There he entered the service of the count of Monterrey, possibly Alonso de Acevedo y Zúñiga, who was also a grandson of Alfonso III.
At the death of his mother, Diego inherited the lion's share of the family fortune, which upset his younger brother.
Initially, the father sided with Diego in this dispute, but he threatened to marry and abandon his work on the book of vihuela music which had occupied him up to then.
When the father returned to Salamanca a short time later, he had a change of opinion, supported the other brother, and forced Diego to leave the family home.
As was common at the time, many of the works are transcriptions (or intabulations) for vihuela of works by other composers such as Juan Vásquez, Juan García de Basurto, Mateo Flecha el viejo, Josquin des Prez, Nicolas Gombert, Adrian Willaert, Jean Mouton, Jacques Arcadelt, V. Fontana and Costanzo Festa.