Short answers, pulled from the story.
The year 1465 stands as the commonly accepted date for Gil Vicente's birth, though scholars have argued fiercely over this number for centuries. Queirós Veloso proposed 1465, while Braamcamp Freire suggested 1460 and de Brito Rebelo placed his arrival between 1470 and 1475.
Some claim he was born in Barcelos, but evidence is scarce despite the local football club bearing his name. Others point to Guimarães, where a municipal school in Urgezes carries his name, or perhaps Lisbon itself, while the Beira region also appears as a candidate due to references to Guimarães de Tavares in his plays.
Queen Dowager Leonor noticed him performing court dramas and commissioned his first theatrical work. His initial known piece, Monologue of the Cowherd, appeared in Spanish and was performed on the night of the 8th of June 1502 inside the rooms of Maria of Aragon.
Many works associate Gil Vicente with an accomplished goldsmith of the same name at the court of Évora. Between 1503 and 1506, Vicente crafted the famous Belém Monstrance for the Jerónimos Monastery using gold brought back from East Africa following Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India.
In Santarém on the 26th of January during the 1531 Lisbon Earthquake, Vicente reportedly defused social instability by scolding friars who spread rumors that the disaster was divine punishment against the Jewish community. He wrote a powerful letter to King John III defending New Christians, possibly averting a massacre.