Duke of Alva
The Duke of Alva, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, was a prominent Spanish nobleman and military leader born into a distinguished family. He became known for his close association with Emperor Charles V and his military prowess, particularly during the Italian Wars and in battles against the French. Notably, Alva displayed exceptional strategic skill during the Battle of Mühlberg, solidifying his reputation as a key military commander. His tenure as governor of the Low Countries is marked by a complex legacy; he was tasked with suppressing Protestant uprisings and enforcing Catholicism through stringent measures, leading to widespread unrest and civil conflict.
Despite his initial successes, Alva's harsh governance generated significant opposition, ultimately resulting in his replacement by Philip II. His later military campaign in Portugal demonstrated his adaptability, as he managed to secure the territory with a more lenient approach. Alva's role in significant diplomatic events, such as royal marriages and territorial negotiations, further illustrates his influence in shaping Spanish policy during a pivotal period in European history. His actions, while often criticized, underscore the tensions of the time between religious fervor and the complexities of governance in a multi-faceted society.
Subject Terms
Duke of Alva
Spanish diplomat and military leader
- Born: October 29, 1507
- Birthplace: Piedrahita, Spain
- Died: December 11, 1582
- Place of death: Lisbon, Portugal
One of the greatest European soldiers and diplomats of the sixteenth century, Alva fought for and represented the Habsburg emperor Charles V and his son King Philip II of Spain.
Early Life
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the third duke of Alva, was descended from one of the most illustrious Spanish families. Alva’s father, Garcia, was killed in 1510 in Tunis in battle with the Moors. Alva’s grandfather Fadrique, the second duke of Alva, gave him a Humanistic education and nurtured in him a great fascination with the martial arts. By 1534, Fernando (the “great duke” of Alva, as he has commonly been called), had caught the eye of the Habsburg emperor Charles V of Austria (Charles I of Spain), who had visited him in that year at the ducal palace in Alva de Tormes near Salamanca. The Alva holdings consisted of some three thousand acres, a considerable block of western Castile.
In 1535, the duke was chosen for military service by the emperor and participated with him in battles in Tunis. In the same year, Charles decided that he would have to take action against French invasions in Italy. In the ensuing campaign, in which Alva had his first independent field command, he revealed a mastery of the art of war that left an indelible impression on the emperor. Thus, by the age of twenty-eight, Alva had developed a close working relationship with Charles, who increasingly called on him for his advice and participation in military and diplomatic matters. In 1542, he brilliantly repelled an attempted French invasion of Spain at the Battle of Perpignan, and he was involved in the negotiations that led to the 1544 Treaty of Crépy. Conflicts between the two countries had produced inconclusive results, and among the provisions of the treaty, Charles was to cede either Milan or the Netherlands to French control.
In view of his later experiences in the Low Countries, it is one of the great ironies of history that Alva presented cogent geopolitical arguments for maintaining Milan and ceding the Netherlands. Indeed, Alva advocated the complete abandonment of the Low Countries. Nevertheless, Charles, preoccupied with Germany, decided in favor of keeping the Netherlands.
Life’s Work
By his late thirties, Alva had developed into a somber and forbidding man. Lean and tall, of sallow complexion and prominent nose, he dressed well but not ostentatiously, ate and drank moderately. Although of a fiery and arrogant disposition, he seems to have kept iron control of himself in dealing with others. Alva’s only known sexual escapade occurred in 1527 and resulted in the birth of an illegitimate son, whom the duke acknowledged and had educated as a gentleman. In 1529, Alva married his cousin Maria Enríquez de Gúzman. The couple had four children, three of whom survived to adulthood. Perhaps Alva’s most striking characteristic was his fervent devotion to Catholicism and his distinct aversion to “infidels” and “heretics” Muslims and Protestants.
In 1546, war broke out between Charles and the Protestants in his domains in Germany. He immediately called on Alva to prepare for the coming battles. In 1547, the duke cemented his reputation as a military leader with his victory at the crucial Battle of Mühlberg. There was universal agreement that the triumph there, openly acknowledged by Charles, over forces led by John of Saxony was the result of Alva’s brilliant tactical maneuvers. As a consequence, Alva became a powerful courtier at the imperial court, and Charles later counseled his son Philip II to honor and favor him though circumspectly and to consult him in matters of war and statecraft. He added that he considered the duke to be the best person available in such matters.
Sometime before his death in 1558, Charles retired and divided his empire between his brother Ferdinand and his son Philip. Ferdinand was awarded the imperial title of emperor and given the Habsburg lands in Austria and Germany. Philip was given all the rest, including Spain, Italy, and the Low Countries. In 1554, French forces again posed a threat to Philip’s inherited territories in Italy, and he dispatched an army under the command of Alva to defeat them.
The Italian Wars (1554-1557) began with Alva under severe disadvantages: unpaid and disaffected troops, lack of supplies, and scheming enemies at Philip’s court. Alva surmounted all these difficulties. A devout Catholic, he eventually found himself in the position of having to invade the Papal Territories in Italy in order to achieve victory, but he was able to negotiate a face-saving peace for and with the pope. Thus, through a combination of military and diplomatic finesse, he solved a delicate situation with the pope without sacrificing Spanish interests. Alva was most active in negotiating the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which ended the Italian Wars, delineated the Spanish relationship with the Papacy, and served to settle various issues between Spain and France.
The most troublesome of the Spanish possessions was the Low Countries, particularly the northern part, the Netherlands. An underlying problem in dealing with the Low Countries was that they were not homogenous. They consisted of a patchwork of differing and conflicting religions, languages, and classes. Previous attempts by Charles to create a viable government had largely failed. Taxes were levied, but with poor results. Various Protestant denominations Lutherans, Anabaptists, and Calvinists found the busy mercantile cities of the north places of refuge and profit. The stronghold of the Catholic Church was located in the south, but the nomination and investiture of its hierarchy was effectively controlled by the great nobles. To devout Catholics such as Philip and Alva, the reform of both church and state in the Low Countries was an obvious imperative.
By the summer of 1566, overt opposition to Spanish authority constituted a serious rebellion. Alva counseled Philip himself to go to suppress it. At first Philip agreed, but he then reversed himself. He decided that a surrogate should suppress the revolt by harsh measures, directed particularly against Protestants, and that he would then follow, which he did not. A reluctant Alva, therefore, was sent on a fourfold mission: to establish a strong military presence; to punish those responsible for earlier disorders; to set up and enforce an effective system of taxation; and to restore and strengthen religious unity.
In 1567, Alva moved some fifteen thousand troops and auxiliaries far fewer than he had requested into the Low Countries. The garrisons in major cities were maintained and strengthened and local militias were disbanded. Several rebel leaders were imprisoned or executed, and a Council of Blood, as it was called by the insurgents, tried and ordered the execution of some one thousand people. Alva’s attempt to impose a tax on sales was a complete failure. Quite successful, however, was his reformation of the Catholic clergy in the Low Countries. Thousands, most notably the future leader of the Dutch struggle for independence, Prince William of Orange (William the Silent), fled to neighboring countries, where they proceeded to plot against Alva and his forces. It is against this background from 1567 to 1573 that a virtual civil war developed in which cities and towns were taken and retaken by the opposing forces. Meanwhile, back at the royal court, there were allegations that Alva’s harsh policies had made the situation worse. In 1573, Philip replaced Alva as commander, and the duke was returned to Madrid.
On his return, Alva was put under virtual house arrest for months as the result of these events and continuing court intrigues against him. It is significant, however, that when the next important emergency in Spanish affairs arose the conflict over Philip’s claim to the Portuguese throne in 1580 he turned to Alva to mount and carry on a war to resolve the crisis. Although the duke is said to have complained at the time that he was being sent in chains to subjugate a kingdom, the seventy-two-year-old took up his last campaign. Profiting from his experience in the Low Countries, where he had not been adequately supported, Alva asked for and was provided with forty thousand troops and ample supplies. More lenient in dealing with the Portuguese insurgents, probably in part because they were all Catholics, Alva by 1582 had reduced the countryside and captured Lisbon, the capital. The erstwhile claimant to the throne fled into exile, Philip was acknowledged as the Portuguese ruler, and Alva governed in his name. In December of that year, however, the old duke succumbed to an undiagnosed disease and died.
Significance
At an early age, the duke of Alva became a leading figure at the court of Charles V, and he continued to influence the policies of Philip II at the time when Spain was at the zenith of its power. He was relied on by both monarchs for advice and active conduct of military and diplomatic missions, often of a sensitive nature. For example, the duke played the leading role in the delicate arrangements leading to the marriage of Philip to Queen Mary I of England in 1554 and in 1559 to Elizabeth of Valois, daughter of Henry IV of France. In 1558, he single-handedly negotiated the seemingly impossible settlement whereby the city of Calais was transferred from English to French control.
Had Alva succeeded in resolving the problems facing Spanish rule in the Low Countries, the history of Western Europe would have been quite different. The failure was not completely his, however, as he was undermined by intrigues at the Spanish court, lacked adequate support, and from the outset was permitted and even encouraged by Philip to follow a harsh and repressive policy, particularly against Protestants. Still, at critical junctures he could have exercised more discretion and moderation, and he has been strongly censured over the years for the excesses of his governance of the Low Countries. On balance, though, Alva can truly be said to have been indispensable for more than half a century to two of the most powerful rulers of Renaissance Europe, and, with one exception, to have successfully advanced their causes and that of Roman Catholicism.
Bibliography
Elliott, John H. Imperial Spain, 1469-1716. Reprint. New York: Penguin, 1990. A survey that provides considerable insight into the world in which Alva operated. Pays particular attention to warfare of the time.
Kamen, Henry. Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Wide-ranging portrayal of the Spanish Empire emphasizes the multicultural, heterogeneous nature, not merely of Spain’s holdings but also of its colonizing forces. Looks at the crucial roles played by Hungarians, Italians, Netherlanders, and Muslims in the military expansion and maintenance of Spain’s global holdings. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, index.
Maltby, William S. Alba: A Biography of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba, 1507-1582. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. The best biography in English on Alva; an entertaining and objective account. Reflects exhaustive research on all aspects of Alva’s life and career. Includes a “Notes on Sources” section that provides a fine description and location of all materials used in the work.
Motley, John Lothrop. The Rise of the Dutch Republic: A History. 3 vols. Reprint. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1950. A thoroughly researched and well-written history of the revolt in the Netherlands. Distinctly biased against Spain, however, and uncompromisingly harsh in its criticism of Alva’s attempts to suppress the revolt.
Pierson, Peter. Philip II of Spain. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. Concentrates on the political aspects of Philip’s career and details Alva’s diplomatic relationship to the monarch.
Ruiz, Teofilo F. Spanish Society, 1400-1600. New York: Longman, 2001. A detailed and diverse look at all aspects of Spanish cultural history in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Includes extensive discussions of the courts of Charles V and Philip II, as well as descriptions of everyday life and the important values and traditions that defined Alba’s Spain. Includes map, bibliographic references, index.
Thompson, I. A. A. War and Government in Hapsburg Spain, 1560-1620. London: Athlone Press, 1976. Describes the effect of wars on the government in Spain and discusses Alva’s role in the interaction of the two.
Bibliography
Elliott, John H. Imperial Spain, 1469-1716. Reprint. New York: Penguin, 1990. A survey that provides considerable insight into the world in which Alva operated. Pays particular attention to warfare of the time.
Kamen, Henry. Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Wide-ranging portrayal of the Spanish Empire emphasizes the multicultural, heterogeneous nature, not merely of Spain’s holdings but also of its colonizing forces. Looks at the crucial roles played by Hungarians, Italians, Netherlanders, and Muslims in the military expansion and maintenance of Spain’s global holdings. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, index.
Maltby, William S. Alba: A Biography of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba, 1507-1582. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. The best biography in English on Alva; an entertaining and objective account. Reflects exhaustive research on all aspects of Alva’s life and career. Includes a “Notes on Sources” section that provides a fine description and location of all materials used in the work.
Motley, John Lothrop. The Rise of the Dutch Republic: A History. 3 vols. Reprint. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1950. A thoroughly researched and well-written history of the revolt in the Netherlands. Distinctly biased against Spain, however, and uncompromisingly harsh in its criticism of Alva’s attempts to suppress the revolt.
Pierson, Peter. Philip II of Spain. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. Concentrates on the political aspects of Philip’s career and details Alva’s diplomatic relationship to the monarch.
Ruiz, Teofilo F. Spanish Society, 1400-1600. New York: Longman, 2001. A detailed and diverse look at all aspects of Spanish cultural history in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Includes extensive discussions of the courts of Charles V and Philip II, as well as descriptions of everyday life and the important values and traditions that defined Alba’s Spain. Includes map, bibliographic references, index.
Thompson, I. A. A. War and Government in Hapsburg Spain, 1560-1620. London: Athlone Press, 1976. Describes the effect of wars on the government in Spain and discusses Alva’s role in the interaction of the two.