1-152-180 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva (1508-1582), Spanish general and statesman. As governor of the Netherlands from 1567-1573, he enforced brutal anti-Protestant rule, executing some 18,000 people as heretics. Here he is shown eating a child while, under his feet, are the heads and decapitated bodies of Counts Egmont and Hoorn, two popular Dutch Protestant leaders who were publicly beheaded in Brussels on 5 June 1568.