Biography of Miguel de Cervantes :: essays research papers

Miguel de Cervantes was a famous novelist in Spain in the sixteenth century during the Renaissance. Cervantes lived in Spain during the Golden Age which helped him become a recognized writer. He was very talented, and he showed his talents through the interesting and wonderful novels he wrote. The most famous novel he wrote was called Don Quixote. Cervantes had a very exhausting and enthusiastic life, full of excitement and success. Miguel de Cervantes has great histories which lead him to write his wonderful novels and plays, and these have been very influential during the Renaissance and today’s writers. Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547 in a town near Madrid called Alcala de Henares, Spain. He was the fourth son of seven children. His father was a surgeon and his mother died when he was young. Since his father was a medical doctor his family had to travel to many towns in Spain. During his youth and adolescence he was taught by Jesuits. Not much about his education is known but when he was about twenty-one years old in 1568, he went to Madrid where Juan Lopez de Hoyos, a Jesuit, was his tutor. Cervantes did not attend to university, but he read broadly, this greatly influenced his writings. In about 1568 to 1570 he moved to Naples, Italy. In Naples, he joined the Spanish Army because he had a very big interest in the military. In 1571, he participated in the naval battle of Lepanto, located in the Gulf of Lepanto. The war was between the Spanish and the Turks, since the relationship between the Mediterranean countries and the Ottoman Empire was tense. During this battle Cervantes was wounded in his chest and on his left hand. He lost the use of his left hand and therefore, he gained the nickname of ‘‘Manco de Lepanto’’, meaning Maimed of Lepanto. Nevertheless Cervantes remained in the military although he was wounded because he was very dedicated to it. Then he fought in northern Africa and the Mediterranean lands. When Miguel de Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo Cervantes where sailing back to Spain in 1575, their ship was captured by pirates. Bradbury pirates made them prisoners and took them to Algiers as slaves. Cervantes had to remain a prisoner for five years even though he tried to escape a variety of occasions. He had to wait until his family and his religious order released him from prison having to earn money.