Fadrique de Toledo or Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza, 1st Marquess of Valdueza (Naples, 30 May 1580 –Madrid, 11 December 1634), was a Spanish noble and admiral.
He was a Knight of the Order of Santiago and Captain General of the Spanish Navy at the age of 37.
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Quick Facts The Marquess of Valdueza, Full name ...
The Marquess of Valdueza
Detail of the work on canvas The Recovery of the Island of Saint Kitts (1634), Museo del Prado, Madrid, by painter Félix Castello (1595–1651), showing the portrait of Fadrique de Toledo
Full name
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo-Osorio y Hurtado de Mendoza
He served in the Spanish fleet under command of his father and rose quickly through the ranks, as did his elder brother García de Toledo Osorio, 6th Marquess of Villafranca. In 1617, he became Captain General of the Ocean Sea Navy, replacing the late Admiral Luis Fajardo.
He gained several victories against the Dutch, in 1621 near Gibraltar and in 1623 in the English Channel, blockading the Dutch coast. In the same year he defeated a Moorish incursion near Gibraltar.
In 1625 he was appointed General of Portugal (then in a personal union with Spain), and Capitán General of the Army of Brazil. He sailed towards Brazil at the head of a fleet consisting of 34 Spanish ships, 22 Portuguese ships and 12,566 men (three quarters were Spanish and the rest Portuguese). There he reconquered the strategically important city of Salvador da Bahia from the Dutch on 30 April 1625. This victory would prove decisively important in the Dutch-Portuguese War to oust the Dutch from Brazil over the next two decades.
In 1629 he commanded a Spanish expedition that expelled the English and French colonial settlers from the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis.[1]
Marriage and children
On 12 August 1627, in Madrid, Don Fadrique married his cousin Doña Elvira Ponce de León, daughter of Don Luis Ponce de León, VI Marqués de Zahara, and Doña Victoria Álvarez de Toledo.
They had three children:
Doña Elvira de Toledo, married Don Juan Gaspar Enríquez de Cabrera, 6th Duke of Medina de Rioseco.
Doña Victoria de Toledo, married her cousin Don Francisco Ponce de León, 5th Duke of Arcos.
