The Capture of La Mámora was a successful Spanish raid, commanded by Admiral
Luis Fajardo y Chacón, on the town of
La Mamora, south of
El Araich in August 1614 as part of a campaign against
African privateering at the Moroccan coast. The fortress remained part of the Spanish Kingdom until 1681 when
Muley Ismail Ibn Sharif, the Sultan of Morocco took the city from the Spaniards.
Background
By the year 1604, after the
first Anglo-Spanish War, pirates had established a
pirate haven
Pirate havens or Pirate coves are ports or harbors that are a safe place for pirates to repair their vessels, resupply, recruit, spend their plunder, avoid capture, and/or lie in wait for merchant ships to pass by. The areas have governments that ...
at La Mamora. It became the main retreat of
Atlantic pirates under the command of
Henry Mainwaring
Sir Henry Mainwaring (1587–1653), was an English lawyer, soldier, writer, seaman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622. He was for a time a pirate based in Newfoundland and then a naval officer with the Royal Nav ...
.
Philip III of Spain
Philip III (; 14 April 1578 – 31 March 1621) was King of Spain and King of Portugal, Portugal (where he is known as Philip II of Portugal) during the Iberian Union. His reign lasted from 1598 until his death in 1621. He held dominion over the S ...
had started a campaign against privateering that led to the
raid on La Goulette of 1609 and the
Cession of Larache
The cession of Larache effectively took place on 20 November 1610, when Juan de Mendoza y Velasco, Marquis of San Germán, assumed control over the North African port of Larache on behalf of the Hispanic Monarchy.
History
The acquisition of Lara ...
in 1610.
By the summer of 1614, both the Dutch and the Spanish had ambitions to seize the town. The Dutch Admiral,
Jan Evertsen
Johan Evertsen (1 February 1600 – 5 August 1666) was a Dutch admiral who was born in the 17th century.
Early life
Like his five brothers, Evertsen started his military career as a lieutenant after the death of his father, "Captain Jan". He q ...
had arrived in Morocco in June 1614 with a fleet of Dutch warships with the brief of entering La Mamora, defeating the pirates and building a fort which would be a Dutch stronghold. While negotiations were taking place between the Dutch and
Muley Zaydan, the Spaniards raided the town in August, despite the validity of the
Twelve Years' Truce
The Twelve Years' Truce was a ceasefire during the Eighty Years' War between Habsburg Spain, Spain and the Dutch Republic, agreed in Antwerp on 9 April 1609 and ended on 9 April 1621. While European powers like Kingdom of France, France began tre ...
, taking it with hardly any conflict.
Operation
In August 1614, an expeditionary force of 20 warships was sent across the Straits under the command of Luis Fajardo. With most of the corsairs absent, only a few remained to defend the city, they sank two ships at the harbor to prevent the Spanish invaders from swooping in. Spanish guns started decimating the spars and yards that blocked the entrance, and the corsairs found themselves forced to torch their ships and flee. Once they were gone, the Spaniards seized control of the pirate haven.
[Vallar, Cindy]
"Sir Henry Mainwaring, Pirate, Pirate Hunter, and Royalist."
Pirates and Privateers: the History of Maritime Piracy. 2009.
Aftermath
Renamed San Miguel de Ultramar, it would remain under Spanish rule for 67 years, until 1681, when the
Alawite
Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...
Sultan Ismaíl of Morocco recaptured it.
References
Literature
*
Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1895). ''Armada Española desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y Aragón'', vol. III, Madrid, pp. 331–3.
* Henry de Castries (1907). ''Les sources inédites de l'histoire du Maroc'', vol. II, Paris.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capture of Mamora (1614)
Conflicts in 1614
1614 in Africa
17th century in Morocco
Mamora (1614)