Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba

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Fadrique Alvarez de Toledo

Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel (born November 21, 1537 , † December 11, 1583 in Lisbon ) was the 4th Duke of Alba and high-ranking Spanish military.

Life

He was the second son of the famous 3rd Duke of Alba, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo (1507–1582) and the María Enríquez Álvarez de Toledo y Guzmán. He inherited the Duchy of Alba de Tormes only after his father's death in 1582 and was generally only called "Don Fadrique" during his lifetime. Other of his titles were: Duque de Huescar, Marqués de Coria and Comendador Mayor de la Orden de Calatrava .

He had promised to marry Magdalena de Guzmán and was imprisoned in 1566 in the Castillo de La Mota in Medina del Campo when he did not keep the promise . The following year he was released to go to Flanders with his father . In 1571 Fadrique married secretly, but with the consent of his father, María de Toledo, daughter of García Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Margrave of Villafranca and Viceroy of Sicily , the eldest son of the Duke of Alba. After father and son returned to Madrid in 1574, the incident became known and the king ordered a trial that ended in Fadrique's sentencing to prison in 1579, which took him again to the Castillo de la Mota and his subsequent banishment to Ucedo , a property of the Dukes of Alba.

At the instigation of his father, Don Fadrique became commander-in-chief in the Netherlands during the first phase of the Eighty Years War . He was the commander of the Zutphen and Naarden massacres and the commander who ended the siege of Haarlem in 1573 .

Since he had no offspring, his nephew Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont followed him as the 5th Duke of Alba.

See also: House Álvarez de Toledo

Web links

Commons : Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Biography in Diccionario Biográfico Español (Spanish)