Alva, Duke of, a general of the armies of Charles V. and Philip of Spain; his career as a general was uniformly successful, but as a governor his cruelty was merciless, especially as the viceroy of Philip in the Low Countries, “very busy cutting off high heads in Brabant, and stirring up the Dutch to such fury as was needful for exploding Spain and him” (1508‒1582).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Alured of Beverley * Alvara`do, Pedro de