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Biographies for Kids: Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote was born in the middle of the XVI century in Alcala de Henares, a small village belonging to Madrid. He signed up to the Spanish Armada and fought against the Turks in the Lepanto battle where a gunshot destroyed his left hand, rendering it useless.

When he was returning to Spain by boat, pirates attacked us and he was captured as a prisoner. They then took me to an African city, Argel, where he was imprisoned for five long years. They finally freed him, as a result of a rescue operation.

Later he was married and began to write plays, but his cursed bad luck continued and I was not able to make a living as a writer.

He was imprisoned once again because of a money issue and it was during these months in jail where he began to write the play which has given him eternal fame, “The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote of the Mancha.”