Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar
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Don
Don (honorific)
Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...

 Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar
(es
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar) (Gondomar
Gondomar, Pontevedra
Gondomar is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra. Home of Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, one of the most renowned diplomats of Spanish imperial times, the main instigator of the "Spanish Match" that would have joined Charles I of England and the Infanta...

, Galicia November 1, 1567 – Casa la Reina, Logroño
Logroño
Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants...

, October 2, 1626), was a Galician (Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

) diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, the Spanish ambassador to England in 1613 to 1622 and afterwards, as a kind of ambassador emeritus, as Spain's leading expert on English affairs until his death. The popular notion in England of his day painted him as privy to the inner thoughts of James I and VI
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, a fiendish schemer for Popery for whom "Machiavellian" was brought into common English usage and the head of a "Spanish" faction at the English court.

Early life

The eldest son of Garcia Sarmiento de Sotomayor, corregidor of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

, and governor of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, by his marriage with Juana de Acuña, an heiress, Diego Sarmiento was born in Gondomar, Galicia. He inherited large estates both in Galicia and in Old Castile
Old Castile
Old Castile is a historic region of Spain, which included territory that later corresponded to the provinces of Santander , Burgos, Logroño , Soria, Segovia, Ávila, Valladolid, Palencia....

. In 1583 he was appointed by King Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

 to the military command of the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 frontier and sea coast of Galicia. He is said to have taken an active part during the Anglo-Spanish War
Anglo-Spanish War (1585)
The Anglo–Spanish War was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England's military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester in...

 in repelling an English raid on the coast in 1585, and in defending A Coruña
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...

 against an unsuccessful English attack by Sir Francis Drake and the "English Armada
English Armada
The English Armada, also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake-Norris Expedition, was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian Coast by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War...

" in 1589. In 1593 he was named corregidor of Toro. In 1603 he was sent from court to Vigo
Vigo
Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...

 to superintend the distribution of the treasure brought from America by two galleons, which were driven to take refuge there, and on his return was named a member of the board of finance. In 1609 he was again employed on the coast of Galicia, this time to repel a naval attack made by the Dutch. Although he held military commands, and administrative posts, his residence was at Valladolid, where he owned the Casa del Sol and was already collecting his fine library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

. He was known as a courtier, and apparently as a friend of the favourite
Favourite
A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...

, the Duke of Lerma
Francisco Goméz de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma
Don Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma , a favourite of Philip III of Spain, was the first of the validos through whom the later Habsburg monarchs ruled. He was succeeded by Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares.-Biography:The family of Sandoval was ancient and powerful...

. In 1612 he was chosen as ambassador in England, but did not leave to take up his appointment till May 1613.

The embassy to London

His reputation as a diplomat, which brought him to historical prominence, is based on his two periods of service in Britain from 1613 to 1618 and from 1619 to 1622. The excellence of his latinity pleased the literary tastes of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, whose character he judged with remarkable insight. He flattered the king's love of books and of peace, and made skilful use of his desire for a matrimonial alliance between the Prince of Wales
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 and the infanta Maria Anna of Austria
Maria Anna of Austria
Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria , was Electress of Bavaria as the spouse of Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. She also served as Regent of Bavaria during the minority of her son...

 , the "Spanish Match
Spanish Match
The Spanish Match was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles, the son of King James I of England, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain...

".

The ambassador's task in the prelude to the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 was to keep James from aiding the Protestant states against Spain and Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

 Austria, and to avert English attacks on Spanish possessions in The Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

. His success made him odious to the anti-Spanish and Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 parties. The active part he took in promoting the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....

 aroused particular animosity. He was attacked by popular pamphleteers— Thomas Scott
Thomas Scott
Thomas Scott may refer to:Australia:*Thomas Hobbes Scott , Anglican clergyman and first Archdeacon of New South WalesCanada:*Thomas Scott , judge and political figure in Upper Canada...

's extravagant propaganda, Vox populi was widely believed— and the dramatist Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...

 made him a principal character in the strange political play A Game at Chess
A Game at Chess
A Game at Chess is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, notable for its political content.-The play:...

, which was suppressed by order of the council.

Gondomar's friends at court, the bien intencionados of his dispatches centered upon the Howard
Howard
Howard is a popular English language occupational given name of Old English origin, meaning "noble watchman". A diminutive is "Howie" and its shortened form is "Ward" . Between 1900-1960, Howard ranked in the U.S. Top 200; between 1960–1990, it ranked in the U.S. Top 400; between 1990–2004, it...

s, Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton was a significant English aristocrat and courtier. He was suspect as a crypto-Catholic throughout his life, and went through periods of royal disfavour, in which his reputation suffered greatly. He was distinguished for learning, artistic culture and his...

 (died 1614), Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
Admiral Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, KG, PC was a son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by his second wife Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk, the daughter and heiress of the 1st Baron Audley of Walden....

, Lord High Treasurer, whose daughter was married to James's favourite, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham , known as Howard of Effingham, was an English statesman and Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I and James I...

, Lord High Admiral, Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel KG, was a prominent English courtier during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture,...

, and their protegés. The "Howard faction" preferred a marriage alliance with Spain over one with France, the traditional ally of Scotland, and they preferred to keep out of open warfare with Spain promoted by the more zealous Puritans. Most of the Howards were Catholics, encouraging them towards a spirit of toleration at home. Like many at the English court, they were receiving pensions from Spain, without much effect on their opinions and actions, and Gondomar seldom had the money to follow through. Among the pensioners, in an embarrassing list that surfaced in 1613, at Gondomar's first arrival was the King of England himself.

Gondomar conceived his embassy as a sortie in enemy country, and took for his maxim aventurar la vida y osar morir— "risk your life and dare to die"; his opening challenge was his refusal to strike the colours of Spain at his warships' entry to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 harbour, in which an appeal to the King averted an exchange of cannonfire that would have sunk the ambassador in his vessel. His handling of the unconditional release of the Catholic agitator Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza
Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza
Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza was a member of the Spanish nobility, a family connection of the Duke of Lerma and religious poet and writer....

 further established him in James's eyes as a man of unexpected strengths. In 1617 Sarmiento was created Count of Gondomar. The key to Gondomar's success was his relationship with James, whom he brought to admire and like his witty and learned companionship, his candour, within the obvious limits, and his personal integrity. They called themselves the "two Diegos" and drank from the same bottle (Carter 1964:205).

A key program for Gondomar at the outset was to block the marriage negotiations between Prince Charles and a sister of Louis XIII, a French counterweight to marital alliances being concluded with the Spanish Habsburgs.

In the matter of Sir Walter Raleigh, it was Gondomar's pressure that lost Sir Walter's head, 29 October 1618. In a moment of weakness James had shown Gondomar the contract under which Raleigh had sailed, the restriction upon attacking Spanish settlements, in order to mollify his objections to an enterprise on which James had set his heart. Raleigh's attack on San Thomé (near modern Ciudad Guayana
Ciudad Guayana
Ciudad Guayana is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It lies south of the Orinoco, where the river is joined by the Caroní River. The city, officially founded in 1961, is actually composed of the old town of San Félix at the east and the new town of Puerto Ordaz at the west, which lie either...

) was a public violation. His execution kept the peace with Spain. The English could not forgive Gondomar, who in 1618 obtained leave to come home for his health, but was ordered to return by way of Flanders and France with a diplomatic mission.

In 1619 he returned to London, and remained till 1622. The Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

 expedition of Roger North
Roger North
Roger North may refer to:*Roger North, 2nd Baron North , English peer*Roger North , captain who sailed with Walter Raleigh in 1617 and only governor of the Oyapoc*Roger North , English lawyer and biographer...

 in 1620 seemed to be a repeat of Raleigh's violation of Spanish settlements in the Caribbean, and at Gondomar's insistence North was imprisoned.

The tensest late confrontation was over Count Mansfeld
Ernst von Mansfeld
Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld , was a German military commander during the early years of the Thirty Years' War.-Biography:...

's projected movement of troops raised in England to rescue James's son-in-law Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia ....

, the "Winter King" of Bohemia. Habsburg Madrid and Brussels were concerned that the French aimed to join Mansfeld's forces and retrieve Artois
Artois
Artois is a former province of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras , Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.-Location:...

 for France, and the project was let slide.

When Gondomar was allowed to retire, on his return to Spain he was named a member of the royal council and governor of one of the king's palaces, and was appointed to a complimentary mission to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. Gondomar was in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 when the prince of Wales— afterwards Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

— made his journey there in search of a wife. He died at the house of the Constable of Castile
Constable of Castile
Constable of Castile was a title created by John I, King of Castile in 1382, to substitute the title Alférez Mayor del Reino. The constable was the second person in power in the kingdom, after the King, and his responsibility was to command the military in the absence of the ruler.In 1473 Henry IV...

, near Haro
Haro, La Rioja
Haro is a town and municipality in the northwest of La Rioja province in northern Spain. It is known for its fine red wine and every year the Haro Wine Festival is held where locals hold a wine battle....

 in the Rioja
La Rioja (Spain)
La Rioja is an autonomous community and a province of northern Spain. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Nájera.-History:...

.

Gondomar was twice married, first to his niece Beatrix Sarmiento, by whom he had no children, and then to his cousin Constanza de Acuña, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. The hatred he aroused in England, which was shown by widespread mockery of an intestinal complaint from which he suffered for years, was a tribute to the zeal with which he served his own master.

Gondomar collected, both before he came to London and during his residence there, a fine library of printed books and manuscripts. Orders for the arrangement, binding and storing of his books in his house at Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

 appear frequently in his voluminous correspondence. In 1785 the library was ceded by his descendant and representative the marquis of Malpica to Charles III of Spain
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...

, and it is now in the Royal Library at Madrid.

A portrait of Gondomar, attributed to Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

, was formerly at Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Stowe is a civil parish and former village about northwest of Buckingham in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Boycott, Dadford and Lamport....

. It was mezzotint
Mezzotint
Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

ed by Robert Cooper
Robert Cooper
Robert Cooper is the name of:*Robert Archer Cooper, former governor of South Carolina*Robert C. Cooper, Canadian writer and producer who is the executive producer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis...

.

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Authorities

Gondomar's missions to England were largely dealt with in Samuel Rawson Gardiner
Samuel Rawson Gardiner
Samuel Rawson Gardiner was an English historian.The son of Rawson Boddam Gardiner, he was born near Alresford, Hampshire. He was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in literae humaniores. He was subsequently elected to fellowships at All Souls ...

's History of England (London, 1883–1884) and more recently in Glyn Redworth, The Prince and the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match (New Haven, 2003).

In Spanish, Don Pascual de Gayangos
Pascual de Gayangos y Arce
Pascual de Gayangos y Arce was a Spanish scholar and orientalist.Born in Seville, he was the son of Brigadier José de Gayangos, intendente of Zacatecas, in New Spain. After completing his primary education in Madrid, at the age of thirteen he was sent to school at Pont-le-Voy near Blois...

wrote a useful biographical introduction to a publication of a few of his letters--Cinco Cartas politico-literarias de Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, issued at Madrid in 1869 by the Sociedad de Bibliófilos of the Spanish Academy; and there is a life in English by F.H. Lyon (1910).
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