(“swallets”) into which streams flow. Some of the caves, such as those at Cheddar, are easy of access, and attract many visitors owing to the beauty of the stalactitic formations; others, of greater extent and grandeur, have only been explored, or partly explored, with great difficulty. Some caves have yielded large quantities of animal remains (hyaenas, bears and others) together with traces of prehistoric human occupation. Among such Wookey Hole, where the river Axe issues from the foot of a cliff, may be mentioned. Lead was worked among the Mendips at a very early period. Some of the Roman workings, especially in the neighbourhood of Charterhouse-on-Mendip, have yielded pigs of lead inscribed with the names of emperors of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., together with an abundance of smaller objects.
See E. Baker and H. Balch, The Netherworld of Mendip (Clifton, 1907).
MENDOZA, ANTONIO HURTADO DE (1593?–1644), Spanish
dramatist, was born about the end of the 16th century in the
province of Asturias, became page to the count de Saldana (son
of the duke de Lerma), and was recognized as a rising poet by
Cervantes in the Viaje del Parnaso (1614). He rose rapidly
into favour under Philip IV., who appointed him private
secretary, commissioned from him comedias palaciegas for the
royal theatre at Aranjuez, and in 1623 conferred on him the
orders of Santiago and Calatrava. Most of his contemporaries
and rivals paid court to “el discreto de palacio,” and Mendoza
seems to have lived on the friendliest terms with all his brother-dramatists
except Ruiz de Alarcón. He is said to have been
involved in the fall of Olivares, and died unexpectedly at
Saragossa on the 19th of September 1644. Only one of his plays,
Querer por sólo querer, was published with his consent; it is
included in a volume (1623) containing his semi-official account
of the performances at Aranjuez in 1622. The best edition
of Mendoza’s plays and verses bears the title of Obras líricas
y cómicas, divinas y humanas (1728). Much of his work does
not rise above the level of graceful and accomplished verse;
but that he had higher qualities is shown by El Marido hace
mujer, a brilliant comedy of manners, which forms the chief
source of Molière’s École des maris.
The Fiesta que se hizo en Aranjuez and Querer por sólo querer were translated into English by Sir Richard Fanshawe, afterwards ambassador at Madrid, in a posthumous volume published in 1671.
MENDOZA, DIEGO HURTADO DE (1503–1575), Spanish
novelist, poet, diplomatist and historian, a younger son of the count of Tendillas, governor of Granada, was born in that city in 1503. The celebrated marquis of Santillana was his great-grandfather. On leaving the university of Salamanca, Mendoza abandoned his intention of taking orders, served under Charles V. in Italy, and attended lectures at the universities
of Bologna, Padua and Rome. In 1537 he was sent to
England to arrange a marriage between Henry VIII. and the duchess of Milan, as well as a marriage between Prince Louis of Portugal and Mary Tudor. Despite the failure of his mission,
he preserved the confidence of the emperor, and in 1539 was
appointed ambassador at Venice; there he patronized the Aldi,
procured copies of the Greek manuscripts belonging to Cardinal
Bessarion, and acquired other rare codices from the monastery
of Mount Athos. The first edition of Josephus was printed
(1544) from the texts in Mendoza’s collection. He acted for
some time as military governor of Siena, represented Spain
diplomatically at the council of Trent, and in 1547 was nominated
special plenipotentiary at Rome, where he remained till 1554.
He was never a favourite with Philip II., and a quarrel with
a courtier resulted in his banishment from court (June 1568).
The remaining years of his life, which were spent at Granada,
he devoted to the study of Arabic, to poetry, and to his history
of the Moorish insurrection of 1568–1570. He died in 1575.
His Guerra de Granada was published at Lisbon by Luis
Tribaldos de Toledo in 1627; the delay was doubtless due to
Mendoza’s severe criticism of contemporaries who survived
him. In some passages the author deliberately imitates Sallust
and Tacitus; his style is, on the whole, vivid and trenchant,
his information is exact, and in critical insight he is not inferior
to Mariana. The attribution to Mendoza of Lazarillo de Tormes
is rejected by all competent scholars, but that he excelled in
picaresque malice is proved by his indecorous verses written
in the old Castilian metres and in the more elaborate measures
imported from Italy. Mendoza is believed to be the author of
the letters to Feliciano de Silva and to Captain Salazar, published
by Antonio Paz y Melia in Sales Españolas (Madrid, 1900).
See A. Senán y Alonso, D. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, apuntes biográfico-críticos (Granada, 1886); Calendar of Letters and Papers foreign and domestic, Henry VIII., vols. xii. and xiii.; C. Graux, Essai sur l’origine du fonds grec de l’Escurial (Paris, 1880); R. Foulché-Delbosc, “Étude sur la Guerra de Granada” in the Revue hispanique (Paris, 1894), vol. i.
MENDOZA, PEDRO GONZALEZ DE (1428–1495), Spanish
cardinal and statesman, was the fourth son of Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, marquess of Santillana, and duke of Infantado. He was born at Guadalajara in New Castile, the chief lordship of his family, on the 3rd of May 1428. The house of Mendoza claimed to descend from the lords of Llodio in Alava, and to have been
settled in Old Castile, in the 11th century. One chief of the house had been greatly distinguished at the battle of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212. Another had been Admiral of Castile in
the reign of Alphonso the Wise. Peter the Cruel had endowed
them with the lordships of Hita and Buitrago. The greatness
of the Mendozas was completed by Pedro Gonzalez, who sacrificed
his life to save King John I. at the battle of Aljubarrota
in 1385. The cardinal’s father, the marquis of Santillana—to
use the title he bore for the greater part of his life—was a
poet, and was conspicuous during the troubled reign of John II.
Loyalty to the Crown was the traditional and prevailing policy
of the family. Pedro Gonzalez, the future cardinal, was sent into
the Church mainly because he was a younger son and that he
might be handsomely provided for. He had no vocation,
and was an example of the worldly, political and martial
prelates of the 15th century. In 1452 at the age of twenty-four,
he was chosen by the king John II. to be bishop of Calahorra,
but did not receive the pope’s bull till 1454. As bishop
of Calahorra he was also señor, or civil and military ruler, of
the town and its dependent district. In his secular capacity
he led the levies of Calahorra in the civil wars of the reign of
Henry IV. He fought for the king at the second battle of
Olmedo on the 20th of August 1467, and was wounded in the
arm, During these years he became attached to Doña Mencia
de Lemus, a Portuguese lady-in-waiting of the queen. She
bore him two sons, Rodrigo, who was once selected to be the
husband of Lucrezia Borgia, and Diego, who was the grandfather
of the princess of Eboli of the reign of Philip II (see Perez, Antonio.)
By another lady of a Valladolid family he had a
third son who afterwards emigrated to France. In 1468 he
became bishop of Siguenza. In 1473 he was created cardinal,
was promoted to the archbishopric of Seville and named
chancellor of Castile. During the last years of the reign of King
Henry IV. he was the partisan of the Princess Isabella, afterwards
queen. He fought for her at the battle of Toro on the 1st of
March 1476; had a prominent part in placing her on the throne;
and served her indefatigably in her efforts to suppress the
disorderly nobles of Castile. In 1482 he became archbishop
of Toledo. During the conquest of Granada he contributed
largely to the maintenance of the army. On the 2nd of January
1492 he occupied the town in the name of the Catholic sovereigns.
Though his life was worldly, and though he was more soldier
and statesman than priest, the “Great Cardinal,” as he was
commonly called, did not neglect his duty as a bishop. He
used his influence with the queen and also at Rome to arrange
a settlement of the disputes between the Spanish sovereigns
and the papacy. Though he maintained a splendid household
as archbishop of Toledo, and provided handsomely for his
children, he devoted part of his revenue to charity, and with part
he endowed the college of Santa Cruz at Valladolid. His health
broke down at the close of 1493. Queen Isabella visited and
nursed him on his deathbed. It is said that he recommended
her to choose as his successor the Franciscan Jimenez de Cisneros,
