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274 SALVATORE LEONARDI Son muchas las fuentes bibliográficas y documentales utilizadas, algunas de estas últimas poco conocidas o bien inéditas; entre ellas se encuentra un documento anónimo de finales del siglo xvi, que se puede considerar la más antigua —y la más amplia— biografía de Lope de Figueroa. Entre los resultados de este trabajo destacan la reconstrucción de los primeros años de vida militar de don Lope hasta su nombramiento como capitán (hacia 1555-1559), y la identificación cierta y bastante documentada de un segundo Lope de Figueroa, cuya vida hubo de fluir en paralelo y a veces se sobrepuso a la de su homónimo más conocido, con consiguientes equivocaciones por parte de los historiadores. PALABRAS CLAVE: Figueroa, Lope de; Villegas de Figueroa, Lope de; Guadix; batalla de los Gelves; Tercio de Milán; Zapata. ABSTRACT Lope de Figueroa (b. about 1540-d. 1585) was one of the protagonists of the Spanish military history of the sixteenth century. For his audacity and courage, during his life he already enjoyed great fame and prestige and, thanks to the dramatists of the Golden Age who took him as a literary figure, became the archetype of the soldier of the Hapsburg Empire. However, there is a historiographical gap in his life, as peculiar and complete studies about his life have not been made, studies which clarify the various problematic aspects that researchers meet. This work wants to give a contribution to this topic which deals with the most obscure period of his life, since he was born and became a soldier, to his participation in the Expedition of Djerba (1559-1560) and his being prisoner by the Turks (1560-1564). Among the many biographical sources and documents which have been examined, some of them nearly unknown or unpublished, an anonymous document of the late sixteenth century can be considered the oldest and wider biography of Lope de Figueroa. The results of this work is the reconstruction of the early years of the military life of Don Lope till his appointment to captain (about 1555-1559) and the true and good documented identification of a second Lope de Figueroa, whose life ran in parallel and sometimes matched with his better known namesake’s life, with consequent mistakes by historians. KEY WORDS: Figueroa, Lope de; Villegas de Figueroa, Lope de; Guadix; battle of Djerba; Tercio of Milan; Zapata. Revista de Historia Militar, 114 (2013), pp. 273-384. ISSN: 0482-5748


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