Garcilaso (Garcias Laso) De La Vega. I. A Spanish lyric and pastoral poet, born in Toledo in 1503, died in Nice in November, 1536. His father was councillor of state to Ferdinand and Isabella, and his mother was the daughter of Fernan Perez de Guzman. At an early age Garcilaso entered the service of the emperor Charles V. He was in the campaign in the Milanese in 1521, and distinguished himself by his valor at the battle of Pavia in 1525. In 1530 he married Donna Helena de Zuniga, an Aragonese lady; and in 1532 he followed Charles in his Hungarian campaign against the Turks. While at Vienna he incurred the displeasure of the empress by promoting the marriage of one of his nephews with a lady of the imperial household, and was imprisoned on an island in the Danube, where he wrote a poem contrasting his own desolate situation with the beauty of the surrounding scenery. He was soon released and taken into greater favor than ever. In 1535 he accompanied the emperor on the expedition to Tunis, in which he was severely wounded; and in the succeeding year he followed him in the disastrous invasion of the south of France. In an attack upon a small castle on a hill near Frejus, Garcilaso was struck on the head by a stone and fell into the ditch beneath.

He was carried to Nice, where he died three weeks afterward. The emperor avenged the death of his favorite by hanging all the defenders of the castle. Garcilaso left an only son, who fell in battle against the Dutch in 1569. Garcilaso's poems were found by the widow of his friend the poet Boscan among her husband's papers, and published with them. They consist of 37 sonnets, 5 canciones, 2 elegies, an epistle in versi sciolti, and 3 pastorals. He is considered one of the finest poets of his nation, and is often designated as the Spanish Petrarch. The best edition of his poems was published in Madrid in 1765, edited by Jose Nicolas de Azara. The oldest edition known is that of Venice, 1553. There is an English translation, with a life and an essay on Spanish poetry, by J. II. Wiffen (London, 1823).

II. Sebastian, a Spanish soldier, one of the conquerors of Peru, born in Badajoz, died in Cuzco in 1559. He was of the same family with the preceding, and went to Mexico with Pedro de Alvarado. After the invasion of the kingdom of Quito, and Alvarado's return to Guatemala, Garcilaso remained in Peru and attached himself to the fortunes of Francisco Pizarro, and after his death to those of his brother Gonzalo. In the decisive battle of Xaquixaguana, April 9, 1548, he rode over to the royal side at the turning point of the contest, was received with pardon and favor by the viceroy, and appointed governor of Cuzco, an office he held till his death. Garcilaso was noted for his humanity to the Indians, and for the efforts he made to ameliorate their condition. He married an Indian princess of the blood royal, the niece of Huayna Capac, and granddaughter of the renowned Tupac inca Yupanqui.

III. Surnamed the Inca, a Spanish historian, son of the preceding, born in Cuzco about 1540, died in Cordova, Spain, about 1620. About 1560 he went to Spain, where he ever afterward resided. He entered the army, and served as a captain under Don John of Austria, in the war with the Moriscos. After the war ended he retired to Cordova, and devoted himself to literature. He began by translating the Dialoghi di Amove, by Leone Abravanel. This work was soon placed on the Index Expurgatorius. His La Florida del Ynca (Lisbon, 1605) is chiefly devoted to the adventures of Fernando de Soto. In 1609 he published the first part of his great work, Comentarios reales, que tratan del or'igen de los Ynca reyes, que fueron del Peru (Cordova, 1617; corrected ed., 17 vols., Madrid, 1800-'3), relating the history of Peru under the incas. Shortly before his death he finished the second part, comprising the story of the conquest by the Spaniards. This work gives by far the fullest account of Peru under its native kings, and is in fact the source of almost all our knowledge upon the subject. The author was proud of his descent from the incas, and obtained much of the material for his history from his mother's family.

His "Commentaries" are interesting and valuable, though they contain much that is mere gossip and not a little fable. They have been translated into many languages. An English translation, in 1 vol. Vol.. by Sir Paul Rycaut, knight, was published at London in 1688, which, though containing numerous errors, is still a favorite with book collectors.