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. by
Simon de Passe, 1622 The
Howards were Gondomar's principal friends at court –
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (died 1614),
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer, whose daughter was married to James's favourite,
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral,
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and their protégés. 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, The pensions had been instituted with the first Spanish embassy to James, to the annual tune of £9125. Gondomar, with an English reputation as a spymaster, actually spent a paltry average of £350 for information. 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 of his embassy as a
sortie in enemy country, and he 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 harbour, in which an appeal to the king averted an exchange of cannon fire. His handling of the unconditional release of the Catholic agitator
Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza further established him in James's eyes as a man of unexpected strength. 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). It was to Gondomar, after the failure of the
Addled Parliament of 1614, that James made his celebrated remark "I am amazed that my ancestors should have allowed such an institution to come into existence". 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 (see the
Spanish Match). In the matter of Sir
Walter Raleigh, it was Gondomar's pressure that cost Sir Walter his head on 29 October 1618. In a moment of weakness, James had shown Gondomar the contract under which Raleigh had sailed, and the restriction upon attacking Spanish settlements, in order to mollify Gondomar's objections to an enterprise on which James had set his heart. Raleigh's attack on San Thomé (near modern
Ciudad Guayana) 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 he was then ordered to return by way of Flanders and France with a diplomatic mission. In 1619 he returned to London and remained until 1622. The
Guyana expedition of
Roger North 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's projected movement of troops raised in England to rescue James's son-in-law
Frederick V, Elector Palatine, the "Winter King" of Bohemia. Habsburg Madrid and Brussels were concerned that the French aimed to join Mansfeld's forces and retrieve
Artois for France, and the project was let slide. When Gondomar was allowed to retire and return to Spain, he was named a member of the royal council and governor of one of the king's palaces, and he was appointed to a complimentary mission to
Vienna. Gondomar was in
Madrid when the Prince of Wales - afterwards
Charles I - made his
journey there in search of a wife. He died at the house of the
Constable of Castile, near
Haro in
La Rioja. 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 the 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 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, and it is now in the Royal Library at Madrid. A portrait of Gondomar, attributed to
Diego Velázquez, was formerly at
Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was
mezzotinted by
Robert Cooper. ==Gondomar and the Galician language==