Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar (Spanish: Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar; Astorga, November 1, 1567 – Casalarreina, La Rioja, October 2, 1626), was a Spanish (Galician) diplomat. He served as the Spanish ambassador to England from 1613 to 1622 and afterwards, as a kind of ambassador emeritus, Spain's leading expert on English affairs until his death.
The popular notion in England of his day painted him as the head of a Spanish faction at the English court, as privy to the inner thoughts of King James I, and as a fiendish schemer for Popery (for whom the term "Machiavellian" was brought into common English usage).
Early life
He was the eldest son of the Galician knight Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar —Lord of Salvaterra de Miño, who served as corregidor of Toro and governor of the Canary Islands— and of Juana de Acuña, heiress of the noble house of Acuña. He was born in Astorga, near Galicia, inheriting large estates both in Galicia and in Old Castile. He took an active part during the Anglo-Spanish War in repelling an English raid led by Sir Francis Drake on Baiona and Vigo in 1585. They met forces again four years later in Vigo, after the "English Armada" was turned away in A Coruña and Lisbon; in the assault on A Corunha Drake was defeated but not before the bombing and sack of the town. As a result of these military successes, he was appointed by King Philip II of Spain as governor of Baiona, and keeper of the fortress of Monte Real, so warding the southern frontier and sea coast of Galicia. Later, in 1596, he was appointed first corregidor of Toro, and later of Valladolid, then the residence and capital of King Philip III. From that moment he was forced to reconcile both roles, as courtier and corregidor in the capital, and as soldier and Capitan in Galicia: in 1603 he was sent from court to Vigo to superintend the distribution of the treasure brought from America by two galleons which were driven to take refuge there; on his return he was appointed a member of the board of finance. In 1609 he repelled a Dutch naval attack on the coast of Galicia.
Although he held both military and administrative employs, his residence was at Valladolid, where he owned the Casa del Sol estate and was already collecting his fine library. He was known as a courtier, and apparently as a friend of the favourite, the Duke of Lerma. In 1612 he was appointed ambassador in England, but he did not leave to take up his appointment until May 1613.
The embassy to London
Gondomar's reputation as a diplomat, which brought him to international historical prominence, is based on his two periods of service in England – from 1613 to 1618 and from 1619 to 1622. The excellence of his latinity pleased the literary tastes of King James I, whose character he judged with remarkable insight. He flattered the king's love of books and of peace, and he made skilful use of the king's desire for a matrimonial alliance between the Prince of Wales and the infanta Maria Anna of Spain (the proposed "Spanish Match"). The British historian J. P. Kenyon calls him "a cleverer man than any in England", who was gifted enough to tie England to Spain's interests for the next decade.
The ambassador's task in the prelude to the Thirty Years' War was to keep James from aiding the Protestant states against Spain and Habsburg Austria, and to avert English attacks on Spanish possessions in the Americas. His success made him odious to the anti-Spanish and Puritan parties. The active part he took in promoting the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh aroused particular animosity. He was attacked by popular pamphleteers — Thomas Scott's extravagant propaganda, Vox populi, was widely believed — and the dramatist Thomas Middleton made him a principal character in the strange political play A Game at Chess, which was suppressed by order of the council.