will, Cervantes was buried in the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, in central Madrid, in memory of the Trinitarians who had paid his ransom in 1580. He was buried as a pauper and carried by members of the Third Order of Saint Francis. His remains went missing when moved during rebuilding work at the convent in 1673, and in 2014, historian Fernando de Prado launched a project to rediscover them.

In January 2015, Francisco Etxeberria, the forensic anthropologist leading the search, reported the discovery of caskets containing bone fragments, and part of a board, with the letters "M.C.". Based on evidence of injuries suffered at Lepanto, on 17 March 2015 they were confirmed as belonging to Cervantes along with his wife and others. They were formally reburied at a public ceremony in June 2015.

Supposed likenesses

No authenticated portrait of Cervantes is known to exist. The one most often associated with the author is attributed to Juan de Jáuregui, but both names were added at a later date. The El Greco painting in the Museo del Prado, known as Retrato de un caballero desconocido (Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman), is cited as "possibly" depicting Cervantes, but there is no evidence for this. It has been suggested that the portrait The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest, also by El Greco, may possibly depict Cervantes.

However, the Prado itself, while mentioning, in passing, that "specific names have been proposed for the sitter, including that of Cervantes", and even "that the painting could be a self-portrait [of El Greco]", goes on to state that "Without doubt, the most convincing suggestion has connected this figure with the Second Marquis of Montemayor, Juan de Silva y de Ribera, a contemporary of El Greco who was appointed military commander of the Alcázar in Toledo by Philip II and Chief Notary to the Crown, a position that would explain the solemn gesture of the hand, depicted in the act of taking an oath."