DE TOLEDO, DUNE or ( 1 508-82 or -83). A Span ish genera] 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 ac tivity, and became Prime Minister, and general of the armies of Spain under Charles V. and Philip II. As a young man he founght 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 in fluence rather than his ability. Iie was in the campaign against the Elector Frederick of Saxony, over whom he gained a brilliant vic tory at Mllhlberg in 1547, and fought against Henry II. of France, and in the Italian cam paign of 1555 against the combined French and Papal forces. when he overran the States of the Church, but was instructed by Philip 11., 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-Cambr6sis 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 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 taxa tion 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, December 22, 156S. Ile was especially honored by the Pope, and set up in Antwerp a statue of himself tramplingon two figures, representing the nobles and people of the Netherlands. His blood. thirsty 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 An tonio, 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. Motley's estimate, severe as it is, represents the world's verdict upon him: "Such an amount of stealth and feroeity, of patiant vindictiveness, and universal bloodthirs tiness has never been found in a savage beast of the forest, and but rarely in a human being." The German historian, Ludwig Htiusser, calls Alva "the hangman of the Netherlands." Con sult: J. L. Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic (New York. 1836) ; Rustant, Historic de Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, cluque de Alec (Madrid, 1751).