|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] Duke of Alva Biography ALVA, or ALBA, FERNANDO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, DUKE or (1508-82 or 83). A Spanish general and statesman. His family was one of the most distinguished in Spain. He was trained by his grandfather for war and politics, entered upon a life of brilliant and intense activity, and became Prime Minister, and General of the armies of Spain under Charles V and Philip II. As a young man he fought in the campaigns of Charles V against Francis I, but his military talent was not thought highly of, and this hurt his pride. His appointment to high command was attributed to favor and influence rather than ability. He was in the campaign against the Elector John Frederick of Saxony, over whom he gained a brilliant victory at Mühlberg in 1547, and fought against Henry II of France and in the Italian campaign of 1555 against the combined French and papal forces, when he overran the States of the Church, but was instructed by Philip II, after the abdication of Charles V, to give up his conquests. He acted as proxy for Philip at the French court when the Spanish King espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II of France, after the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. Alva is best known for his work in the Netherlands, where he was sent in 1567, with unlimited authority to repress the Dutch revolt against Spanish tyranny and the Inquisition. He promptly established the tribunal which has been known as the "Bloody Council." This body, without legal status or procedure, entered upon a general proscription of the living and the dead and the confiscation of property. Excessive taxation brought commerce almost to a standstill, and more than 120,000 Protestants emigrated. Counts Egmont and Hoorne were executed. Prince Louis of Orange was defeated, and Prince William was driven into Germany, after which Alva made a triumphal entry into Brussels, Dec. 22, 1568. He was especially honored by the Pope, and set up in Antwerp a statue of himself trampling on two figures, representing the nobles and people of the Netherlands. His bloodthirsty tyranny intensified the resistance of the Dutch, and after the destruction of his fleet the King recalled him at his own request (1573). He claimed to have caused the execution of 18,000 men. He was received in Madrid with the highest honors, but for an act of disobedience was banished from the court until called upon to conduct a campaign (1580) against Dom Antonio, of Portugal. The country was conquered and treated with that cruelty and license which always followed Alva's course. Alva was tall, spare, bronzed, with a long beard, a typical Spanish grandee. He was not, however, the bloodthirsty tyrant that Motley describes, and in one instance at least in the execution of Hoorne and Egdmont, Alva long delayed action, writing to the King of Spain as he finally signed their death warrant that "it hurt him in his soul." The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. I (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 488. |