Casa-Museo de Lope de Vega in Madrid (1610-1635)

Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio was born in Madrid to the family of an embroiderer. At five he was reading Spanish and Latin, at ten translated Latin verse, and wrote his first play at 12. He entered a Jesuit college in Mardrid, but fled to take part in a military expedition in Portugal. The Bishop of Ávila recognized his talent and enrolled him at the University of Alcalá to become a priest, but he fell in love. In 1583 Lope saw action with the Spanish Navy in the Azores. Back in Madrid he began as a playwright. He had an affair with Elena Osorio, an actress, but when she rejected him his attacks on her landed him in jail with eight years' banishment from the court and two from Castile. He went into exile with 16-year-old Isabel de Urbina, daughter of an adviser at the court of Philip II, whom he had to marry, but signed up again in 1588, with the Armada against England. His ship made it back to Spain, where he settled in Valencia for the rest of his exile and recommenced as a dramatist.

In 1590 he was appointed secretary to the Duke of Alba in Toledo. In 1595, Isabel dead, he returned to Madrid for more love affairs and scandals, including Micaela de Luján, who gave him four children, though in 1598 he married Juana de Guardo. In the 17th c. Lope's literary output reached its peak. He was also a secretary to the Duke of Sessa. His son, Carlos Félix (by Juana), died and, in 1612, Juana herself died in childbirth. Micaela also disappears, and Lope took his children from both unions together under one roof (above). His writing in the early 1610s became religious and, in 1614, he joined the priesthood, but continued his romances, including Marta de Nevares, who remained with him until her death in 1632. In 1635 he lost his son by Micaela in a shipwreck, and his beloved youngest daughter Antonia was abducted. Lope de Vega died in Madrid, on 27 August 1635. Image and some data courtesy of the Yorck Project.