Juan de Mena

Juan de Mena (1411–1456) was a Castilian poet born at Córdoba and educated at Salamanca, who travelled in Italy before entering the court of King Juan II.

The king named him secretary of Latin letters and royal chronicler, though he chiefly wrote Dantean poetry that was full of classical myth.

His masterpiece, the Laberinto de Fortuna of 1444, uses three Wheels of Fortune to survey Castilian history, urging national unity and the Reconquista under Juan II. He held the post under Enrique IV and died at Torrelaguna in 1456, one of the century's three great Castilian poets.