Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3 duque de Alba

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3^er duque de Alba (born October 29, 1507, Piedrahita, Old Castile, Spain—died December 11, 1582, Lisbon [Portugal]) was a Spanish soldier and statesman famous for his conquest of Portugal (1580) and notorious for his tyranny as governor-general of the Netherlands (1567–73). In the Netherlands he instituted the Council of Troubles (nicknamed the Council of Blood), which set aside local laws and condemned thousands.

Alba was born into a rich family with a long record of service to the kings of Castile. In 1524 he joined the Spanish forces fighting the French at Fuenterrabía and so distinguished himself that he was appointed governor of the town after its capture. Subsequent campaigns made him the most thoroughly professional military commander of his age. He insisted on rigorous training and discipline for his troops and developed the tactical use of firearms. He was a master of logistics, and his greatest asset was an unshakable self-confidence that enabled him to resist the rash counsels of his more impetuous officers. He commanded a part of Emperor Charles V’s army in the successful expedition against Tunis in 1535, and in 1546–47 he commanded the imperial armies against the German Protestant princes of the Schmalkaldic League. By his victory at Mühlberg (April 24, 1547) Alba placed Charles V at the pinnacle of his power. Alba was made commander in chief of the imperial forces in Italy in 1552 and, after the succession of Philip II of Spain, he was made viceroy of Naples (1556). In the last phase of the Franco-Spanish War in Italy, he outmaneuvered François de Lorraine, 2^e duc de Guise, and forced Pope Paul IV to come to terms with Spain (1557).

After the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), Alba became one of Philip II’s two leading ministers. Charles V, an excellent judge of character, in a secret testament of 1543 had recommended Alba to his son Philip as a reliable adviser in all military matters and in affairs of state but otherwise not to be trusted, for he was enormously ambitious, wished to command everything, and would employ any means to achieve his ambitions. Philip II therefore never fully trusted Alba. He did, however, summon him regularly to the Council of State, where, in opposition to the other of the king’s chief advisers, Ruy Gómez de Silva, Alba pressed for a vigorous foreign policy.

As early as 1563 Alba advised the king to cut off the heads of the leaders of the aristocratic opposition in the Netherlands. But if this should not be immediately possible, he remarked, the king should dissemble now and execute them at a more opportune moment. In 1565 Philip sent him, together with his queen, Elizabeth of Valois, to meet Elizabeth’s mother, Catherine de Médicis, regent of France. Alba managed to hold his own against that virtuoso politician, blocking Catherine’s efforts to arrange a Spanish marriage for her son to which Philip II did not wish to commit himself. Understandably, he did not succeed, in his turn, in committing Catherine to a more active anti-Huguenot policy with Spanish assistance. The later Protestant accusation that at Bayonne he and Catherine planned the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Protestants in 1572 has no basis in reality.

Following the popular movements of 1566, Philip sent Alba to the Netherlands with a large army to punish the rebels, root out heresy, and reestablish the king’s shaken authority (August 1567). Alba arrested Lamoraal, graaf van Egmond, and Filips van Montmorency, graaf van Horne, the rather halfhearted leaders of the opposition, and set up a new court, the Council of Troubles (soon to be known as the Council of Blood). This court set aside all local laws and condemned some 12,000 persons for rebellion, many of whom, however, had fled the country. Alba allowed himself to be involved in a trade war with England that caused great damage to Netherlands commerce. Worst of all, he mishandled the plan to place his government on a stable financial basis, independent of the estates. He proposed a 10 percent tax on all sales (the “10th penny”) and a 1 percent property levy. But the States General would agree only to the property tax and made counter offers, in place of the “10th penny.” In the face of the opposition of the lower classes and the clergy, Alba had to modify the tax progressively. In the end it was never collected. While Alba’s “10th penny” certainly helped to rouse the country against Spain, it did not cause its economic ruin, as once was thought.

In 1572 the Gueux—Dutch guerrillas—captured most of Holland and Zeeland, and William, Prince of Orange, and his brother Louis of Nassau invaded the Netherlands from Germany and France, respectively. Alba defeated the land invasions and recaptured part of Holland, where his troops committed terrible atrocities. Short of money and lacking adequate sea power to oppose the fleet of the Gueux, he failed to recapture the remainder of Holland and Zeeland.

Alba’s failure and the intrigues of the Gómez party at court induced Philip to recall him (1573). In 1579 Alba was placed under house arrest on his estates after his son had married against the king’s wishes. In 1580 Cardinal Granvelle persuaded Philip to let Alba command the invasion of Portugal. Within a few weeks, in one of his most brilliant campaigns, Alba took Lisbon. Yet he never regained Philip’s favour.

In Protestant countries Alba’s name became a byword for cruelty and religious tyranny. Outside Spain he has never been forgiven for his disregard of legality, for his policy of terror, and for the outrages committed by his troops in the Netherlands and Portugal. Of the responsibility for these acts he cannot be exonerated, nor were they universally accepted even by Roman Catholic opinion in the 16th century. In Spanish history Alba is important as a representative of the old nobility, independent and proud of its rights and privileges yet willing to serve as the champion and defender of an absolute monarchy.