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Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel (Piedrahíta, October 29, 1507 – Tomar, December 11, 1582), known as the Great Duke of Alba[1] or the Great,[2] or simply Duke of Alba, was a prominent noble, military man and diplomat of the Kingdom of Castile, belonging to the House of Toledo.
He held the titles of III Duke of Alba de Tormes, IV Marquis of Coria, III Count of Salvatierra de Tormes, II Count of Piedrahíta, VIII Lord of Valdecorneja, Grandee of Spain and Knight of the Golden Fleece.[3][4]
He served Charles I and Philip II loyally, being a man of their absolute trust, holding the offices of Chief Steward (mayordomo mayor) and member of their Councils of State and of War.
He also served as Governor of the Duchy of Milan (1555–1556), Viceroy of Naples (1556–1558), Governor of the Netherlands (1567–1573) and Viceroy and Constable of Portugal (1580–1582).
A central figure in the politics and warfare of the 16th century, he is considered one of the most outstanding generals of his time[5][6] and a symbol of the power of the Hispanic Monarchy under the Habsburgs.
His severity in the repression of the Revolt of the Netherlands contributed greatly to making him one of the most controversial figures of the Spanish Black Legend.[7]
His speeches, in which he would say "gentlemen soldiers", delighted the Tercios, his elite troops. Familiar with the courtly intrigues of the time, he was in the habit of saying:
Kings use men as if they were oranges: first they squeeze out the juice and then they throw away the peel.
Biography
Early years
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo was born in Piedrahíta, Province of Ávila, on October 29, 1507. He was the son of García Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga, heir of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Quiñones, II Duke of Alba de Tormes, and of Beatriz Pimentel y Pacheco, daughter of Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel, IV Count and I Duke of Benavente, and of his wife, María Pacheco.
Following the dynastic line, it would have fallen to García to be the third duke, but he died during a campaign in Africa in 1510, on the Island of Yerba or of Los Gelves, so Fernando was left fatherless at three years of age. When Fadrique died in 1531, the ducal title passed directly to his grandson Fernando as García's firstborn male son.
An archetype of the nobility of Castile, he was educated at the ducal court of the House of Alba, located in the Castle of the Dukes of Alba, in Alba de Tormes, by two Italian tutors, Bernardo Gentile —a Sicilian Benedictine— and Severo Marini, and by the Spanish Renaissance poet and man of letters Juan Boscán, who formed him in Catholicism and in humanism. He had a perfect command of Latin and knew French, English and German.
From his youth he was always in the service of the Spanish monarchs, first of King Charles I of Spain and Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, and later of his son, King Philip II of Spain, as a soldier, courtier, diplomat, governor and counselor.
His dedication to arms was constant from a very young age, to the point that at only six years old he accompanied his grandfather to Navarre with the army that took it. In 1524, when he was seventeen, he joined, without his family's permission, the troops of the Constable of Castile Íñigo de Velasco that besieged and forced the surrender of the stronghold of Fuenterrabía, occupied by the French and the Navarrese; for his role in the successful engagement he was appointed Governor of Fuenterrabía. He later defeated the French army at Perpignan.
Against the Ottomans and pirates
Already Duke of Alba, in 1532 he answered the call of the King and Emperor Charles and marched to Vienna, accompanied by his friend Garcilaso de la Vega, to defend it from the onslaught of the Ottoman Empire. It was not necessary to go into combat, for upon seeing the formidable imperial army of more than 200,000 men, the Ottoman Turks lifted the siege.
Where he did have the opportunity to fight was in the Tunis Campaign: at the beginning of June 1535 he embarked at Cagliari with the military contingent commanded by the Marquis of Vasto; on July 14 the fortress of La Goleta fell, and a week later the city of Tunis itself, defended by Barbarossa. In this way Spain regained control over the entire western Mediterranean Sea. From that campaign against the pirates, Duke Fernando was able to recover the armor of his father, García, who had died on the Island of Los Gelves in 1510, and he took it to the armories of the ducal house so that it might there be a perpetual trophy of glory and virtue for his descendants.[8]
Again in 1541 he accompanied the Emperor, in command of the German tercios, against Barbarossa in the Algiers Campaign, which ended in an Ottoman victory brought about mainly by a storm.
Chief Steward to Charles
In 1541 Fernando Álvarez de Toledo was appointed by Charles I Chief Steward of the King of Spain and, therefore, superior head of his household, entrusting him with the important tasks related to the Royal Household and Patrimony of the Crown of Spain. Alba held the office at court until the death of the Monarch in 1558.
Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
In 1546, the III Duke of Alba obtained a new recognition that increased his personal prestige. He was invested by Emperor Charles, who was the Grand Master of the Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece, as a knight of this prestigious institution as a reward for the Duke's loyalty to the Monarch-Emperor. The distinction was granted to him at the chapter held in Utrecht, after which the Emperor took him along to Regensburg, where he had convened the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire.[8]
In Germany
In 1547 the Emperor had to confront the Protestant forces of the Schmalkaldic League, led by John Frederick I of Saxony —the landgrave of Thuringia— and Philip the Magnanimous —the Landgrave of Hesse— and their allies.
The Duke of Alba was in command of the Spanish Tercios that took part in the Battle of Mühlberg, on the banks of the Elbe, which ended in victory for the imperial arms against the forces of the Schmalkaldic League. The Great Duke's participation in the counsel offered to Charles V and his command of the Spanish Tercios were fundamental and ended up deciding the battle.
From then on, the Duke of Alba was always at the Emperor's side, fighting faithfully to preserve the Habsburg dynasty.
Chief Steward to Philip
From 1548 on, King Charles intensified the preparations of Prince Philip as his successor in the Hispanic Monarchy. To that end he appointed the Duke of Alba —who already held the office of Chief Steward of the King of Spain— as Chief Steward to his son and entrusted him with adapting the household of Castile to that of Burgundy, which he considered more complete and international. Fernando undertook, together with Philip, a journey through Europe that lasted until 1551.
After King Charles died, the new King Philip II kept Alba in the office of Chief Steward of the King of Spain for much of his reign and until the Duke's death in 1582.
In England
The Duke of Alba personally accompanied Prince Philip to England on the occasion of his second marriage, to Queen Mary I of England, of the House of Tudor. He was one of the fifteen Grandees of Spain who attended the ceremony in Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554.
Governor of the Duchy of Milan and Viceroy of Naples
In 1555 the conflict between France and Spain flared up again in Italy; the III Duke of Alba was sent there as Captain General, Governor of Milan (1555) and Viceroy of Naples (1556).
The newly elected Pope Paul IV, a visceral enemy of the Habsburgs, incited King Henry II of France to expel the Spaniards from Italy, for which purpose he joined his own troops to those of the Frenchman, while in July 1556 he declared Philip II stripped of his title of King of Naples. The Duke waited no longer[9] and headed for Rome at the head of 12,000 soldiers; in the face of such a threat the Pope asked for a negotiated truce, a period he used so that a French army commanded by Francis of Guise could enter through northern Italy and march toward Naples. Alba chose to avoid a pitched battle, strengthening the defenses of the main cities while waiting for the Gallic army, far from its bases, to end up surrendering. The Duke's tactics achieved the expected results. Because of this, and in response to Henry II's summons as a consequence of Spain's crushing victory over the French at the Battle of San Quintín, the Duke of Guise had to return hastily to France. Without French support, the papal troops were overwhelmed by the Spanish ones, and the Duke of Alba entered Rome victorious in September 1557. The Pope sued for peace and obtained it.[10]
In 1559 the Kings of Spain and France signed the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, the most important treaty of 16th-century Europe, which remained in force for a century. Through this treaty Spain began its preponderance in the West, and the Italian Peninsula obtained a prolonged period of tranquility. The peace between the two powers was sealed through the marriage between the Spanish Monarch —twice a widower— and Elisabeth of Valois, the daughter of the French King Henry II. At the royal wedding, which was celebrated in Paris "by proxy", it was Fernando Álvarez de Toledo who represented Philip II and symbolically took possession of the nuptial bed.[11]
Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
From August to October 1566, the Habsburg Netherlands witnessed the Storm of Images or Assault on Images, during which Calvinist Protestants provoked an outbreak of iconoclasm and, opposed to Catholic images, desecrated places of worship and destroyed statues in churches and monasteries. The outrages began in Saint-Omer and spread rapidly to Ypres, Antwerp and from there to the rest of the provinces. The religious revolt soon turned into a civil one.
On December 26, 1566, Alba received as gifts from Pope Pius V the Golden Rose and the Blessed Sword and Hat, granted through the brief Solent Romani Pontifices. This was the reward for his singular efforts in favor of Catholicism, which regarded him as one of its champions.
To put a stop to both the civil and the religious rebels, King Philip II sent the III Duke of Alba at the head of a powerful army that arrived in Brussels on August 22, 1567. Upon his arrival he replaced Margaret of Parma, the Spanish King's natural half-sister, as the person responsible for civil jurisdiction, and he quickly realized that the local nobility was in open rebellion against King Philip II and openly supported the Protestant movement.[12]
A few days later, on September 5, he established the Tribunal of Tumults, popularly known in the Netherlands as the "Tribunal of Blood", to try those responsible for the disturbances of the previous year and especially the heretics.
Due in large part to the intrigues of Cardinal Granvela, who exercised great influence over the King in Madrid, the Count of Egmont, a Catholic general in the service of Philip II who had led the cavalry that defeated the French at the Battle of San Quintín (1557), and the Count of Horn, who had also served the Spanish King with honors, were identified as leaders of the uprising and sentenced to death, despite proclaiming their innocence until the last minute. The historian Henry Kamen maintained that people from the Duke of Alba's circle tried to warn Egmont the day before his arrest (supposedly with the Duke's consent), but he decided not to flee, naively trusting to the end that his innocence would prevail.[13]
The sentence was carried out on June 5, 1568, in the Town Hall Square of Brussels. During the execution, the Duke of Alba, who had been Egmont's friend and comrade in arms, could not hold back his tears. After his death he asked his King for a life pension for the widow of the Count of Egmont.
I feel great compassion for the Countess of Egmont and the poor people he leaves behind. I beg Your Majesty to take pity on them and grant them a favor with which they may support themselves, for with the Countess's dowry they do not have enough to feed themselves for a year, and Your Majesty will forgive me for giving my opinion before being ordered to do so. The Countess is regarded here as a saint, and it is true that since her husband was imprisoned there have been few nights on which she and her daughters have not gone out veiled and barefoot to visit many places of devotion in this city, and before now they had a good reputation.[14]
The upkeep of the troops brought to Flanders entailed considerable economic costs that forced the Duke to impose new taxes on the population. Some cities, among them Utrecht, refused to pay the tenth tax and declared themselves in rebellion. The rebellion spread rapidly through the Netherlands.
On July 21, 1568, the Duke of Alba, at the Battle of Jemmingen, decisively defeated the rebel army of the Netherlands commanded by Louis of Nassau.
This state of affairs prompted intervention from abroad by the third ringleader of the uprising, the defiant Prince of Orange, William of Nassau, "the Silent", who had the help of the French Huguenots. Numerous cities were taken by force of arms. The Spanish troops advanced under banners bearing the Latin motto Pro lege, rege, et grege, which in English means "For the law, the king and the people".
The Duke of Alba had the collaboration of his son Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán, who arrived that year and was appointed Commander of the army of the Spanish Crown in the Spanish Netherlands under his father's orders.
Once again the Duke of Alba confronted the new mercenary army of the Dutch rebels, commanded this time by William of Nassau himself, and defeated them at the Battle of Jodoigne on October 16, 1568.
While carrying out constant military actions, the Duke of Alba also undertook reforms during his government of the Netherlands. In 1570 he published the Ordinance of Criminal Law, which granted people adequate protection against arbitrary decisions and procedural guarantees for their rights.[15]
Alba also devoted himself to carrying out a thorough ecclesiastical reform, of a typically Spanish and regalist foundation, succeeding in making the new hierarchy one of the best in Europe.[16]
In keeping with the resolutions of the Council of Trent, he compiled a list of condemned books and banned them.[17]
The Duke of Alba took an interest in the universities, paying particular attention to the University of Leuven and the University of Dole.[18]
In fiscal matters, Alba implemented a reform based on the establishment of the alcabala. The aim of this tax reform was that no segment of the community should be exempt from sharing the burden —and given that the wealthiest sector of the population was already exempt from practically all forms of taxation, only a tax levied on sales could prevent the weight of the contribution from falling on the poorest sectors.[19] However, these reforms met with strong resistance and fanned the general discontent in favor of a new general revolt in 1572.
Alarmed by the situation, Philip II sent to the Netherlands, as governor, the IV Duke of Medinaceli, Juan de la Cerda y Silva, who arrived in the spring of 1572.
According to the new governor:
Excessive rigor, the misconduct of certain officers and soldiers, and the Tenth are the cause of all the evils, and not heresy or rebellion [...].[20]
Likewise —given that the name of the House of Alba was considered abhorrent by many— Medinaceli tried to persuade the King to remove the Duke of Alba as military Commander.
That same year the Tercios, commanded by Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, carried out the Sack of Malines and then occupied Zutphen, Alkmaar and Naarden. The Siege of Haarlem by the Spaniards, in which both sides were marked by their brutality and savagery, ended with the surrender of the city and the execution of its entire garrison, estimated at 2,000 men. These terrible military campaigns and the very harsh repression with which the III Duke of Alba acted toward the Flemish rebels earned him the nickname "The Iron Duke" in the Netherlands.
Since the opinions of the two dukes were incompatible, and in view of the delicate military situation the Netherlands were going through, King Philip II decided to keep his trust in Alba and relieved Medinaceli of his duties as governor.
But although military actions were constant, the political situation did not improve in any way. The numerous complaints that reached the court of Philip II, among them those of the scholar Benito Arias Montano, against the methods used in Flanders during the years of repression and against the actions of the Tribunal of Tumults —which condemned a total of 8,957 people between 1567 and 1576, of whom 1,083 were executed and 20 banished[21]— led Philip II to change his policy.
The King, influenced by the Duke's opponents, was in favor both of revoking the alcabala and of granting a general pardon. Fernando, on the other hand, opposed the elimination of the tax —which he considered indispensable to finance the costs of both the civil administration and the military campaign in the Netherlands— and although he accepted a pardon, it should not be general but limited —since it had to be made with exceptions, and the names of the excluded persons had to be stated in full, especially those who had taken part in the tumults of 1566.
Philip II decided to relieve the Duke of Alba. In his place the Monarch sent Luis de Requesens, who chose to use force less and to make more concessions to the rebels. Alba and his son Fadrique returned to Spain in 1573.
Councilor of State
Despite everything, the Duke of Alba still carried weight in the deliberations of the Council of State, which advised the King of the Spains on the foreign policy of the Hispanic Monarchy.
Since the time of King Charles I, Duke Fernando had belonged to the hard-line or conservative wing of the Spanish court known as the albista faction or that of the imperials. This faction included the Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés, the Pimentels, the Duke of Alburquerque and other members of the House of Álvarez de Toledo.
This faction contested the affairs of the kingdom with the softer or more liberal position known as the ebolista faction or that of the humanists, led by Ruy Gómez de Silva, Prince of Éboli, and his secretary Francisco de Eraso. This faction also included the Enríquez, the Duke of Gandía, the Duke of Medinaceli and Luis de Requesens. After the death of the Prince of Éboli in 1573, Antonio Pérez, the royal secretary, came to lead the liberal faction and began his association with Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda, Princess of Éboli.
Although the albistas advised the King to maintain a firm position on the question of the Netherlands, King Philip II himself publicly acknowledged that
It is not possible to carry forward the matter of Flanders by way of war.
The Monarch ordered Luis de Requesens to negotiate with the rebels. The negotiations resulted in the reform of the Tribunal of Tumults, the granting of a general pardon and the revocation of the alcabala, although religious freedom was not granted. But these negotiations did not prove sufficient, so the governor had to resume hostilities against the rebels, and he died on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, at court, the conduct of the ebolistas in affairs of state aroused the King's distrust.
All this led Philip II to once again grant the Duke of Alba preferential treatment at court.
Brief exile
The disputes of the ebolistas did not cease. The faction, besides attacking the Duke of Alba himself without much result, went after Duke Fernando's second legitimate son and heir, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán, who had made promises of marriage to Magdalena de Guzmán, lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of Austria, but did not keep them, which had cost him arrest and imprisonment in the Castle of La Mota, in Medina del Campo (Valladolid), in 1566.
The following year he had been released so that he could go with his father to Flanders and serve in the army.
Once he had returned to court, King Philip II, in 1576, ordered Fadrique imprisoned in the royal castle of Tordesillas for his conduct in Flanders.
In 1578 Philip II ordered the proceedings against Fadrique reopened, in the course of which it was discovered that, in order to avoid marrying the claimant, Fadrique had married, for the third time, secretly and by proxy, María Álvarez de Toledo Osorio, daughter of García Álvarez de Toledo Osorio, IV Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo, making use of an authorization issued for that purpose by his father the Duke of Alba, in contravention of the King's orders.
The Duke of Alba was banished from court for a period of one year, leaving for exile in Uceda with a prohibition on leaving the town. The year-long banishment was
For breaking the strict protocol of the Court.
His secretaries Fernando de Albornoz and Esteban de Ibarra were likewise imprisoned.[22]
The color of fear
When King Don Sebastian I of Portugal was planning his expedition to Morocco, in North Africa —which ended in the disastrous and tremendous defeat of the Battle of Alcazarquivir— he met with his uncle, and shortly afterward his successor, King Philip II, in the presence of the old Duke of Alba. Both tried to dissuade him: the King of Spain by displaying his gifts as a statesman, and the Duke of Alba through his excellent knowledge as a brave soldier and eminent strategist. When the experienced Spanish general laid out his objections, the fiery Portuguese king impetuously replied
What color is fear?[23]
The Duke of Alba answered him
The color of prudence.[23]
Conqueror of Portugal
The death of King Sebastian I of Portugal at the Battle of Alcazarquivir in 1578, without direct descendants to succeed him on the throne, caused the crown to pass to his great-uncle, Cardinal Henry I of Portugal. The latter's death, also without heirs, triggered the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580.
The regency council in Portugal was in favor of handing the throne to King Philip II of Spain, who had a right to the Lusitanian crown because his mother had been Isabella of Portugal —the second daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and of his second wife María of Aragon and Castile, and therefore an infanta of Portugal by birth.
However, another claimant to the throne, Antonio, Prior of Crato, an illegitimate son of the Infante Luis of Avis and therefore a grandson of Manuel I, proclaimed himself king in June 1580.
To militarily neutralize the monarchical pretensions of the Prior of Crato, Philip II quickly rehabilitated Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, who was famous for being an excellent general and whose services he needed once again.[24]
The King entrusted the elderly Duke, who was 72 years old and enjoyed enormous popularity in commanding the troops, with the mission of conquering Portugal. He accepted Philip's new charge, telling him that
You are the only monarch on earth who takes a general out of prison to give yourself another crown.[25]
The Duke, appointed Captain General, assembled his forces, estimated at 40,000 men, in Badajoz,[26] and in June of that same year he crossed the Spanish-Portuguese border and advanced toward Lisbon. On August 25, 1580, he defeated the Portuguese army of General Diego de Meneses at the Battle of Alcántara and entered the city in triumph, clearing the way for the arrival of Philip II, who became King Philip I of Portugal, achieving the dynastic union aeque principaliter[27] with the other kingdoms of the Hispanic Monarchy under the House of Habsburg. Thus, the Spanish Empire reached its apogee.
King Philip II rewarded Fernando Álvarez de Toledo with the office of I Viceroy of Portugal, on July 18, 1580, representing the Spanish Monarch as King of Portugal in the dynastic union, and also with the title of Constable of Portugal, which made the Duke of Alba the second person in the hierarchy after the King himself, powers he held until his death.
Death
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo died in Tomar, a town near Lisbon, on December 11, 1582, attended by the famous Fray Luis de Granada, at the age of seventy-four. He retained to the last moment all his manner and bravery, as well as his valiant bearing, which even before the monarchs themselves was the image of his greatness of spirit and of his intelligence.
I will tell Your Majesty three things: the first is that no business of yours ever came up, however small, that I did not put before my own, however very important; the second is that I always took greater care to look after your estate than after my own, and thus I do not owe a single loaf of bread to You or to any of your vassals; the third is that I never proposed to you a name for any office that was not the most capable of all those I knew for it, setting aside all personal fondness.[28]
His remains were taken to Alba de Tormes, where he was buried in the convent of San Leonardo. In 1619 they were moved to the Convent of San Esteban in Salamanca, where since 1983 they have rested in a chapel of the convent that contains a tomb designed by Chueca Goitia and paid for by the Provincial Council of Salamanca.[29][30]
Marriage and children
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo's first son was Fernando de Toledo (1527–1591), the fruit of a relationship with a miller's woman from the nearby town of La Aldehuela.[31][32]
The future Duke of Alba married, on April 27, 1529, his cousin María Enríquez de Toledo y Guzmán or María Enríquez Álvarez de Toledo (d. 1583) —the eldest of the five daughters of Diego Enríquez de Guzmán, III Count of Alba de Liste, by his first wife Aldonza Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga, legitimate daughter of the II Duke of Alba de Tormes, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Quiñones, and his wife Isabel de Zúñiga y Pimentel—, with whom he had four children, three sons and one daughter.
- García Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán (July 23, 1530 – 1548).
- Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán, IV Duke of Alba de Tormes (November 21, 1537 – December 11, 1583).
- Diego Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán (November 6, 1542 – July 10, 1583), Grand Prior of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in Castile and general of the Imperial army in its struggle against the comuneros,[33] married on March 24, 1565, to Brianda de Beaumont (1540–1588), V Countess of Lerín and Constable of Navarre, daughter of Luis de Beaumont.[34] He was succeeded by his son Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, V Duke of Alba de Tormes (1568 – January 29, 1639).
- Beatriz Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán (d. 1637), married Álvar Pérez Osorio, V Marquis of Astorga, VI Count of Trastámara, V Count of Santa Marta de Ortigueira, Lord of the County of Villalobos and V alférez mayor of the Pendón de la Divisa del rey.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel
| No. | Ancestor |
|---|---|
| 1 | Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel III Duke of Alba de Tormes |
| 2 | García Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga |
| 3 | Beatriz Pimentel y Pacheco |
| 4 | Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Quiñones II Duke of Alba de Tormes |
| 5 | Isabel de Zúñiga y Pimentel |
| 6 | Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel I Duke of Benavente |
| 7 | María Pacheco y Portocarrero Lady of Villacidaler |
| 8 | García Álvarez de Toledo y Carrillo de Toledo I Duke of Alba de Tormes |
| 9 | María Enríquez de Quiñones y Toledo |
| 10 | Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán I Duke of Plasencia |
| 11 | Leonor Pimentel y Zúñiga |
| 12 | Alonso Pimentel y Enríquez III Count of Benavente |
| 13 | María de Quiñones y Portugal |
| 14 | Juan Pacheco I Duke of Escalona |
| 15 | María Portocarrero Enríquez |
The castle-palace of Alba de Tormes
The military successes that accompanied the Great Duke of Alba throughout his life as general of Kings Charles I and Philip II did not overshadow the work Fernando devoted to the ducal castle of the House of Álvarez de Toledo, located in Alba de Tormes and known as the Castle of the Dukes of Alba.
The building, conceived as a fortress, continued to retain its military purpose. Fernando carried out reforms on it in order to incorporate the star shape typical of the artillery fortifications of his time. But the III Duke also made modifications suited to Renaissance customs and protocol. The Great Duke of Alba assumed "the identity of the great triumphant generals in the service of the Christian empire, and the artistic language of ducal iconography" assumed "the heroism of antiquity and the formal paradigm of classical art".[35]
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo embellished the palace by engaging the services of the architect Benvenuto and of the painters Thomás de Florencia and Cristoforo Passini. The galleries were adorned with marble from Carrara, shipped from the port of Genoa to Cartagena and, from there, carried on by cart until it reached the ducal palace. Fernando also added a bust of himself, the work of the Italian sculptor Leone Leoni, and a canvas also bearing his portrait, by Titian.[35]
Offices held
Titles of nobility
As a general
The Duke of Alba was not distinguished so much by his skill on the battlefield; rather, he excelled as a general through his ability to overcome the enemy —before even reaching him— by means of his discipline and his ingenuity.
By 1543 Duke Fernando was the foremost soldier in Spain, and it may also be said in the empire, since the Marquis of Vasto, the only general left to the Emperor among those trained in Italy, had declined with age and misfortune. That year Charles V appointed him Captain General of all his kingdoms, of their coasts and frontiers and of all the men-at-arms, owing to his precise qualities of authority, prudence, experience and public reputation.[8]
The perfect example is the German campaign of 1546, in which he managed to break up the opposing army without giving battle, wearing it down with maneuvers, skirmishes and encamisadas.
Austere and implacable, both with himself and with his subordinates and opponents, he did not like to sacrifice the blood of his soldiers, but he did like to spend their sweat. He made them work without rest, to make them victorious, weary and alive. But he always shared hardships with his subordinates, who respected him for it: the rank-and-file soldiers and the veteran soldiers even more than the aristocrats.[36]
References
- ↑ Among the many authors who refer to him this way are William Maltby, Henry Kamen and Mariano D. Berrueta.
- ↑ de Rustant, José Vicente. Historia de don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, (llamado comúnmente el Grande) primero del nombre, Duque de Alva. Volume I. Madrid, 1751.
- ↑ Real Academia de la Historia. Índice de la Colección de don Luis de Salazar y Castro. Volume XIV. Obras genealógicas y heráldicas. Madrid, 1956, no. 23.280, p. 70.
- ↑ Vázquez, Miguel Muñoz. Historia del Carpio. Tip. Artística, 1963, p. 182.
- ↑ De la Fuente Arrimadas, Nicolás. Fisiografía e historia del Barco de Ávila. Ávila, 1925, p. 251.
- ↑ John Lothrop Motley. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. London, 1868, vol. 9, p. 336.
- ↑ Behiels, Lieve. «El duque de Alba en la conciencia colectiva de los flamencos». Foro Hispánico. Revista Hispánica de los Países Bajos, 3 (1992), pp. 31–43.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Quintana, Manuel José (1999) [1872]. El Duque de Alba (in español). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
- ↑ Letter from the Duke of Alba to Paul IV, in the Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, vol. II, pp. 437–446.
- ↑ Virreyes de Nápoles, op. cit., vol. XXIII, pp. 148–163.
- ↑ Los escritos de Herrera Casado. Artículos y comentarios sobre Guadalajara. «La boda de Felipe II en Guadalajara - 1560». December 2010.
- ↑ The Hispanic Monarchy or Catholic Monarchy of King Philip II could not admit the existence of confessional dissent in its territories, since this situation undermined the ambitious plan to spread the Catholic faith throughout the entire Christian world and even beyond, in accordance with the conclusions set forth at the Council of Trent. Thus, the universality of the Hispanic Monarchy implied the political unity of the Spanish King under a single religion, the Catholic one. The difficult task that King Philip entrusted to the Duke of Alba was to restore political order under the rule of the King of Spain and to preserve the Catholic faith in lands that until then had been Catholic and governed by his Catholic Majesty.
- ↑ Henry Kamen, El Gran Duque de Alba: soldado en la España imperial. ISBN-13: 978-8497342209
- ↑ "Los samuráis del Imperio español: la épica defensa de Filipinas contra los holandeses en 1600" (in español). Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ↑ Maltby, William S. El Gran Duque de Alba. Atalanta. Barcelona. 2007. P. 333.
- ↑ Maltby, William S. El Gran Duque de Alba. Atalanta. Barcelona. 2007. P. 341.
- ↑ Maltby, William S. El Gran Duque de Alba. Atalanta. Barcelona. 2007. P. 342.
- ↑ Maltby, William S. El Gran Duque de Alba. Atalanta. Barcelona. 2007. P. 342/343.
- ↑ Maltby, William S. El Gran Duque de Alba. Atalanta. Barcelona. 2007. P. 344.
- ↑ Kamen, Henry (2004). The Duke of Alba. Yale University Press. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ↑ Maltby, William S. El Gran Duque de Alba. Atalanta. Barcelona. 2007. P. 255.
- ↑ Documentos sobre las causas que dieron motivo a la prisión de D. Fadrique, hijo del duque de Alba, y también a la del mismo duque, op. cit., vol. VII, pp. 464–524, and vol. VIII, pp. 483–529.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 http://hemeroteca.abc.es/cgi-bin/pagina.pdf?fn=exec;command=stamp;path=H:\cran\data\prensa_pages\Madrid\ABC\1982\198210\19821017\82O17-003.xml;id=0001404517
- ↑ Disposición de Felipe II sobre dar al duque el mando del ejército, op. cit., vol. XXXII, pp. 7–9.
- ↑ Sampedro Escolar, op. cit. P. 104.
- ↑ Título de capitán general que Felipe II dio al duque de Alba, op. cit., pp. 151–160.
- ↑ John Huxtable Elliott. España en Europa: Estudios de historia comparada: escritos seleccionados. Universitat de València. 2002. Pages 79–80.
- ↑ The last words spoken by the Duke were recorded by Fray Luis de Granada in a letter he sent to the Duchess.[1]
- ↑ Noticia de la traslación del cuerpo del Duque de Alba, op. cit., vol XXXV, p. 361.
- ↑ Rosell, María del Mar. Traslado definitivo de los restos del gran duque de Alba a un mausoleo de Salamanca. El País. Print edition. March 26, 1983. Attending the transfer were the Duchess of Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, and her second husband, Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate, her children —the Duke of Huéscar Carlos Fitz-James Stuart y Martínez de Irujo and Fernando, Cayetano and Eugenia Martínez de Irujo—, as well as other members of the family and of noble houses, the author of the mausoleum, the mayors of the former ducal towns of Salamanca, and other guests, among whom the bishop of the diocese, Mauro Rubio, who presided over the solemn religious ceremony, stood out.
- ↑ Falcó Osorio 1898, p. 120
- ↑ "Frey Fernando de Toledo, Gran Prior de Castilla" (in español). Archived from the original on September 15, 2013.
- ↑ "La Torre del Gran Prior y El Cubillo, en Alcázar de San Juan" (in español). Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ↑ Falcó Osorio 1898, p. 145
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 González Zymla, Herbert (UCM). El castillo palacio de Alba de Tormes, simbolismos clásicos en un edificio medieval. I Congreso Internacional de Historia del Arte y Arqueología en el Real Colegio de España en Bolonia. El Imperio y las Hispanias de Trajano a Carlos V. Clasicismo y poder en el arte español. Bologna, May 13–14, 2013.
- ↑ «7 Lecciones del Gran Duque de Alba para Liderar Nuestro Equipo hasta el Éxito»
Bibliography
- Falcó y Osorio, María del Rosario (Duchess of Berwick and of Alba) (1898). "Catálogo de las colecciones expuestas en las vitrinas del Palacio de Liria" (in español). Madrid. OCLC 67226793.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Fernández Álvarez, Manuel (2007). El duque de hierro: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, III de Alba (in español). Colección Espasa Forum. Madrid: Espasa Calpé. ISBN 978-84-670-2625-2.
- García Pinacho, Mª del Pilar (1998). Los Álvarez de Toledo Nobleza viva (in español). Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. ISBN 84-7846-775-0.
- Kamen, Henry (2004/2007). El gran duque de Alba (in español). Fourth edition, hardcover. Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros. ISBN 978-84-9734-220-9.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - Maltby, William S. (2007). El gran duque de Alba (in español). Prologue by Jacobo Siruela, translation by Eva Rodríguez Halffter. Second edition. Vilaür: Ediciones Atalanta. ISBN 978-84-935313-8-6.
- Sampedro Escolar, José Luis (2007). La Casa de Alba (in español). La Esfera de los Libros, S. L. Madrid. ISBN 978-84-9734-595-8.
External links
- Historia de Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, by José Vicente de Rustant (1751): vol. I and vol. II.
- Podcast Tercios, la campaña del Duque de Alba de 1568. Parte I on HistoCast, November 30, 2020.
