Ferdinando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, was now in his sixtieth year.  He was the most successful and experienced general of Spain, or of Europe.  No man had studied more deeply, or practised more constantly, the military science.  In the most important of all arts at that epoch he was the most consummate artist.  In the only honorable profession of the age, he was the most thorough and the most pedantic professor.  Since the days of Demetrius Poliorcetes, no man had besieged so many cities.  Since the days of Fabius Cunctator; no general had avoided so many battles, and no soldier, courageous as he was, ever attained to a more sublime indifference to calumny or depreciation.  Having proved in his boyhood, at Fontarabia, and in his maturity:  at Muhlberg, that he could exhibit heroism and headlong courage; when necessary, he could afford to look with contempt upon the witless gibes which his enemies had occasionally perpetrated at his expense.  Conscious of holding his armies in his hand, by the power of an unrivalled discipline, and the magic of a name illustrated by a hundred triumphs, he, could bear with patience and benevolence the murmurs of his soldiers when their battles were denied them.

He was born in 1508, of a family which boasted, imperial descent.  A Palaeologus, brother of a Byzantine emperor, had conquered the city of Toledo, and transmitted its appellation as a family name.  The father of Ferdinando, Don Garcia, had been slain on the isle of Gerbes, in battle with the Moors, when his son was but four years of age.  The child was brought up by his grandfather, Don Frederic, and trained from his tenderest infancy to arms.  Hatred to the infidel, and a determination to avenge his father’s blood; crying to him from a foreign grave, were the earliest of his instincts.  As a youth he was distinguished for his prowess.  His maiden sword was fleshed at Fontarabia, where, although but sixteen years of age, he was considered, by his constancy in hardship, by his brilliant and desperate courage, and by the example of military discipline which he afforded to the troops, to have contributed in no small degree to the success of the Spanish arms.

In 1530, he accompanied the Emperor in his campaign against the Turk.  Charles, instinctively recognizing the merit of the youth who was destined to be the life-long companion of his toils and glories, distinguished him with his favor at the opening of his career.  Young, brave, and enthusiastic, Ferdinand de Toledo at this period was as interesting a hero as ever illustrated the pages of Castilian romance.  His mad ride from Hungary to Spain and back again, accomplished in seventeen days, for the sake of a brief visit to his newly-married wife, is not the least attractive episode in the history of an existence which was destined to be so dark and sanguinary.  In 1535, he accompanied the Emperor on his memorable expedition to Tunis.  In 1546 and 1547 he was generalissimo in the war