Sancho d'Avila

Don Sancho Dávila y Daza (21 September 1523 – 1583) was a Spanish general.

Born at Ávila, he first served as the commander of the Duke of Alba's bodyguard. It was in this function that Dávila arrested the Count of Egmont.

When the Eighty Years' War started, Dávila suffered a defeat in the Battle of Le Quesnoy. He was also involved in the 1572 Siege of Middelburg and the Battle of Flushing a year later. In 1574, Dávila defeated Louis and Henry, brothers of William the Silent, in the Battle of Mookerheyde.

In 1576, as commander of the Spanish troops in the Citadel of Antwerp, he was the main instigator of the Sack of Antwerp in which between 7,000 and 18,000 lives and a great deal of property were lost. Four years later, he participated with the Duke of Alba at the Battle of Alcântara.

In 1580, he captured the key Portuguese city of Porto which secured Spain's personal union with Portugal for more than 60 years and finished off António, Prior of Crato's army in the War of the Portuguese Succession.

Dávila later died in Lisbon of a wound infection, which he got during a raid in Portugal.