[2] Andrés de Claramonte, one of the many major Spanish playwrights, including Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Góngora, and Cervantes who attended the literary gatherings of the academia literaria held at the palace of the Count of Saldaña in Madrid at the beginning of 17th century, cited Cantillana as one of the several patrons of the Arts who also attended these gatherings, including the Duke of Pastrana, Francisco de Borja (Prince Esquilache), Count of Lemos, and the Count-Duke of Olivares.
[7] In April 1636, Cantillana was sentenced to banishment for ten years to Oran, then under Spanish rule, for an "incident at palace", in the presence of the king, Philip IV and queen, Elisabeth.
[11] In October 1638, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, acting on behalf of Cantillana, approached Olivares with the disgraced nobleman's offer to pay for 100 soldiers in return for the royal pardon.
Olivares accepted the offer and submitted it to the Junta de Coroneles, which raised the number of soldiers to 500, to be delivered at Cartagena.
However, the Junta considered that the Count would be able to raise 500 troops, though they accepted that these could be delivered at Cádiz, as well as allowing him to sell an estate.