Alva’s harsh policy is met with outrage. This makes him an easy target: he is maligned in all manner of prints. Here Alva sits on his throne, accompanied by a three-headed monster and a devil. He devours a child, symbolizing the Netherlands. In the background is the impoverished, suffering population. At his feet are the counts of Egmont and Horne, whom he had beheaded for protesting against the Inquisition: ‘innocent blood.’