Fernan Perez de Guzman (1376–1458) was a Spanish historian and poet. He belonged to a family distinguished both for its patrician standing and its literary connections, for his uncle was Pero López de Ayala

Pero López de Ayala

Don Pero López de Ayala was a Castilian statesman, historian, poet, chronicler, chancellor, and courtier. Ayala were one of the major aristocratic families of Castile; they were later claimed to be of the Jewish converso descent, but Pero's own father composed a genealogy tracing the family from...

, Grand Chancellor of Castile

Crown of Castile

The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...

, historian and poet, and his nephew was the Marquis of Santillana

Íñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana

Don Íñigo López de Mendoza y de la Vega, Marquis of Santillana was a Castilian politician and poet who held an important position in society and Literature during the reign of John II of Castile....

, one of the most important authors of the time of Juan II of Castile. Part of his verse, such as the "Proverbios" and the "Diversas virtudes", is purely moral and didactic. The more important part is represented by the panegyrical Loores de los claros varones de España, which in 409 octaves

Octave (poetry)

An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter or of hendecasyllables . The most common rhyme scheme for an octave is abba abba....

 gives a full account of the leading figures in Spanish history from Roman times down to that of Benedict XIII

Antipope Benedict XIII

Benedict XIII, born Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor , known as in Spanish, was an Aragonese nobleman, who is officially considered by the Catholic Church to be an antipope....

. The most notable of his prose historical compositions is the Generaciones é Semblanzas, a collection of biographies which constitutes the third part of a large compilation, La mar de historias. The first two parts of this work, perhaps suggested by the Mare historicum (or Mare historiarum) of Johannes de Columna, are devoted to a perfunctory account of the reigns of the sovereigns of pre-Arabic times. The third part, the "Generaciones", contains thirty-six portraits of contemporary personages, especially of members of the courts of Henry III of Castile

Henry III of Castile

Henry III KG , sometimes known as Henry the Sufferer or Henry the Infirm , was the son of John I and Eleanor of Aragon, and succeeded him as King of the Castilian Crown in 1390....

and Juan II, and furnishes an example of character painting in Spanish literature.

Some have attributed to him a book called the "Cronica de Juan II". His prose works may be found in the Biblioteca de autores españoles LXVIII; a separate edition of the "Generaciones" appeared at Madrid in 1775. His verse is given in the Cancionero de Baena, and in the "Cancionero general".