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| Battle of Algeciras | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theReconquista | |||||||
 Marinid gravestone, 13th century (Museo Municipal de Algeciras). | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Castile Order of Santa María de España | Marinid dynasty Emirate of Granada | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Pedro Martínez de Fe | Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Castilian navy • 100 ships | Marinid navy • 72 ships Nasrid navy • 12 ships | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| All but 3 ships and hundreds drowned | Unknown | ||||||
TheBattle of Algeciras was anaval battle which occurred on July 25, 1278. The battle pitted the fleets of theKingdom of Castile, commanded by theAdmiral of Castile,Pedro Martínez de Fe, and the combined fleets of theMarinid dynasty and that of theEmirate of Granada, commanded byAbu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr. The battle was fought in the context of the Moorish naval expeditions to theIberian Peninsula. The battle, which took place in theStrait of Gibraltar, resulted in a Muslim victory.
This battle coincided with a simultaneoussiege of the city ofAlgeciras which lasted from 1278–79 and was commanded by theInfante Sancho. The Castilian prince would abandon the siege later in 1279, marking the end of the first action of the long battle for theStrait of Gibraltar.
In 1275, theMarinidSultanAbu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq disembarked on the peninsula commanding an army with the strategic objective to occupy the city ofTarifa. Along this route, he directly participated in various actions, including theBattle of Écija.
By 1278, KingAlfonso X of Castile, sent a large fleet fromSevilla with the goal of blockading that same city. The fleet, which was made up of more than 100 ships of different types, was commanded by theOrder of Santa María de España, a military-religious Spanish order which was concentrated in naval warfare. The fleet was commanded by the Admiral of Castile,Pedro Martínez de Fe. The Marinid Sultan worked to gather his own fleet of 72 ships and was reinforced with a small fleet of 12 ships sent by the Sultan of Grenada,Muhammad II.
Once these two fleets were united, the Muslim fleets recognized a tactical advantage seeing that the Castillian fleet was in poor condition as many of its crew members were afflicted by an attack ofscurvy. They decided to attack on the 25th of July and the action took place off the coast ofAlgeciras and resulted in the practical destruction of the entire Castilian fleet.
A large portion of the responsibility for the destruction of the Castilian fleet fell on the infante Pedro who appropriated much of the fleets and thesiege's tax funding and condemned it to serious supply problems.[1] King Alfonso X however failed to punish his son and instead chose to blame the fleets failure on the Jewishtax collectorsYishaq de la Maleha, ordering his arrest, appropriating all his assets and ordering his execution.
The embarrassment following the battle led to the subsequent irrelevance of theOrder of Santa María de España which was integrated with theOrder of Santiago in 1280 after that order's ranks were decimated in theBattle of Moclín. After the integration into the Order of Santiago, the Order of Santa María de España ceased to exist.
