ALBA, FERDINANDO ALVAREZ di TOLEDO, Duke of
- Born at Petrahtia in 1507, and left fatherless at the age of four, he was raised by his grandfather Federico Alvarez, from whom he inherited monarchical fanaticism, religious zeal, hatred of heresies, and strict discipline. Early on, he distinguished himself as a man of arms to Charles V, who took him along on military enterprises in Hungary, Tunis, and Germany and entrusted him with the education of Philip II, more out of esteem than confidence, which he could never fully grant him.
The disparity of characters. Under Philip II, the duke’s fortune shone forth, for their Spanish and religious outlook, their slowness in making decisions yet firmness in maintaining them, their idea of authority, and their cruelty toward enemies were identical. He was accordingly given the governorship of Milan (1555) and Naples (1556), command of the war against Paul IV, and the task of “Spanishizing” the Low Countries.
In the war against Paul IV, which was ennobled by the generous desire of the aged Pontiff to free Italy from Spanish domination and revealed the diplomatic and military unpreparedness of the papal government and the selfishness of the Italian princes, the Duke of A. found himself facing undisciplined papal militias alongside French forces led by a commander, the Duke of Guise, whose irresolution and double-dealing hampered and frustrated the papal cause. It was therefore not difficult for him not only to prevent the invasion of the Neapolitan kingdom, which Paul IV desired, but even to reach the walls of Rome and dictate the famous Peace of Cave. The Pontiff emerged without territorial losses or heavy fines, yet the papacy lost from that moment any chance of asserting its political primacy in the peninsula. Long debate has ensued over whether the duke’s moderation—his refusal to sack Rome a second time, which he might have done, and his imposition of the peace’s terms—was due to political calculation or, as is believed, to respect for the papacy.
In the Low Countries the Duke of A. was sent to reduce to obedience a people who, under skillful leadership, had attained autonomy, imposed adequate taxes, and stamped out the spreading heresy; and he acted with such ferocious resolve and pitiless cruelty that he became execrated for centuries to come. He imprisoned the leaders (Counts Egmont and Hornes), set up a Council of Troubles, and sat on it for as long as nine hours a day signing confiscation and death decrees, reducing the populace