Pedro Calderón de la Barca  Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (17 January 160025 May 1681), usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca (, ; ), was a dramatist, poet, writer and a knight of the Order of Santiago, known primarily for being one of the most distinguished Baroque writers of the Spanish Golden Age, especially for its theater. During certain periods of his life he served as soldier and a Roman Catholic priest. Born when the Spanish Golden Age theatre was being defined by Lope de Vega, he developed it further, his work being regarded as the culmination of the Spanish Baroque theatre. As such, he is regarded as one of Spain's foremost dramatists and one of the finest playwrights of world literature. Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid on Friday, 17 January 1600, and was baptized in the parish of San Martín. His father, Diego Calderón, was a hidalgo of mountain origin (, Cantabria) and by paternal inheritance he had assumed the position of secretary of the Council and Chief Accounting Office of the Treasury, serving in it the kings Felipe II and Felipe III, died in 1615. His mother, Ana Gonzalez de Henao (née Riaño) who was of Flemish descent, died in 1610. In 1595 he married Ana María de Henao, belonging to a family also of noble origin. Pedro was the third of the six children that the marriage managed to have (three boys and three girls, of whom only four passed from childhood: Diego, the first-born; Dorotea — nun in Toledo—; Pedro and Jusepe or Josénota—; These brothers were always welcome, as Diego Calderón stated in his will (1647):  However, they also had a natural brother, Francisco, who hid under the surname of "González" and was expelled from the father's house by Don Diego, although he left written in 1615 that he be recognized as legitimate unless he had married "with that woman he tried to marry", in which case he would be disinherited. Calderón was educated at the Jesuit College in Madrid, the Colegio Imperial, with a view to taking orders; but instead, he studied law at Salamanca. Between 1620 and 1622 Calderón won several poetry contests in honor of St Isidore at Madrid.