Military world and imperial ethics in Garcilaso de la Vega

Abstract

The present essay starts from the issue that the loyalty of Garcilaso de la Vega, as a soldier and diplomat, towards Carlos and his imperial policy must be considered undoubted.

Actually, what is stated in some of his compositions is a difficult and painful coexistence between, on the one hand, the participation or the adherence to a political and military design, of a collective nature, which is summarized in the imperial idea, and, on the other hand, “la afirmación de una existencia individual y autónoma” (Maravall), which - I add - is usually encrypted in the feeling of love. The close-reading of the sonnet “Boscán, las armas y el furor de marte”, here offered, serves to confirm this thesis.