Ercilla

Ercilla y Zuniga, Don Alonso de (1533-1596, or thereabouts), a Spanish soldier and poet. When quite young he was brought to the court of Charles V., and became page to the infant Don Philip, whom he accompanied in his travels in Europe, and when he came to England to marry Queen Mary in 1554. He then accompanied an expedition against the revolted Araucanian Indians of Chili, and in the intervals of the fighting, in which he bore his full' share, he worked up the incidents of the campaign into an epic poem in octave measure, half poem and half chronicle. The poem is mentioned by Cervantes, and was laid under contribution by Lope de Vega, and has been translated into Italian and into French.