de alba

Coming up there’ll be more about religion and how it led to revolt, but first here are some specifics about the people involved. So remember that fascinating little tidbit of a post about Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimental, the duque de Alba, the fellow who Phillip II sent over in reaction to revolts in the Netherlands? Well I thought perhaps that short little post didn’t quite do him justice, so here’s a bit more on him:

Philip sent him into the Netherlands in 1567, at the head of an army of 12,000 men, with unlimited powers for the extirpation of the heretics. Soon after his arrival, Alba erected a tribunal, which he called the Council of Troubles and which the Calvinists came to refer as the “Council of Blood.” During the ten years that the Council was in operation, thousands of people were executed under Alba. Of course, Spanish and Dutch sources record very different numbers, the former mentioning only a few hundred while the latter cite around 18,000 victims. [Israel, Jonathan (1995). The Dutch Republic: its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806, pp 159-160. Clarendon Press, Oxford UK.] Among the victims were the Count of Egmont and the Count of Hoorn , the two popular leaders of the dissatisfied Dutch nobles, who Alba had condemned to death despite the fact that they were Catholics.