page_title: Kingdom of Galicia
section_title: Restoration of voting at the Council of Castile (1623)
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Galicia / Modern age / Restoration of voting at the Council of Castile (1623)
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato del aristócrata y diplomático español Diego Sarmiento de Acuña (1567-1626), que fue el primer conde de Gondomar por concesión del rey Felipe III de España y embajador de España en Inglaterra entre 1613 y 1622, así como caballero de la Orden de Calatrava.
context_page_description: The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded by the Suebic king Hermeric in 409, with its capital established in Braga. It was the first kingdom which adopted Catholicism officially. In 449 it minted its own currency. In 585, it became a part of the Visigothic Kingdom. In the 8th century, Galicia became a part of the newly founded Christian Kingdom of Asturias, which later became the Kingdom of León, and while occasionally achieving independence under the authority of its own kings. Compostela became capital of Galicia in the 11th century, while the independence of Portugal determined its southern boundary. The accession of Castilian King Ferdinand III to the Leonese kingdom in 1230 brought Galicia under the control of the Crown of Castile.
  Galicia resisted central control, supporting a series of alternative claimants, including John of León, Galicia and Seville, Ferdinand I of Portugal and John of Gaunt, and was not brought firmly into submission until the Catholic Monarchs imposed the Santa Hermandad in Galicia.
context_section_description: Since the reign of King John II of Castile, the kingdom of Galicia was no longer on the Crown Council, and from about 1476 Zamora in León acted on behalf of Galicia in the assembly. However, in 1518 the Galician cities and towns began to demand their legitimate positions in the Council of Castile, and to protest the Zamoran leaders speaking for them.
  The recovery of their voting rights at the Council of Castile was a goal shared by the Galician aristocracy and oligarchs. In 1520 the Archbishop of Santiago, Afonso III da Fonseca, and the Counts of Benavente and Andrade complained about it during a celebration of the Castilian Council in the Galician capital, Compostela, but to no avail. These elites organized an assembly, headed by Alfonso and consisting of nobles and prelates, in the town of Melide in central Galicia on December 4, 1520. They sent a new demand to Emperor Charles V on the subject of the vote, but he again refused to give Galicia an independent voice.
  A year after the emperor's refusal, the Galician city councils tried another tack, resulting in a 1557 proposal to offer 20,000 ducats in exchange for restoring Galicia's vote in the Castilian Council. This proposal was put to successive meetings of the Galician assembly, until in 1599 the assembly accepted it and agreed to take the lead on negotiations. Two delegations were chosen to go to Madrid, but the new offer was rejected like the rest.
  However, in 1621, circumstances turned in favor of Galicia. The Empire needed the political and financial cooperation of its kingdoms in order to wage another war, following the end of a twelve-year truce. The oligarchy and the Galician city councils were able to seize this opportunity, and, despite the resistance of Zamora and other cities with exclusionary voting at the Courts, the Crown bowed to military necessity, and in 1623 the kingdom of Galicia regained its Council vote, dependent upon paying 100,000 ducats to build a navy to defend its own coastline. The influence of Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count Gondomar, was crucial to the success of this effort, and Philip IV signed the resolution on October 13, 1623.
caption: Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, count of Gondomar, was one of the main advocates of voting rights at the Council of Castile. A humanist ambassador and lover of the Galician language and culture, he was respected and appreciated in the kingdom and abroad; c. 17th century
exif: {"Image Make": "Hasselblad", "Image Model": "Hasselblad CF528-39 - Hasselblad ELD", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:07 13:43:02", "Image Artist": "fernando maquieira", "Image ExifOffset": "204", "EXIF ExposureTime": "268435/268435456", "EXIF FNumber": "2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:02:16 17:19:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:02:16 17:19:51", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "334396231/33554432", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4159", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5535"}