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Alonso de Ercilla

Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (Madrid August 7, 1533 – November 29, 1595 in Madrid), Spanish nobleman, soldier and poet.

In 1548 he was appointed page to the heir-apparent, afterwards Philip II. In this capacity Ercilla visited Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, and was present in 1554 at the marriage of his master to Mary of England. Hearing that an expedition was preparing to subdue the Araucanians of Chile, he joined the adventurers. He distinguished himself in the ensuing campaign; but, having quarrelled with a comrade, he was condemned to death in 1558 by his general, García Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment, but Ercilla was speedily released and fought at the Battle of Quipeo (14th of December 1558).

He returned to Spain in 1562, visited Italy, France, Germany, Bohemia, and in 1570 married Maria de Bathn, a lady distantly connected with the Santa Cruz family; in 1571 he was made knight of the Order of Santiago, and in 1578 he was employed by Philip II. on a mission to Saragossa. He complained of living in poverty but left a modest fortune, and was obviously disappointed at not being offered the post of secretary of state. His principal work is La Araucana, a poem based on the events of the wars in which he had been engaged. It consists of three parts, of which the first, composed in Chile and published in 1569, is a versified narrative adhering strictly to historic fact; the second, published in 1578, is encumbered with visions and other romantic machinery; and the third, which appeared in 1589-1590, contains, in addition to the subject proper, a variety of episodes mostly irrelevant. Withall, many scholars consider it the most successful Renaissance epic in the Classical mode written in Spanish.

Statue of Alonso de Ercilla in Santiago de Chile

The most important work of Alonso de Ercilla is La Araucana.

In 1556 de Ercilla arrived at Peru and accompanied Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, just named Governor and Commander chief of Chile, where the araucanos had revolted. Apparently he remained in Chile seventeen months, between 1557-1559. He participated in the battles of Lagunillas, Quiapo and Millarapue, being witness of the death of Caupolicán, protagonist of its poem: La Araucana, an epic poem of military exaltación in 37 songs, where the narrator relays the most significant facts of the Arauco War against the araucanos (mapuches) and that began to write in campaign. On March of 1558 Don Garci'a it founded the city of Osorno and when a celebration was made in the new city in which their neighbors participated all left that day Don Garci'a by a false door of their house covering the face with a closed helmet of visor accompanied by Alonso de Ercilla and Pedro Elm trees of Eyrie, when of unexpected was gotten up Juan de Pineda, that was enemistado with Alonso de Ercilla by previous quarrels and in a while given both they removed to swords taking place a confused incident. Don Garcia was noticed of the situation and attacked with the most raised than he was Alonso de Ercilla and he demolished it with a mace blow.

Alonso de Ercilla ran to a church and looked for asylum. The governor commanded both contenders to jail and to be killed on the following day. The influential vicinity and many people considering the sentence unjust tried to persuade to Don Garcia Hurtado and Mendoza but the preparations for the execution continued and the hope to save them was lost. Then two women, one Spanish and another Native American approached the house of Don García and they were introduced by the window and by means of pleas managed to convince the governor to pardon the life of both. Alonso de Ercilla followed prison three months and soon after was exiled to Peru.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.