Abstract
The story of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar y Mendoza, Marquis of Zenete, Cardinal Mendoza’s eldest son, and his second wife Maria de Fonseca would furnish a writer with ample material for an exciting novel and certainly deserves to be better known, especially in the Anglophone world. Among other things, this article sheds some light on the vulnerable status of women in late medieval and Renaissance Spain at a time when noble ladies had greater educational opportunities, and casts doubt on the alleged role played by Queen Isabel in championing the freedom and the rights of women; and it discusses how the Marquis of Zenete expressed his personality through jousting invenciones and inscriptions in Latin on the walls of his palace of La Calahorra, and introduced many features of Italian art and architecture into Spain almost in defiance of the status quo. The author explains why the Marquis wrote the words NULA SECUNDA on a harp that he gave as a present to Prince Juan. The possible significance of a quotation by Ovid formerly in the Salon de los Marqueses in the Palace of La Calahorra is discussed, and attention drawn to the appearance of the Fonseca sisters in the anonymous Carajicomedia .
Highlights
Resumen La historia de Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, marqués de Zenete, el hijo primogénito del Cardenal Mendoza, y su segunda mujer María de Fonseca podría proporcionar a un escritor material más que suficiente para escribir una novela apasionante, y ciertamente merece ser mejor conocida, sobre todo en el mundo anglófono
I have attempted to give a fuller picture by summarising the research that has been done and by adding what may be gleaned about this story from the Cancionero general and elsewhere
Fernando de Fonseca died from a wound that he received from Beltrán de la Cueva on 20 August 1467 at the second Battle of Olmedo while fighting on behalf of Prince Alfonso, Queen Isabel’s brother, against the troops of Enrique IV of Castile
Summary
Resumen La historia de Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, marqués de Zenete, el hijo primogénito del Cardenal Mendoza, y su segunda mujer María de Fonseca podría proporcionar a un escritor material más que suficiente para escribir una novela apasionante, y ciertamente merece ser mejor conocida, sobre todo en el mundo anglófono.
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