Miguel de Cervantes Timeline

His captivity made finding employment difficult; other than a period in 1581 to 1582 when he was employed as an intelligence agent in North Africa, little is known of his movements prior to 1584.

There Cervantes met Catalina de Salazar y Palacios, eldest daughter of the widowed Catalina de Palacios; in December 1584 he married her daughter, then between 15 and 18 years old.

The first use of the name Cervantes Saavedra appears in 1586, on documents related to his marriage to Catalina de Salazar y Palacios.

In 1587, Cervantes was appointed as a government purchasing agent, Commissary of the Royal Galleons in Seville, obtaining wheat and oil for the doomed Spanish Armada.

In 1590, Cervantes petitioned the Council of Indies, though modern critics note images of the colonies appear in his work despite him apparently not obtaining the post.

He became a tax collector in 1592 and was briefly jailed for 'irregularities' in his accounts, but was quickly released.

Leonor de Cortinas came from Arganda del Rey and died in October 1593 at the age of 73. Surviving legal documents indicate she had seven children, could read and write, and was a resourceful individual with a keen eye for business.

From 1596 to 1600, Cervantes lived primarily in Seville, then returned to Madrid in 1606, where he remained for the rest of his life.

In later years, Cervantes received some financial support from the Count of Lemos, although he was not included in the retinue Lemos took to Naples when appointed Viceroy in 1608.

In July 1613, Cervantes joined the Third Order Franciscans, then a common way for Catholics to gain spiritual merit.

It is generally accepted Cervantes died on 22 April 1616. The date of 23 April was long considered his death date but is now understood to be his date of burial; 23 April, also associated with William Shakespeare's death, is now celebrated as World Book Day.

In accordance with his will, Cervantes was buried in the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in central Madrid, in memory of the Trinitarians who had paid his ransom in 1580.

Image source: Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians

Cervantes's remains went missing when moved during rebuilding work at the convent in 1673. In 2014, historian Fernando de Prado launched a project to rediscover them.

Cervantes was rediscovered by English writers in the mid-18th century, renewing appreciation of his work outside Spain.

The literary editor John Bowle argued that Cervantes was as significant as any of the Greek and Roman authors then popular, and published an annotated edition of Don Quixote in 1781.

Image source: John Bowle (writer)

The portrait of Cervantes by Luis de Madrazo, now at the Biblioteca Nacional de España and painted in 1859, was based on the artist's imagination rather than any likeness taken in life.

Image source: Luis de Madrazo

From 1871 to 1881, Sigmund Freud and his close friend Eduard Silberstein wrote letters to each other using the pen names Cipión and Berganza, characters drawn from Cervantes's colloquy in Don Quixote.

Image source: Sigmund Freud

In 1905, the tricentennial of the publication of Don Quixote was marked with celebrations in Spain. The image used on Spanish euro coins of €0.10, €0.20 and €0.50 is based on a bust created that same year.

Image source: Don Quixote

Cervantes played a prominent role in the episode 'Gentlemen of Spain' of the TV series Sir Francis Drake (1961–1962).

Image source: Sir Francis Drake (TV series)

Man of La Mancha, the 1965 musical, was loosely based on Cervantes' life, blending his imprisonment with the story of his most famous creation, Don Quixote.

Image source: Man of La Mancha

The Cervantes Society of America was founded in 1978 and held its first membership meeting in San Francisco in December 1979.

Image source: Miguel de Cervantes

Even into the end of the twentieth century, nearly four hundred years after Cervantes's birth, important authors in Spain such as Rafael Morales acknowledged Cervantes as their favorite writer.

In 2014, historian Fernando de Prado launched a project to rediscover Cervantes's remains, which had gone missing when moved during rebuilding work at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in 1673.

In January 2015, Francisco Etxeberria, the forensic anthropologist leading the search, reported the discovery of caskets containing bone fragments and part of a board with the letters 'M.C.'

Based on evidence of injuries suffered at Lepanto, on 17 March 2015 the remains were confirmed as belonging to Cervantes along with his wife and others. They were formally reburied at a public ceremony in June 2015.

The 400th anniversary of Cervantes's death in 2016 saw the production of Cervantina, a celebration of his plays by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico in Madrid.

The 2025 film The Captive, directed by Alejandro Amenábar and starring Julio Peña, is a fictional portrayal of Cervantes during the five years of his imprisonment in Algiers.

Image source: The Captive (2025 film)

In 2025, the European Central Bank announced that Cervantes had been selected to appear on the obverse of fifty euro banknotes in a future redesign, were the theme 'European culture' to be selected over 'Rivers and birds'.

In 1585, Cervantes published La Galatea, a conventional pastoral romance that received little contemporary notice; despite promising to write a sequel, he never did so. It was his first significant novel.

Image source: La Galatea

El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first volume of Don Quixote, was published in January 1605. In it, Cervantes challenged chivalric romances, explicitly stating his purpose was to undermine 'vain and empty' tales of that kind. That same year, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza featured in masquerades held to celebrate the birth of Philip IV on 8 April 1605.

In 1613, Cervantes published Novelas ejemplares, dedicated to his patron the Count of Lemos. In its foreword he promised to produce a sequel to Don Quixote, but was pre-empted by an unauthorised version published in 1614 under the name Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda.

Image source: Novelas ejemplares

Cervantes finally produced Segunda Parte del Ingenioso Cavallero Don Quixote de la Mancha in 1615, responding to the unauthorised Avellaneda continuation.

In 1615 appeared Ocho Comedias y ocho entreméses nuevos, nunca representados (Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Performed), a collection of Cervantes's plays and short farces, excepting Trato de Argel and La Numancia.

The novel Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda) was published posthumously in 1617, shortly after Cervantes's death.

Image source: Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda