Battle of Alcácer Quibir
gigatos | May 27, 2022
Summary
The Battle of the Three Kings, Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin or Battle of Alcazar Kebir (August 4, 1578) was a decisive battle that ended the Portuguese King Sebastian I”s plan to invade Morocco. It took place on the banks of the Oued al-Makhazin river, a tributary of the Loukos river flowing into Ksar El Kebir in the province of Larache.
The battle opposed on the one hand the army of the Moroccan sultan newly brought to power, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik, composed mainly of Moroccan horsemen, infantrymen, and Andalusian harquebusiers responding to the call of the holy war and reinforced by an Ottoman participation, on the one hand, the Portuguese army of King Sebastian I, assisted by his ally, the deposed Moroccan Sultan Muhammad al-Mutawakkil, mainly composed of Italian, Flemish and German mercenaries who had been granted to him by King Philip II of Spain.
The three main protagonists perished during this battle.
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Geopolitics of the Mediterranean
In the second half of the 16th century, the Mediterranean basin was disputed by two other great empires: Spain on the one hand, allied according to circumstances with Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire at the end of its apogee after the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent on the other.
In addition to such actions against Iberian interests, Ottoman expansion in North Africa was of particular concern to the Mediterranean powers, as the Sublime Porte”s hold now extended to the borders of Morocco. The Moroccans” attempt to seize Tlemcen provoked a retaliation by the Ottomans, who pushed them back beyond the Moulouya in 1551, temporarily fixing the border there; Morocco then sought the Spanish alliance to counter the Ottoman attempts.
In 1555, the presidium of Bougie was taken back from the Spaniards by the regency of Algiers, and the siege was laid before that of Oran the following year. The Spanish expedition of Mostaganem in 1558 followed the Ottoman annexation of the regency of Algiers, but it was a real disaster which saw the whole expedition force annihilated. In 1563, Oran was again besieged at the same time as Mers el-Kébir. The battle of Lepanto (1571) came to stop the Ottoman naval expansion, but the conquest of Cyprus concretized the control of the Ottomans on the Mediterranean East. Tunis taken by the Spanish fleet in 1573 was taken back the following year by the Ottoman fleet.
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End of the Portuguese conquests in Africa
Since the fifteenth century, the kingdom of Portugal has expanded beyond the European continent, aiming in particular at the control of the Strait of Gibraltar, then the domination of the Atlantic coast. However, limited by their low demographics and financial resources, some of the Portuguese rulers preferred the development of their American and Asian colonies, which did not allow the African ambitions to materialize more.
On the Moroccan side, the decline of the Wattasid dynasty allowed these ambitions to be realized. However, from 1515 onwards, tribal movements gathered around religious leaders, motivated by the rejection of the foreigner. The sheriff Abu Abdullah al-Qaim, founder of the Saadian dynasty, and his sons Ahmed al-Araj and Mohammed ech-Sheikh, allowed in 1550 a withdrawal of the Portuguese forces from most of the conquests, except for Ceuta, Tangier and Mazagan.
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Moroccan domestic politics
After 1554, when the last Wattasid ruler was killed at the battle of Tadla. Mohammed ech-Cheickh (who had ousted his elder brother) reunited Morocco around his banner, and transferred the capital to Marrakech. Ech-Cheikh then sought to protect himself from the claims of the religious communities that had brought him to the throne, while ensuring that the Ottomans (whom the Wattassides had called to help) did not become too tangible a threat. Having succeeded in his first objective, he ensured the second by allying himself with Spain, albeit Catholic. But the Saadian sovereign was assassinated in 1557 at the instigation of the regency of Algiers. His son Abdallah el-Ghalib succeeded him, maintaining the Spanish alliance while trying to reconquer – in vain – Mazagan in 1562. He died in 1574, having designated his son Muhammad al-Mutawakkil as his heir.
However, according to the dynastic rule of the Saadians, the power should normally go to the oldest brother of the deceased sultan, namely Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik. The latter, along with his brothers, found refuge with the Ottomans, to whom he asked for help in regaining power. Abd al-Malik later participated alongside the Ottomans in the 1574 siege of Tunis against the Spaniards.
Abd al-Malik, who eventually drove his nephew from power with the help of the Turks at the battle of al-Rukn in 1576, was aware that this help was also a hegemonic threat, since the Turks already controlled Tunis and Algiers. He thought that he had to get rid of the Turkish influence, as they had their eye on Morocco in order to obtain an Atlantic base to ensure optimal maritime harassment. The Sultan granted them, after a compromise of the most bitter to negotiate, the port of Salé which became then a notorious corsair base. He then made known to Philip II his peaceful intentions, in order to obtain a certain neutrality on the side of Spain.
If Abd al-Malik recognized the authority of the Sublime Porte during the first months of his reign (minting money and having the Friday preaching delivered in the name of Murad III while paying a quasi-semestrial tribute in return for a special status – at least that is what the correspondence of the Padichah would suggest), The relations of the Moroccan sultan with the Ottomans remained very ambiguous and evolved towards a form of rupture, Abd al-Malik conceiving this alliance as temporary because potentially fatal to his dynasty. In 1578, having reassured the Spaniards, Abd al-Malik no longer feared the Ottoman forces, which were now more occupied with the war against Persia than with the Mediterranean theatre.
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A new Portuguese ruler
In 1557, King John III died, leaving his throne to his only direct heir, his grandson Sebastian, who was then three years old. A regency was established from 1557 to 1568 to ensure the power of a dynasty whose succession depended on the potential descendants of the new sovereign. From 1568, Sebastian governed directly.
King Sebastian I of Portugal, in addition to supporting the pretender Muhammad al-Mutawakkil, saw an expedition to Morocco as a way to halt the “Turkish” advance; an Ottoman occupation of the country would risk economically suffocating the kingdom of Portugal. This expedition would also be an opportunity to retake the Moroccan ports. Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik prepared for the arrival of the Portuguese by proclaiming jihad throughout the country and recruiting through the Jazulite and Zarruqid confraternity networks. A final attempt to dissuade the Portuguese by the King of Spain failed, and the latter withdrew from the affair under Ottoman pressure.
Sebastian I of Portugal, in a crusade against the infidel but also to extend the Algarve of Overseas, decided to lead himself an expedition, against the opinion of all his close relations and advisers. During the diplomatic interview of Guadaloupe (December 22, 1576 – January 1, 1577), with his uncle Philip II, Sebastian pleads for the expedition against the “Turkish peril”; the king of Spain brings his support under conditions that the expedition must take place during 1577, and not go further than Larache. But the king of Spain ended up giving the king of Portugal the cold shoulder, probably partly because of the resumption of hostilities in Flanders, and partly also because of the lack of preparations on the Portuguese side. On the Spanish side, this expedition had just further complicated talks between Spain and Morocco about an alliance to counteract Ottoman influence in North Africa.
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Portuguese landing
In spite of the warnings of his entourage that tried to dissuade him from leading the expedition, the year 1578 saw King Sebastian I, aged twenty-four, gather in the port of Lagos, the largest Portuguese bay, capable of gathering all the Portuguese fleet in deep waters, a strong Christian army of more than sixteen thousand men (15,500 infantrymen, more than 1,500 horsemen and a few hundred supernumeraries) capable, according to him, of conquering Morocco, of putting his ally back on the throne, and finally of controlling the Strait of Gibraltar, something that had already begun with the Portuguese occupation of Ceuta, and thus stopping the continental military expansion of the Ottoman Empire towards the Atlantic. The Portuguese army consisted mainly of “German” mercenaries (in fact Flemish, sent by William of Nassau, or of other origins), Italians (to be sent by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and finally taken from the pope (enlisted directly by Sebastian). About half of the troops were not Portuguese. We could also mention the recruiting operations in Andalusia, which raised nearly two thousand men. These various parties were based around a corps of two thousand Portuguese harquebusiers and some two thousand Portuguese horsemen. The non-combatants, consisting of clerics, servants and prostitutes, formed a very important train.
Abd al-Malik recruited mercenaries and troops from outside his territory, notably Zouaoua soldiers (the name Zouaoua was given to the Kabyle tribes, vassals of the king of Koukou). Larache was reinforced by a troop of 2,000 Andalusians and 2,000 Zouaouas in addition to its regular garrison.
After several months of skirmishes resulting in a new retreat to the Rif mountains, al-Mutawakkil finally reached Tangier, the two rulers having formed an alliance. The Portuguese had conquered all the Atlantic coastal strongholds and their hinterland since 1415: Ceuta, Tangier, Mazagan, Assilah, Alcácer-Quibir, etc. The Portuguese expedition left Lisbon on June 17, 1578 (or on June 24, St. John”s Day) and stopped in Tangier on July 6, where the king and the deposed sultan met.
Three days after Tangier, the troops embarked for Arzila (which opened up thanks to their ally Muhammad, they waited another twelve days for supplies from the expedition. Abd al-Malik, after a short confrontation with the Portuguese, sent a letter to Sebastian with remarks about the fact that the king of Portugal supported the man who had besieged Mazagan and massacred Christians there. Despite Muhammad”s promises, the latter had no territory under his authority, while Abd al-Malik was able to offer, in exchange for peace, to give some minor territories and cities to the Portuguese protege. Sebastian saw this missive as proof of the terror his troops would arouse in the enemy, and immediately convened a council of war to decide what to do.
Three options were examined at this council: to transport the troops by boat and disembark at Larache to take the city, to lead the troops along the coast without losing sight of the fleet, or to pass inland in order to shorten the journey and meet the enemy directly. The last proposal was the one that the king retained, in spite of the recommendations of the Count of Vimioso (pt), who recommended the rapid capture of Larache, in order to have a harbor there that would make any other operation simpler. But Sebastian wished to leave as quickly as possible, directly on the enemy army, to take Alcácer-Quibir if necessary and then to fall back on Larache. The fleet was ordered to reach Larache directly by sea. Taking only a few days to live, the land army left Arzila on July 29, and, after a detour to refuel, made difficult progress in the African territory, facing heat and harassment from native troops. It was quickly decided to return to Arzila, but the fleet had already left this point, and could therefore not rescue them: Sebastian ordered on August 2 to resume the march forward, following the Oued al-Makhazin, a tributary of the Loukkos, which was not yet dry.
Encumbered by a heavy convoy of carts and non-combatants (estimated at 13,000, equivalent to the fighting force), the Portuguese army headed from Assilah or Arzila (a city recently returned to Portugal by the dethroned sultan in payment for his help in recovering the throne), to the Moroccan interior city of Larache. Meanwhile, the ailing Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik remained in Marrakech with his 30,000-strong army, sending no less than three very favorable peace proposals (the last one granting Larache to the Portuguese), but Sebastian rejected them. Pressed by the difficulty of crossing the Loukkos, the Portuguese preferred to cross the Makhazin in order to free themselves from the constraints of the tide. After this crossing, made on August 3, the army is in a very favorable position, covered by the Makhazin and the various arms of Loukkos. They had two choices: to cross the Loukkos in turn, in the direction of Alcácer-Quibir, where Abd al-Malik”s army was located, or to head for the ford in the direction of Larache. Despite Muhammad”s exhortations, who soon found himself under direct threat from the royal favorites, the troop moved toward the enemy forces, who did the same: the confrontation took place during the hottest hours of the day, those least favorable to the Europeans.
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Portuguese combat device
On August 3, 1578, the Portuguese army camped on the banks of the Makhazin, with the river at its back and its right blocked by the Loukos. Sebastian”s army, in addition to the 15,000 infantrymen who had landed in Tangier, now had more than 2,000 horsemen thanks to Muhammad”s followers, as well as thirty-six cannons. However, this army was composed mainly of heavily armed troops, whereas much lighter troops would have been needed to fight under these conditions. Abd al-Malik”s army was over 14,000 infantry and over 40,000 cavalry, and was accompanied by irregular troops of some forty cannons. But if the Moorish spies were perfectly aware of the composition of the Portuguese troops, the opposite was not true, because the king of Portugal and his staff were completely unaware of the presence of artillery in the opposing camp. The Christian infantry was arranged in a square, a formation borrowed from the Spanish (the tercio) with a line of carts on each side to protect its flanks. The vanguard was composed of the three foreign regiments, which protected the flanks of the battalion of Portuguese adventurers (elite regiment of pikemen
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Moroccan combat device
Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik, in order to encircle the compact Portuguese formation, arranged his army in a broad crescent. On the right horn, in front of Sebastian, stood Amir Ahmed (or Ahmad, brother and heir of al-Malik, later known as Ahmed al-Mansour) and his thousand mounted harquebusiers, supported by ten thousand cavalrymen. On the left horn, opposite the cavalry of the duke and Menezes, and opposite the detachment of the deposed sultan, he placed Mohammed Zarco and his two thousand horsemen lancers.
These two wings were articulated around the center. The latter, composed of arquebusiers and the personal guard of the sultan of Captain Moussa (said to be more terrifying than the janissaries), numbered about fifteen thousand infantrymen. In the rear-guard, Abu Marwan placed the rest of his regular cavalry, that is to say twenty thousand lancers, which he arranged in ten contingents of two thousand cavalrymen and in a continuous line behind the infantry line. It should also be noted that the Sultan had at his disposal that day nearly fifteen thousand irregular horsemen from the Moroccan tribes, who had come en masse to answer his call to jihad against the Infidel. He placed them at the level of the hills bordering the right flank of the formation, thus going unnoticed. Finally, the Sultan arranged his artillery, twenty-six pieces melted down in Marrakech and served by expert artillerymen, in a semicircle interlocking with its center. He returned to his tent, feverish, after a speech exhorting his men to repel the infidel.
A first Moroccan offensive, repulsed, was closely followed by a victorious Portuguese counter-offensive.
Sebastian forbids his troops to attack without his order, and goes up to the assault with the vanguard, leaving the rest of his army without a leader to command it, which deprives him of most of his men. After the success of the assault, which led the Portuguese to claim victory too soon, Abd al-Malik succumbed to his illness, and the rumor of his death spread. But the Portuguese vanguard is very advanced in the center of the Moroccan device, and a cry of retreat is heard, in order to make the junction with the main part of the royal troops, changing quickly into a stampede in front of the charge of the Moorish troops. The Portuguese artillery was quickly silenced and taken by the enemy. The battle turned into a melee, and Sebastian, who refused the offer to save himself by returning to Arzila or Tangier, was eventually killed, perhaps after attempting to raise the white flag, a sign misunderstood by his enemies who targeted him. About 7,000 other Portuguese fighters followed his example, the rest being taken prisoner, and less than a hundred Portuguese were able to return to Lisbon. Abd al-Malik died during the battle, as did Muhammad who drowned in the Wadi Makhazin while fleeing. The body of the latter, found in the wadi, was skinned (which earned him the nickname of Al-Mâslukh) and stuffed, to be taken around several cities of the kingdom.
As one of the “bloodiest and most deadly battles in the history of the 16th century,” the consequences of this defeat for Portugal were considerable. In spite of the censorship that the Portuguese authorities imposed from the first accounts arriving in Lisbon, from August 12, the rumors end up running in all the country before the end of the month. The outcome of the battle sounded the death knell for the overseas expansion of the Portuguese colonial empire, which did not add any more countries to its existing colonies, but merely extended or restricted them. The death of Sebastian, without an heir, weakened the Aviz lineage, forcing the regency to crown Cardinal Henry, whom the Pope did not release from his vows (thus prohibiting him from marrying). Portugal lost its independence at his death, passing under the control of the Habsburg dynasty of Spain for sixty years (1580-1640). The country lost, along with its king, its nobility and its army. The Portuguese expedition is also considered as the last crusade of the Christians in the Mediterranean.
On the Moroccan side, the victory made it possible to assert its possibilities of resisting the Ottoman pressure, while the booty enriched considerably the Muslim troops. Ahmad al-Mansour did not forget to send considerable gifts to the Sublime Porte, for the help that it brought him. It also settles the struggle of succession, Ahmad, by hiding the death of his brother, takes at the head of the army the status of legitimate heir, thus excluding his two nephews, his enemy al-Muttawakkil and the son of al-Malik, present at the sides of his father during the battle.
The battle and its outcome were not celebrated on the side of the victors until 1956 and the independence of Morocco. It was in the Moroccan Jewish community, which would have suffered from Sebastian”s victory, that the event was first celebrated, creating an additional pourim for 2 eloul. On the other hand, the defeat became part of the Portuguese collective memory more quickly, becoming “constitutive of the Portuguese national conscience”. But the first printed accounts of the battle were not published in Morocco or Portugal.
It was not until 1607 that the first account of a Portuguese participant was published. The previous accounts often reflect a bias supporting or opposing the expedition and its leader, regardless of the nationality of the author(s); moreover, the historian Henri de Castries believes that the Portuguese had the greatest difficulty in taking stock of this event in the sixteenth century, and that the Spaniards were not inclined either (Iberian Union with Portugal) to reopen these wounds. The work of mourning was thus initiated by the 1607 account of the author Hieronymo de Mendoça, Jornada de Africa, which was very favorable to the deceased king – in fact, it simply contradicted the previous accounts.
Despite contradictory rumors at first, Sebastian”s death is considered certain. The return of the body of King Sebastian to his country, which took place in several stages and over several years, also made introspection difficult, and insinuated many doubts as to the veracity of this death, especially in the context of his difficult succession, and then of Spanish interference. Even during his public funeral in Lisbon, the disappearance of the sovereign was questioned. The expectation of the return of King Sebastian will give rise in Portugal to impostures (False Sebastian) and a messianic belief, Sebastianism.
In Africa, Ahmad was called al-Mansur (the victorious) a few years after this military success, in which he attributed to himself the best role in his relations with Sultan Murad III, relegating his brother Abd al-Malik to the background. The designation in the Muslim world of this battle varies between “jihad” (struggle to remain in the path of God) and “ghazwa” (conquest), sometimes comparing it to the battle of Badr, the first victorious battle of Muhammad.
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Name
The name of the battle depends primarily on the sources of the contemporaries, splitting between Christian authors (who prefer “Battle of Alcazar Kebir”) and Moroccan authors (who prefer “Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin”). The third name, more epic, is also widespread. According to researcher Pierre Berthier, only the second name, which better corresponds to the reality of the terrain (Ksar el Kebir being nearly 20 kilometers from the battle site) and the context (more than three kings were involved, directly or indirectly, in the battle), should be retained.
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Bibliography
: document used as a source for the writing of this article.
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External links
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