In an article entitled Cervantes and the Jesuits, Fr. José Martínez-Escalera SJ wrote:
“Let us remember at last that Cervantes dedicated his Exemplary Novels to the” great Count of Lemos “, his true patron, to whom he also dedicated the Eight comedies and eight hors d’oeuvres (1615), the second part of Don Quixote (1615) and the works of Persiles and Sigismunda, four days before he died. As we know, D. Pedro de Castro had been, together with his two brothers, a student of the Monforte school, founded by his uncle-grandfather, the archbishop of Seville and cardinal. “
He was the son of Fernando Ruiz de Castro Andrade and Portugal, VI Count of Lemos and III Marqués de Sarria, and his wife Catalina de Luna Sandoval y Rojas, daughter of the Marquis of Denia, Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas and Isabel de Borja y Castro .
Known habitually as “The Great Count of Lemos,” he was President of the Council of the Indies, Viceroy of Naples, President of the Supreme Council of Italy -according to the Count of Gondomar, the “greater and more useful position given by the King in Europe” -, Commander of the Order of Alcántara, and famous Spanish statesman and diplomat. He was also extraordinary ambassador in Rome and Alguacil Mayor of the Kingdom of Galicia.