No era para menos si tenemos en cuenta la que había sido su peripecia de soldado y sus impresionantes éxitos y su desempeño como general al mando de las sucesivas flotas hasta serlo de todas ellas. Nunca fue derrotado en combate y sus triunfos quedan perfectamente reflejados en las muy precisas cifras de sus logros y conquistas.
Victorias: islas rendidas, ocho; Ciudades y villas tomadas: 27; Castillos y fuertes asaltados: 36; Soldados y marinos (franceses, portugueses e ingleses) rendidos: 11.782; Prisioneros cristianos liberados: 1.564; Naves enemigas apresadas (galeras, goletas, galeones, bergantines, galeazas y barcos turcos y berberiscos) 282; Piezas de artillería capturadas: 1.814. Derrotas: cero.
Hoy su nombre sí es conocido y mentado por los marinos. No falta nunca en la Armada un barco que lleve su nombre, también se le reconoce en estatuas y plazas y sigue en pie y uso, como Archivo de la Marina, el palacio que hizo levantar, el de los Marqueses de Santa Cruz en la localidad castellanomanchega de Viso del Marqués.
When Don Álvaro de Bazán died in Lisbon, the Navy and the Spanish people mourned him. The greatest poets of that Golden Age of our letters sang it, Lope de Vega did it and that time the praise of his bitter enemy Luis de Góngora coincided, who also wrote his praise to the great sailor who died without having known defeat and when, unfortunately, it was most needed, then he should have been the one to lead the great Armada against England. Miguel de Cervantes, who had fought under his command in the crucial victory at Lepanto against the Ottoman Empire, wanted to pay homage to him in Don Quixote, when he glossed over the capture of an enemy galley: he took the captain of Naples, called La Loba, ruled by that lightning bolt of war, for the father of soldiers, for that fortunate and never-defeated captain Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz.
It was not for less if we take into account what had been his adventures as a soldier and his impressive successes and his performance as general in command of the successive fleets until he was of all of them. He was never defeated in combat and his triumphs are perfectly reflected in the very precise figures of his achievements and conquests.
Victories: surrendered islands, eight; Cities and towns taken: 27; Castles and forts attacked: 36; Soldiers and sailors (French, Portuguese and English) surrendered: 11,782; Christian prisoners released: 1,564; Captured enemy ships (galleys, schooners, galleons, brigantines, galleasses and Turkish and Barbary ships) 282; Artillery pieces captured: 1,814. Losses: zero.
Today his name is known and mentioned by sailors. There is never a lack of a ship in the Navy that bears his name, he is also recognized in statues and squares and is still standing and using, as the Archive of the Navy, the palace he had built, that of the Marquises of Santa Cruz in the town Castilian Manchega of Viso del Marques.
