Juan de Mal Lara

Mal Lara was investigated by the Spanish Inquisition in 1561, but was cleared of all charges in 1566, the year he moved to Madrid to join the royal court of king Philip II of Spain.

Philip of Spain also claimed to be king of England and Ireland following his marriage to Mary I of England was known as 'the prudent' since despite several financial crisis was an intelligent ruler and dedicated philosophical scholar who particularly studied the work of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero which is why in modern Spanish a serious but informal discussion is called "una tertulia" Within this intensive royal court Mal Laura composed verses to accompany or embellish certain paintings by Titian and was commissioned to create allegorical motif for the flagship of Don Juan de Austria, which included writing an elaborate description of "the royal galley of Serene Don Juan de Austria, Captain of all the Seas".

The other major work was a tribute that Mal Lara wrote with Alonso Escribano for Rey Phelipe de Seuilla (Philip II Spain and thus also of Seville), to deliver in 1570 extolling the virtues of the very noble and loyal city of Seuilla in gratitude for the warm welcome received by Philip.

He also composed eclogues Narciso and Laurea, Annotations to the syntax of Erasmus, a philosophical dissertation Pilgrimage of life, as well as Principles of Grammar, guidance Notes on Emblems of Andrea Alciato, the Scholia of Rhetoric on the introductions of Aphthonius of Antioch, Chronicle of the Holy Apostles, a poem in octaves The Death of Orpheus and a Latin poem The Martyrdom of Saints Justa and Rufina, patron of Seville .

Juan de la Cueva, in his Poetic Exemplar places Mal Lara him among the classical playwrights in the Aristotelian tradition, although with some reservations.

The Spirited Hercules is an erudite poetic work formerly believed lost but subsequently rediscovered via a copy within the Ajuda National Palace in Portugal.