Robert Sturmy was a 15th-century

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

merchant. In 1445 he sponsored a voyage conveying 200 pilgrims to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

in Galicia and in 1447 his ship the ''Cog Anne'' took pilgrims to Jaffa in Palestine but was wrecked off Greece on the return voyage, with the loss of 37 lives. He was Sheriff of Bristol in 1450 and Mayor in 1453. He led a commercial expedition from Bristol in 1457–58 to break the Italian monopoly on trade to the Eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. If he had been successful, it would have allowed England to gain direct access to both the Oriental spices that entered Europe via the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and to

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double sulfate salt of aluminium with the general formula , where is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium. By itself, "alum" often refers to potassium alum, with the ...

from

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...

. His three-ship voyage was backed by powerful interests in England, but opposed by the Italian merchants who controlled most of Europe's long-distance trade and banking at this time. In the event, the ships succeeded in conducting their trade but were then set upon by Genoese-backed pirates on their return home. At the end of what was reported to be a three-day running battle, the Bristol fleet was captured off

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

with the loss of 128 men, including Sturmy. The financial losses, which were claimed to amount to £6,000, were to lead to the arrest of the entire Genoese community in England and the seizure of their assets. Such an extreme reaction is less surprising when it is considered that, relative to the size of the contemporary English economy, the losses would be equivalent to c. £750 million today.E. T. Jones, 'Preface' to Stuart Jenks (ed.), ''Robert Sturmy’s Commercial Expedition To The Mediterranean''
/ref> The effect was thought to stymie English ambitions in the Mediterranean for at least half-a-century, although it may also have helped to persuade Bristol merchants to turn their attention to Atlantic exploration. These westwards voyages included the expeditions to try to locate the island of Hy-Brazil in the 1480s, as well as John Cabot's expeditions of 1496-98, which resulted in the European discovery of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

in 1497.

References

External links

Notes on discovery of Sturmy documentsE. T. Jones, 'Preface' to Stuart Jenks (ed.), ''Robert Sturmy’s Commercial Expedition To The Mediterranean'' (Bristol Record Society Publications, Vol. 58, 2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturmy, Robert History of Bristol Age of Discovery English navigators Mayors of Bristol High Sheriffs of Bristol