Camoëns (or Camões), Luis Vaz de (1524-1580)

Portuguese poet and soldier. He went on various military expeditions, and was shipwrecked in 1558. His poem Os Lusiades/The Lusiads (1572) tells the story of the explorer Vasco da Gama and incorporates much Portuguese history; it was immediately acclaimed and has become the country's national epic. His posthumously published lyric poetry is also now valued.

Camoëns's love affairs at the Portuguese court quickly became a matter of gossip and he was forced into exile. There he composed The Elegy of Exile, and a number of beautiful sonnets. In 1547 he fought against the Moors in North Africa, and in an attack on Ceuta lost his right eye. Here he remained for the next two years, still writing verses, some despairing and sad, others philosophical. In 1549, preparing for a voyage to India, he returned to Lisbon. But when in 1552 he wounded an equerry of the king, he found himself in prison; release was conditional on his sailing to India 1553. While in the East, he wrote Desparates na India, Filodemo, and Satyra do Torneio. After a series of adventures including shipwreck, and imprisonment in Goa, Mozambique, and Cambodia, where he wrote By the Waters of Babylon, he returned to Portugal 1569. In 1578 came the Battle of Alcacer, after which Camoëns mourned the loss of his patron and king, Sebastian (1554-1578), in a sonnet. He died in poverty of plague.