Bazán, Alvaro de

Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz de Mudela (Granada, 12 December 1526 – Lisbon, 9 February 1588), was a Spanish admiral. He had a distinguished military career of fifty years, and was also renowned as a patron of the arts and letters. Philip II made him I Marqués de Santa Cruz de Mudela on 19 October 1569. A number of writers dedicated books to him. He preferred to live half way between the court and the port of Seville. He built one palace in the plaza mayor of Valdepeñas that no longer exists, and the other in Viso del Marqués (Province of Ciudad Real in the jurisdiction of Valdepeñas), now the “Archivo General de la Marina Álvaro de Bazán”. The palace still belongs to the Marquises of Santa Cruz who rent it to the Spanish Government for a nominal sum. The palace was built between 1564 and 1588 and was declared a National Monument in 1931.

Bazan´s only known connection here to the vihuela is that the copy of Esteban Daza’s “El Parnaso” in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek bears an inscripition on the front end paper declaring it to have come from the library of the Marquis: “De la librería del exc. sr. Marqués de Santa Cruz”. The inscription could easily be in a sixteenth-century hand, if not a later hand, so it cannot be established if it came from the library of the 1st Marquis, or a successor.

For basic boiographical information see the article in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Álvaro_de_Bazán,_1st_Marquis_of_Santa_Cruz (accessed 17/03/2018).
The Spanish version is considerably more detailed: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Álvaro_de_Bazán (accessed 17/03/2018)

The poet Cristóbal Mosquera de Figueroa, in dedicating one of his books to him describes him thus: “Elogio del excelentíssimo señor Don Álvaro de Baçán, marqués de Santa Cruz, señor de las Villas del Viso y Valdepeñas, Comendador mayor de León, del Consejo de su Magestad, y su Capitán General del mar Océano y de la gente de guerra del Reyno de Portugal”. Among the writers to mention him in their works are Lope de Vega, Luis de Góngora and Miguel de Cervantes. He is thought to have been the protector of poets including Bernardo de Balbuena and an unknown writer known as “bachiller Jarana”. His son was a patron of Félix Lope de Vega to whom he dedicated a work.

The geneaolgy of the Marquesado de Santa Cruz (from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesado_de_Santa_Cruz_de_Mudela

Titular Periodo
Title created by Felipe II 1569
I Álvaro de Bazán y Guzmán (1526-1588) 1569-1588
II Álvaro de Bazán y Benavides (1571-1644) 1588-1644
III Álvaro de Bazán y Manrique de Lara (?-1660) 1644-1660
IV María Eugenia de Bazán y Doria (?-1667) 1660-1677
V Francisco Diego de Bazán y Doria (?-1680) 1667-1680
VI José Bernardino de Bazan y Pimentel (?-1692) 1680-1692
VII Álvaro Antonio de Bazán y Pimentel (?-1737)4 1692-1737
VIII Pedro de Silva-Bazán y Alagón (1703-1744)6 1737-1744
IX José Joaquín de Silva-Bazán (1734-1802)7 1744-
X José Gabriel de Silva-Bazán y Waldstein (1782-1839 -1839
XI Francisco de Borja de Silva-Bazán y Téllez-Girón (1815-1889) 1839-1889
XII Álvaro de Silva-Bazán y Fernández de Córdova (1839-1894) 1889-1894
XIII Mariano de Silva-Bazán y Carvajal-Vargas (1875-1940) 1894-1940
XIV Casilda de Silva y Fernández de Henestrosa (1914-2008) 1956-2008
XV Álvaro Fernández-Villaverde y Silva (1943-) 2009-actual titular.

Esteban Daza