The Slaying of the Spaniards (also known as the Spanish Killings; ) was one of the last documented

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

Icelandic history The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Viking explorers and the people they enslaved from Western Europe, particularly in modern-day Norway and the British Isles, in the late ninth century. Iceland was still uninhabited ...

. Some Basque whalers went on a whaling expedition to Iceland and were killed after a conflict in 1615 with local people in the region of the

Westfjords The Westfjords or West Fjords (, ) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative region, the least populous in the country. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast of Greenland. It is connected to the rest of I ...

Background

During the first half of the sixteenth century,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

whalers set up the world's first large-scale whaling industry in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

. The center of this industry was some ten ports on the southern coast of

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

. During the peak years of the 1560s and 1570s, the fleet comprised around 30 ships manned by up to 2,000 men, who killed approximately 400 whales each year. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, Spanish whaling had reached Iceland.

Massacre

The year 1615 was a difficult year in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

with ice up to shores until late summer and considerable loss of livestock. During mid-summer, three Spanish whaling vessels came into in

. The Icelanders and the Spaniards had a mutual agreement at the beginning as both parties benefited from the enterprise. When the ships were ready for departure in late September, a terrible gale arose and the ships were driven on the rocks and crushed. Most (approximately 80) of the crew members survived. Captains Pedro de Aguirre and Esteban de Telleria wintered at Vatneyri,

Patreksfjörður Patreksfjörður (, ) is a fishing village in the Westfjords of Iceland. It was an important fishing and trading post until the Icelandic government's introduction of a fishing quota in 1990. Administratively, it is part of the municipality of Ve ...

and left for home the next year. The crew of Captain Martín de Villafranca's ship split into two groups; one entered

Ísafjarðardjúp Ísafjarðardjúp () is a large fjord in the Westfjords region of Iceland. Its name translates to ''Depth of the fjord of sea ice''. Originally named simply Ísafjörður, the semantic run around happened through the -Deep meaning the inner pa ...

while the other went to

Bolungarvík Bolungarvík (, regionally also ) is a small town and the only built-up area in the municipality of Bolungarvíkurkaupstaður in the northwest of Iceland, located on the Westfjords peninsula, approximately from the town of Ísafjörður and from ...

and later to

Þingeyri Þingeyri (, regionally also ) is a settlement in the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær, Iceland. It is located on the coast of Dýrafjörður fjord in the mountainous peninsula Westfjords (in Icelandic language, Icelandic written Vestfirðir). On ...

. The first conflict began when one group entered the empty house of a merchant of

and stole some dried fish. As retaliation, on the night of October 5th, a group of Icelanders entered the hut where the Spaniards were sleeping and killed 14 of them. Only one young man called García escaped. Captain Martín de Villafranca of

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

, whose father and grandfather had both been involved with Terra Nova whaling, was among those who were killed. The bodies were mutilated and sunken into water. Jón Guðmundsson the Learned wrote about the deaths "dishonored and sunken into sea, as if they were the worst pagans and not innocent Christians". Three days after the first slaying, Ari Magnússon summoned a council at

Súðavík Súðavík () is a fishing village and municipality (Súðavíkurhreppur ) on the west coast of Álftafjörður in Westfjords, Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic ...

and twelve judges agreed to declare all the Spaniards as outlaws. On the 13th of October, Martín and the other 17 of his group were killed at Æðey and Sandeyri in

while they were fishing, by troops commanded by Ari Magnússon. According to Jón Guðmundsson, the bodies were stabbed in the eyes, ears and noses and had their genitals mutilated. The captain, Martín de Villafranca, was injured in the shoulder and chest with an axe but managed to escape into the sea. However, he was stoned in the water and dragged to the shore where he was tortured to death. Two verdicts were instigated by Sheriff Ari Magnússon of Ögur, Ísafjarðardjúp, in October 1615 and January 1616. The Spaniards were considered criminals after their ships were wrecked and in accordance with the Icelandic law book of 1281, it was decided that the only right thing to do was to kill as many of them as possible. An estimated 32 Spaniards were killed.

Aftermath

Jón Guðmundsson the Learned (1574–1658) wrote a critical account condemning the decision of the local sheriff to order the killings: ''A True Account of Spanish Men's Shipwrecks and Slayings''. Jón says that they were unjustly killed; not wishing to take part in an attack on them, he fled south to

Snæfellsnes The Snæfellsnes () is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western Iceland. The peninsula has a volcanic origin having the Snæfellsnes volcanic belt down its centre, and the Snæfellsjökull volcano A volcano is com ...

. On April 22, 2015, a descendant of one of the victims, Xabier Irujo, set up a

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

in Hólmavík in memory of the massacre, along with Magnus Raffnson, whose ancestor was a perpetrator. The opening ceremony was attended by Westfjords district commissioner Jónas Guðmundsson and , then governor of the

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

province in the Basque Country,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. At the occasion, Jónas formally revoked Ari Magnússon's 1615 decree.

References

External links and sources

Slaying of SpaniardsWhaling in Iceland history1615.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spanverjavigin 17th century in Iceland Conflicts in 1615 1615 in Europe Massacres in Iceland Westfjords 17th century in Spain Basque history Whaling in Iceland

Background

Massacre

Aftermath

See also

References

External links and sources