Álvaro de Bazán , 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz Álvaro de Bazán , 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz de Mudela ( December 12 , 1526 – February 9 , 1588 ) , was a Spanish admiral . Biography . Álvaro de Bazán was born in Granada , southern Spain . His grandfather , Álvaro de Bazán , took part in the conquest of Granada in 1492 , and his father , Álvaro de Bazán the Elder , took part together with Giovanni Andrea Doria and others marines in the recapture of Tunis in 1535 , and was distinguished in the service of Charles V , by whom he was made general of the galley s or commander - in - chief of the Spanish naval forces in the Mediterranean . The future admiral followed his father in his youth , and was employed in the high command of the Spanish navy at a very early age . At the age of eight he was appointed " Military Governor and captain of the fortress and city of Gibraltar " . His command however was via his father who was in commands of the galleys of Spain . It has been speculated that this unusual appointment was intended to show Charles V ' s confidence but the commander of the galleys did not share that confidence and he suggested to no effect that Gibraltar ' s Line Wall Curtain be extended to the southern tip of the rock . He was a member of the Military Order of Santiago ( St . James ) . In 1564 , he aided in the capture of Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera , and commanded the division of galleys employed to blockade Tetuan , and to suppress the piracy carried on from that port . The service is said to have been successfully performed . Bazán certainly earned the confidence of Philip II , by whom he was appointed to command the galleys of Naples in 1568 . This post brought him into close relations with John of Austria , when the Holy League was formed against the Turks in 1570 . During the operations which preceded and followed the Battle of Lepanto ( October 7 , 1571 ) , Bazán was always in favor of the more energetic course . In the battle he commanded the reserve division , and his prompt energy averted a disaster when Uluj Ali , who commanded the left wing of the Turks , outmaneuvered the commander of the Christian right , Gian Andrea Dorea , the nephew of his old comrade Andrea Doria , and broke the Allied line . He accompanied Don John of Austria at the taking of Tunis in the following year . When Philip II enforced his claim as heir to the crown of Portugal in 1580 – 1581 , Santa Cruz held a naval command . But António , Prior of Crato , an illegitimate representative of the former Portuguese royal family , who conducted some popular resistance to the crowning of what was seen as a foreign king , continued to hold the islands of the Azores . António was supported by a number of French adventurers under Philip Strozzi , a Florentine exile in the service of France . Santa Cruz was sent as " Admiral of the Ocean " to drive the pretender and his friends away in 1582 . Badly outnumbered , he won the Battle of Ponta Delgada off Terceira Island against a loose confederation of Portuguese , French , English and Dutch adventurers and privateers , which decided the struggle for the Azores in favor of the Spanish Habsburgs . Santa Cruz , who recognized that England presented a grave threat to Spain ' s empire , became a zealous advocate of war . A letter written by him to King Philip from Angra do Heroísmo in Terceira , on August 9 , 1583 , contains the first definite suggestion of the Spanish Armada . Santa Cruz himself was to have commanded . His plans , schemes and estimates occupy a conspicuous place in the documents concerning the Armada collected by Don Cesário Duro . The hesitating character of the king , and his many embarrassments , political and financial , caused many delays , and left Santa Cruz unable to act with effect . He was at Lisbon without the means of fitting out his fleet , when Francis Drake burnt the Spanish ships at Cádiz during his 1587 expedition . The independence of judgment shown by Santa Cruz ended by offending the king , and he was held responsible for the failures and delays which were the result of the bad management of his master . His death , which occurred on February 9 , 1588 at Lisbon , was said to have been hastened by the unjustified reproaches of the king . The great galleon s employed to carry the trade between Cadiz in Spain and Vera Cruz in Mexico were the joint creation of the Marquis de Santa Cruz and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés . The documents relating to the Spanish Armada have been collected by Don Cesáreo Fernández Duro in " La Armada Invencible " , and he gives a biography of the marquis in his " Conquista de las Islas Azores " . A separate life has been published by Don Ángel de Altolaguirre . There are various notices of Santa Cruz in Sir W . Stirling Maxwell ' s " Don John of Austria " . Several ships of the Spanish Navy were named " Álvaro de Bazán " in his honour . Currently , a new class of frigates is being built for the Spanish Navy , and the lead ship is the " Álvaro de Bazán " ( F101 ) .