How many children did Lope de Vega have?
Lope de Vega had, from his two marriages and the relationships with his lovers, seventeen children: twelve daughters and five sons. Ten of them died in early chilhoodThe figures for infant mortality, as with the figures of the number of women who died in childbirth during the 16th and 17th century, were very high. The primary causes were the lack of hygiene, poor nutrition in mothers and children and infectious diseases. There were numerous epidemics during that time, typhus in 1557, catarrh in 1580, the Atlantic plague of 1592-1602 and, of course, hunger.
The poet had a close relationship with the children born from his marriage to Juana de Guardo: Carlos Félix, whose premature death deeply affected him, and Feliciana, his only heir. He also had a close relationship with Marcela and Lope Félix, who at the ages of eight and six respectively, went to live with him and Feliciana in the house on Calle de Francos. His daughter Antonia Clara (of Marta de Nevares) also lived there.
His daughter Marcela became a nun in the Convent of the Trinitarias, very close to the house on Calle de Francos (Lope de Vega House Museum). This was a very different life from the one chosen by his daughter Antonia Clara, who at the age of seventeen, was seduced by a gentleman and ran away from home.
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Children from different lovers:
Manuela (1581-1585). Daughter of María de Aragón. Died before reaching the age of five.
Fernando Pellicer, Friar Vicente (1599). Son of a Valencian woman.
Friar Luis de la madre de Dios (?). Son of an unknown lover.
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Children from his first wife, Isabel de Urbina:
Antonia (1589-1594). Died at the age of five.
Teodora (1594-1596). Died at the age of two.
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Children from his second wife, Juana de Guardo:
Jacinta (1599-?). Died as an infant.
Juana (1604). Stillborn.
Carlos Félix (1605-1612). Died at age seven.
Feliciana (1613- ?). Married. Lope named her heir in his will.
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Children with Micaela de Luján
Juan and Félix. It is believed that none of them, of which there is very little information, reached adulthood.
Marcela (1605-?). She went to live with Lope at the age of eight, she was his favorite daughter, in 1623 she was ordained nun in the Trinitarias.
Lope Félix (1607-1634). At the age of ten he went to live in Lope's house. He made a few attempts at being a poet and finally enlisted as a soldier. Apparently, he died on the coasts of Venezuela.
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Children with Marta de Nevares
Antonia Clara (1617-1664). She ran away with her boyfriend at the age of seventeen while living in her father's house (the house museum), taking clothes and jewelry with her.
