He was the son of García de Toledo Osorio, 4th Marquess of Villafranca, and Vittoria Colonna di Paliano. His mother was the niece of Vittoria Colonna.

In June 1585 Pedro was appointed captain general of the galleys of the Kingdom of Naples and fought the Ottoman corsairs in the Mediterranean Sea. On 14 July 1607, Philip II entrusted him with command of all the galleys of Spain. In 1608, he was sent to Paris as Ambassador extraordinary to France to seal a pact with King Henry IV of France, which failed.

The expulsion of the Spanish moriscos since 1610 increased the Ottoman naval attacks in the West Mediterranean, especially when young Ahmed I became Sultan. Pedro Alvarez set up an extensive defensive engineering program, with Italian engineers working in Italy, Spain and the Caribbean in America.

Between 1616 and 1618, he was Governor of the Duchy of Milan, where he led the Spanish Army in the second phase of the War of the Montferrat Succession against Savoy and France.

After this, he was Commander in chief of an army in Naples, General of Cavalry of Spain in 1621. His success in Milan was awarded with the honorable Grandeza de España title in 1623. In 1625 he participated in the successful Defense of Cadiz against the attacks from the Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of Sir Edward Cecil.^[1]

Marriage and children edit

On 7 June 1576 he married Elvira de Mendoza, daughter of Íñigo Lopez de Hurtado de Mendoza, III Marquess of Mondéjar, 4th count of Tendilla, Viceroy of Naples, 1575–1579, a.k.a. Iñigo López de Mendoza y Mendoza (1512–1580), and Maria de Mendoza.

They had four children.

• Doña Victoria de Toledo, married Don Luis Ponce de León (1573-1605), 6th Marquess of Zahara
• Don García de Toledo Osorio, 6th Marquess of Villafranca (1579–1649), Grandee of Spain, notorious admiral fighting against the French and Moroccans.
• Don Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquess of Valdueza (1580–1634), Captain General of the Spanish Navy
• Doña María de Toledo, a nun