Founder of the House of Alba

TheHouse of Alba wasn't founded by a single person but emerged from the prominent Álvarez de Toledo family in Spain, with key figures like García Álvarez de Toledo establishing the lineage, and Gutierre Álvarez de Toledo, Archbishop of Toledo, acquiring the Lordship of Alba de Tormes in 1429, formalizing the family's connection to the title and territory. Then King John II awarding Fernando Alvarez the title of 1st Count of Alba, leading to Henry IV making Garcia Alvarez the first Duke of Alba.

García Álvarez de Toledo and Carrillo de Toledo, was a Spanish nobleman who was first the 2nd Count of Alba de Tormes and then 1st Duke of Alba de Tormes, a hereditary noble title that King Henry IV of Castile granted him in 1472 by turning the county of Alba de Tormes into a duchy. He was also the V lord of Valdecorneja, the 1st Marquis of Coria and the 1st Earl of Salvatierra de Tormes.

Biography

García Álvarez de Toledo and Carrillo de Toledo were the firstborn son of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Sarmiento, 1st Count of Alba de Tormes, and his wife Mencía Carrillo de Toledo.

During his teenage years, due to his father's imprisonment ordered by King John II of Castile in 1448, he organized several military raids against the nobles loyal to the king.

With the death of the Castilian king in 1454 and the coronation of King Henry IV of Castile, the 1st Count of Alba was liberated. Between 1455 and 1456 the young Garcia participated with his father in the Spanish campaigns against the Kingdom of Granada where they took part in the siege of Alcalá la Real.

In 1464 García inherited the title of 2nd Count of Alba from his father upon his death.

During the Spanish Civil War of the Late Middle Ages and after the Farce of Ávila in which Alfonso of Castile, the half-brother of Henry IV, proclaimed himself king of Castile, García was one of the nobles who remained faithful to Henry IV. In exchange for his loyalty he received from this vast land—extending his dominions through the Sierra de Gredos and northern Extremadura—and half of the rents of the Medina del Campo fair. But he did not provide aid to this city that fell in the possession of the Constable of Castile or participate in the battle of Olmedo, in 1467, in which both royal candidates fought.

In 1469 García Álvarez de Toledo received from the king the County of Salvatierra de Tormes.

Such was the extension of the lands of García, that in 1472 King Henry IV, trying to avoid a new civil war between the Spanish nobles, was forced to sign the Treaty of Bulls of Guisando, for which García Álvarez de Toledo had to renounce territories located south of the Sierra de Gredos but in return the king raised his title from Earl of Alba de Tormes to that of Duke and recognized his rights to Coria. In this way García Álvarez de Toledo became the I Duke of Alba de Tormes and the I Marquis of Coria.​

King Henry IV died, García took sides for the future Isabella I of Castile—the sister of the late king who was married to the future King Fernando II of Aragon—and supported her in her confrontation with Juana la Beltraneja in the Castellana War of Succession. Garcia participated in the Battle of Toro, in 1476, in which the Elizabethan armies defeated the Juanist troops.

Garcia was thus one of the main noble allies of the Catholic Monarchs whose reign transformed Spain into the first unified state of Europe in the Modern Age, significantly increasing the power and fortune of this branch of the House of Álvarez de Toledo. He died in 1488.

Marriage

García Álvarez de Toledo y Carrillo de Toledo married c. 1447 with María Enriquez de Quiñones and Toledo, daughter of Fadrique Enríquez, II Admiral of Castilla, and his second wife, Teresa Fernández de Quiñones. They had nine sons and daughters.