Sack of Lanzarote (1586) | |||||||
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Part of Ottoman–Habsburg wars | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Spanish Empire | Regency of Algiers | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Don Agustin de Herrera y Rojas (POW) Diego de Cabrera Leme † | Murat Reis the Elder | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 6-7 ships
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
200-300 enslaved | Unknown |
The Sack of Lanzarote occurred in 1586, when 6 or 7 Algerian Galleys, sacked the Spanish island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The Algerians were successful and occupied the island for a month before leaving it.
In 1582, the Ottoman-Algerian Admiral, Murat Reis the Elder, sailed to the Strait of Gibraltar. [1] In late June 1586, [2] after stopping at the Moroccan city of Salé, [3] he executed another sudden landing in Lanzarote with 6 or 7 galleys, 1,200 men, including 400 Turks. [4] [5] The Algerians poured onto the island like a torrent, furiously attacking the castle of Guanapaya, which is the stronghold of the town of Teguise. After assaulting it twice, they managed to destroy it after the death of the commander Diego de Cabrera Leme in its defense. [6]
Thus freed from that obstacle, they burned more than ten thousand fanegas of wheat and barley; and set fire to all the archives and offices of notaries, without saving any ancient document or useful manuscript from the flames. The governor Don Agustin de Herrera y Rojas, the first Marquis of Lanzarote, was captured along his wife Doña Inés Benitez de las Cuevas and Doña Constanza de Herrera, his natural daughter. [7]
However, Murat raised a flag of peace before returning, a truce was agreed upon to negotiate the ransom of those two illustrious prisoners, the sum of which amounted to fifteen thousand ducats. And since only five thousand could be presented at once, Don Diego Sarmiento, the natural brother of the marquis, and Marco de San Juan Peraza were delivered as hostages for the remaining ten thousand. [8]
Thus, Murat withdrew from the island on August 26, taking with him 200 [9] or 300 captives. [10]
Lanzarote is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 125 kilometres off the north coast of Africa and 1,000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.94 square kilometres, Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 152,289 inhabitants at the start of 2019, it is the third most populous Canary Island, after Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Located in the centre-west of the island is Timanfaya National Park, one of its main attractions. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1993. The island's capital is Arrecife, which lies on the eastern coastline. It is the smaller main island of the Province of Las Palmas.
Murat Reis the Elder was an Ottoman privateer and admiral, who served in the Ottoman Navy. He is regarded as one of the most important Barbary corsairs.
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Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo is the full name of the botanical garden on Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands. "Jardín Botánico Canario" means "Botanical Garden of the Canaries", while the additional words "Viera y Clavijo" honor the pioneering Spanish cleric and scholar José Viera y Clavijo (1731–1813), who attempted to found a botanical garden in the Canary Islands in the late eighteenth century.
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Don Manuel Críspulo González y Soto, 1st Marquis of Bonanza, was a Spanish entrepreneur of the González Byass wine and sherry company and a philanthropist.
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Diego de Medrano was a nobleman from the House of Medrano in the Kingdom of Castile and a prominent Spanish naval commander of the late 16th century. He played a significant role in several key military campaigns, including the battles of Cyprus, Lepanto, Navarino, and Tunis, as well as other expeditions in Italy and Barbary. Medrano was appointed commander of twelve galleys that joined Álvaro de Bazán, Marquess of Santa Cruz in the 1583 expedition to Terceira. As a Squadron General and Captain, Don Diego de Medrano commanded four galleys in the Spanish Armada, and on the voyage back to Spain, he became interim Admiral of the Spanish Armada.