Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645)

## About

Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician, and writer of the Baroque era. He was born in Madrid to a family of wealth and distinction. Quevedo studied at the universities of Alcalá and Valladolid, where he distinguished himself as a poet and wit by the age of 23. His elder contemporaries, Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, both expressed their esteem for his poetry. However, Quevedo was more interested in a political career and became a counsellor to the Duke de Osuna, viceroy of Sicily and later of Naples, whom he served in delicate diplomatic missions. Quevedo was a master satirist of Spain's Golden Age and is unequalled in Spanish literature as a virtuoso of language. He produced a vast body of work, including poetry, novels, picaresque novels, and tragedies. Some of his notable works include “Dreams,” “La vida del buscón,” and “Execración contra los judíos”. Quevedo was also known for his antisemitic views, which are evident in his work “Execración contra los judíos”. Quevedo's political career came to an end when he was accused, falsely it seems, of participating in the Venetian conspiracy. He suffered a circunstancial caída en desgracia, was imprisoned, and spent time in a tiny cell in the convent of San Marcos. When he was released, his health was very poor, and he retired to Torre de Juan Abad, where he died in the Dominican convent of Villanueva de los Infantes on September 8, 1645.

## Early Life and Education

Francisco de Quevedo was born in Madrid in 1580 to a family of wealth and political distinction. He was raised in an upper-class atmosphere and was in contact with the political and courtly environment from his childhood. Quevedo studied at the Imperial School of the Jesuits in Madrid and later attended the University of Alcalá de Henares from 1596 to 1600. In 1601, he moved to Valladolid, where he studied theology, a subject that would become a lifelong interest. Quevedo was a member of the Court and moved to Valladolid, where the Court had been transferred by the King's minister, the Duke of Lerma.

## Personal Life

Francisco de Quevedo was born in Madrid in 1580 to a family of wealth and political distinction. He was raised in an upper-class atmosphere. Quevedo studied at the Jesuit Imperial College and later at the universities of Alcalá and Valladolid. He was frail and very ill when he left from his confinement in 1643 and resigned from the royal court definitively to retire to Torre de Juan Abad. Quevedo was forced to marry against his will with Doña Esperanza de Aragón, a widow with children, by his friend Antonio Juan de la Cerda, the Duke de Medinaceli. The marriage, made in 1634, barely lasted three months. Quevedo was imprisoned in the convent of San Marcos in 1639, where he remained in a tiny cell until 1643.

## Litigation

Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) was involved in a legal battle with his supposed vassals after he was exiled to Torre de Juan Abad (Ciudad Real) in 1620. His mother had purchased the fiefdom for him, but the vassals refused to acknowledge him. In 1635, a libel titled “El tribunal de la justa venganza, erigido contra los escritos de Francisco de Quevedo” was published in Valencia, which was one of the many libels that aimed to defame him. Despite the legal battles and defamation, Quevedo continued to write and publish his works, including “The Swindler” (1626).