Diego Sarmiento de Acuña
Diego Sarmiento de Acuña (born November 1, 1567 in Astorga , † October 2, 1626 in Haro ) was a Spanish diplomat.
Life
His parents were Juana de Acuña and García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Corregidor of Granada and Governor of the Canary Islands. As the firstborn he inherited extensive real estate in Galicia and Old Castile. He was a knight of the Order of Calatrava , lord of the city and the house of Gondomar. In 1583 Felipe II entrusted him with the military command on the Portuguese border and on the Galician coast. During the Spanish-English War from 1585 to 1604 he had an English attack repulsed and successfully defended A Coruña against a fleet of the Drake-Norris expedition under Francis Drake in 1589. In 1593 he was appointed Corregidor of Toro . In 1603 the new King Philip III ordered him . from Spain to Vigo in order to supervise the unloading of ships of the silver fleet which could not land in Seville and had evaded there. After returning to court, he was given a position in the treasury.
In 1609 he was sent again to the Galician coast to repel attacks by the water geusen.
De Acuña had a close relationship with the cardinal maker Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas . De Acuña was probably appointed Catholic Bishop of London against John King.
Ambassador to London
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Philip III of Spain appointed him Ambassador to the Court of St James’s to James I of England in 1612 . De Acuña conceived his message as a covert mission in enemy territory.
Soon after his arrival in London on August 8, 1613, he impressed James I of England with his knowledge of Latin. De Acuña recognized his intellectual, literary and monetary preferences and used the pacifism of James I for the benefit of Spanish interests.
In the public eye, De Acuña was counted on the Privy Council of James I. In a list, published in 1631, of de Acuñas thoughtful of useful expenditures, the name of James I also appeared. De Acuña pursued an unreliable policy based on the Spanish raison d'être, which earned him the ambivalent title of a Spanish Machiavelli .
An enlightened tolerance of James I let de Acuña maintain and lead a Crypto-Catholic community with donations at the English court . The most prominent members of this Catholic diaspora, far from the Anglican State Church, were members of the Howard family: Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton , Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk , the father-in-law of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Thomas Howard , 21st Earl of Arundel "Howard faction" supported de Acuña in the project of the Boda española (English: Spanish Match ) a dynastic coupling , in which Charles I (England) and Maria Anna of Spain (1606-1646) should be married.
He put the loyalty of James I to the test and refused to have the Spanish war flag drawn down when his ship entered, which, without the intervention of James I, led to an exchange of fire in Portsmouth and probably to the sinking of the ambassador's ship would have led.
His approach to the unconditional release of the Catholic agitator Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza, created the image of a man of unexpected severity in Jacob I.
The key to his success lay in his privileged relationship with Jacob I. The two called themselves the two Diegos and drank from the same bottle.
A major concern at the beginning of his ambassadorial mission was the negotiations for a marriage contract for Charles I (England) and Henrietta Maria of France , a sister of Louis XIII. to block the French counterpart to the English Habsburg marriages.
In the run-up to the Thirty Years War he was actively involved in British politics. De Acuña prevented England from intervening on the side of the Protestants in the Holy Roman Empire . Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld had troops raised in England to save the son-in-law of Jackob I, Friedrich V (Pfalz) . The Habsburgs in Madrid and Brussels were concerned that French troops would join the forces of Mansfeld and drive the Artois out of France. De Acuña contributed to the project silting up and, with useful investments and threats of war, prevented England from interfering with Spanish sea trade or the overseas empire. James I (England) revealed details from Walter Raleigh's letter of invasion , which prohibited the attack on Spanish settlements. Raleigh's attack on San Thomé (near what is now Ciudad Guayana ) was a breach of the letter of invasion. De Acuña carried out threats of war to execute Raleigh on October 29, 1618.
William Dugard attacked de Acuña in his pamphlet Vox populi . Thomas Middleton inspired de Acuña's behavior for his drama A Game at Chess , which was not given permission to perform by the Privy Council.
In 1618 De Acuña was also recalled for health reasons, but returned to London in 1619 on a diplomatic mission via Flanders and France, where he stayed until 1622.
By the Guyana expedition of Roger North (1585-1652), in 1620, De Acuña saw Spanish interests in Latin America affected, North was withdrawn from the mission of the expedition and was arrested on intervention by De Acuña.
After De Acuña was retired, he became a member of the royal council, regent of a palace of the king and a diplomatic mission to Vienna. As Charles I (England) on a bridal show in Madrid, he was received by De Acuña.
De Acuña was married twice. First with his niece Beatriz Sarmiento, with whom he had no offspring. Another time he was married to his cousin Constanza Acuna, with her he had four sons and three daughters. The host country he perceived as hostile hit him on his stomach. He died in the house of the Condestable de Castilla , Bernardino Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, near Haro in the La Rioja region .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Inghilterra. Venetian Archives, August 9, 1613, The new Catholic ambassador arrived here yesterday. I have already called upon him, to which he has made a courteous reply. He has asked for an audience, for which he will have to go to Salisbury (Sciasberi) or another place many miles from here.
- ^ Charles H. Carter, "Gondomar: Ambassador to James I" The Historical Journal 7.2 (1964), p. 205
- ↑ Thomas Middleton, TH Howard-Hill, A game at chess , p. 10
- en.wikisource: Source of this article
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Conde de la Revilla |
Spanish envoy to England 1612-1618 1620-1622 |
Juan de Mendoza y Velasco |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Acuña, Diego Sarmiento de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Conde de Gondomar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish ambassador in London |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1, 1567 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gondomar |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 2, 1626 |
| Place of death | Haro |