Lope de Vega Really Did Embark on the Spanish Armada

Abstract

«A perplexing lacuna in the story of Lope’s life is the year 1588» wrote Rudolf Schevill in 1941. He found particularly perplexing the question of whether or not El Fénix sailed with the Spanish Armada. In 2015, RTVE attempted to fill this lacuna in episode 2 of their series El ministerio del tiempo. Using Fax, Skype and an Internet search, the “ministry” checks the embarkation lists of the Armada and is horrified to find that Lope de Vega has embarked on San Esteban, a ship that will be wrecked in Ireland, where the whole ship’s company will die. The “ministry” manages to move him to San Juan de Portugal, but only «a última hora» because «Las listas de tripulación nos llegan a última hora». The scriptwriters came surprisingly close to the truth.