Iron Man Match: Chancellor vs Duke

One of the main justifications I give when I get asked “what’s the point in doing history?” by my students is that it regularly repeats itself which allows us to learn from the mistakes of the past. Thankfully there are rarely follow up questions because it would be pretty hard to give a positive example of where we’ve actually learnt from the mistakes of the past. Repetition is also a theme when it comes to sobriquets and “The Iron (insert job title here)” is one which has been applied to many historical figures.

Rather than focus on just the one example in this post I thought it would be worth examining two particularly ferrous figures from history in an attempt to see who is most deserving of their moniker. Apologies to Brazilian hero the Duke of Caxais, former Archbishop of Vancouver William Mark Duke, Massachusetts Democratic politician John F. Thompson, South African football administrator Irvin Khoza and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who didn’t make the sample. As for the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, I didn’t think I could provide a balanced account of her career. And it’s Christmas and she’s the last person I want to be thinking about. Instead I will be looking at Otto von Bismarck and Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the 3^rd Duke of Alba.

The Iron Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

As the man who instigated a series of wars to establish a united Germany Otto von Bismarck seems to fit the iron bill rather well. Bismarck began his career in Prussia as a royalist politician who initially campaigned against the unification of Germany as well as advocating the divine right of kings. Once deployed to Frankfurt in 1851 by the Prussian King Frederick William IV his views began to change as he saw that the Prussian sovereignty he sought to protect may only be saved by uniting with other German states to avoid Austrian dominance. In 1862 his speech to the Prussian Chamber of Deputies outlined his increasing desire for German unification with Bismarck stating “the great questions of the time will not be resolved by speeches and majority decisions…but by iron and blood.” Successive victories against Denmark, Austria and France with a whole load of iron and blood secured unification in 1871 and Bismarck, somewhat unsurprisingly, served as the nation’s first Chancellor.

Bismarck takes his hat from the umpire and heads to deep fine leg.

Bismarck’s chancellorship started with a determined campaign to decrease Catholic influence in German politics through the Kulturkampf. Several bishops were exiled from Prussia and Catholic marriages were no longer legally ratified without a civil ceremony. Unfortunately for Bismarck this merely strengthened the resolve of the Catholic Centre Party and, when it became apparent that their votes were needed to put through Bismarck’s laws, the Kulturkampf was abandoned in 1878. Much of Bismarck’s anti-Catholic legislature was slowly reversed following the death of Pope Pius IX with the more pragmatic Leo XIII proving to be a far better negotiator.

His approach to his other main political opponents, the socialists, was far more subtle. In an attempt to limit the appeal of his left-wing rivals and earn the loyalty of the German working classes, Bismarck’s administration introduced remarkably progressive welfare legislation for the period including sickness and accident insurance as well as old age pensions for industrial workers. Bismarck was careful to avoid irritating his conservative allies and steered clear of such Marxist nonsense as improving workplace safety, limiting working hours or banning child labour and thus managed to placate both factory owners and workers in a way that the New Labour movement would have been proud of. This also ended years of emigration as young German workers stayed at home to reap the benefits of these reforms rather than chance their arms in the USA.

The deaths of Kaisers Wilhelm I and Friedrich III, both supporters of the Chancellor, in quick succession in 1889 brought Wilhelm II to the throne and, with it, an end to Bismarck’s chancellorship. Wilhelm and Bismarck clashed on a number of points, in particular foreign policy, where the new Kaiser believed his Chancellor had pursued a far too careful path which denied Germany its “place in the sun”. Intriguingly, however, it was a disagreement over Bismarck’s increasingly aggressive anti-socialist policies which led to the Chancellor being forced to resign in 1890. As his health deteriorated over the 1890s he made several gloomy predictions regarding Wilhelm’s reign (“the crash will come…if things go on like this”) and the state of Europe (“the great European war will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans”) which were dismissed as the ramblings of a bitter old man. Bismarck didn’t help this image with a posthumous dig at the Kaiser on his sarcophagus which was inscribed with the epitaph “a loyal German servant of Kaiser Wilhelm I”.

 Bismarck in his bitter old man phase - deep fine leg has that impact on people.

The Iron Duke - Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the 3^rd Duke of Alba

The 3^rd Duke of Alba joined the military at the age of 17 in 1524 and within a year had been rewarded for his military prowess with the title of Governor of Fuenterrabia following the siege of the border town. By 1541 he had been appointed as High Steward to the King of Spain, a title he held under both Charles V and Philip II until his death in 1582. Charles V had entrusted his son’s preparations for the Spanish crown to Alba and he had accompanied Philip on a tour of Europe between 1548 and 1551 as well as to his ill-fated marriage to Mary I of England in 1554.

Alba contemplates the difficulty of organising Philip II's stag do on such short notice.

Unsurprisingly, it was not for his travel and diplomatic escapades that Alba earned his moniker the Iron Duke. Throughout the 1530s, 1540s and 1550s he led the Holy Roman Empire to a series of impressive victories across Europe and Northern Africa spreading Hapsburg influence across the Mediterranean and bloodying the noses of the French, the Ottoman Empire and even Pope Paul IV. Alba was rewarded with several honours due to his exceptional winning streak including a promotion to Grand Master of the Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece in 1548 and the creation of the title Duke of Huéscar for his heir, Fadrique, in 1563. Despite Fadrique’s best attempts to derail his father’s meteoric rise by breaking his marriage contract with Magdelena de Guzman in 1566, Alba was made Governor of the Netherlands a year later and Philip II, not famed for his forgiveness, even allowed Fadrique to leave prison to accompany his father.

Alba’s main task in the Netherlands was to put an end to the Protestant revolt which had begun in the summer of 1566 with attacks on churches and monasteries. Within two weeks of his arrival in Brussels he had established the ominously named Council of Troubles which set to bring those behind the revolt to justice. Not content with targeting the Calvinists Alba launched an attack on the Flemish aristocracy resulting in the arrest, trials and execution of notable nobles the Count of Egmont and the Count of Horn for daring to negotiate with Protestants. To top off his questionable approach to winning over the locals he personally attended all of the executions sentenced by the Council of Troubles just in case anyone got the idea he had nothing to do with them. It was at this point in his career that Alba became known as the Iron Duke.

Fittingly for the geographical area containing the famous Belgian town the Spanish Netherlands turned out to be something of a Waterloo for the Duke of Alba. Despite sustained military action and spending as well as over five thousand executions Alba’s presence in the Netherlands failed to end the Protestant rebellion. Whilst his soldiers remained fiercely loyal and he retained the support of Philip II many areas turned to William of Orange as a figurehead for revolt against Spanish suppression and Alba was relieved of his duties in 1573. Unlike Napoleon, however, this was not to be the end of Alba as he played a decisive role in securing the Portuguese throne for Philip II in 1580. As 1^st Viceroy of Portugal, his reward for his success, he was officially recognised as second only to the Spanish king until his death in Lisbon in 1582.

And the winner is…

Both Bismarck and Alba played a decisive role in the shaping of Europe albeit three hundred years apart. This three hundred year gap is probably the main difference between them and the deciding factor in who I feel is most deserving of their sobriquet. Although Bismarck displayed ruthlessness in establishing and maintaining the German state he also displayed an element of adaptability to the political landscape of the time and eventually lost his office due to his disagreements with Kaiser Wilhelm II over Germany’s foreign policy. The 3^rd Duke of Alba also displayed ruthlessness in expanding and maintaining the Hapsburg Empire and, despite ignoring a need for diplomacy and adaptability in the Netherlands, retained the support of Philip II who relied so heavily on Alba for the growth and dominance of his empire. His inflexibility makes it hard to look beyond Fernando Álvarez de Toledo as history’s true ‘Iron Man’. It doesn’t mean you’d necessarily want to go for a pint with him.

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba - so iron his clothes are made of the stuff.