| Capture of La Mámora | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSpanish-Moroccan conflicts | |||||||||
 Spanish troops, marching with ladders to scale the walls of the town, all of which is being achieved without any sign of fighting. The great river, known today as the ‘Oued Sebou’ flows out to the Western Ocean (Occeano occidentale, now theMediterranean) is shown to the north of the town walls. Engraving by ItalianGirolamo Discepolo (c. 1550–1615) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Kingdom of Spain |  Saadi Sultanate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Luis Fajardo | Unknown | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Landing Corps of 5,000 men 100 ships, including warships and transports | 14 privateer ships | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Minimal | 10 privateer ships captured 4 destroyed | ||||||||
TheCapture of La Mámora was a successful Spanish raid, commanded by AdmiralLuis Fajardo y Chacón, on the town ofLa Mamora, south ofEl Araich in August 1614 as part of a campaign againstAfrican privateering at the Moroccan coast. The fortress remained part of the Spanish Kingdom until 1681 whenMuley Ismail Ibn Sharif, the Sultan of Morocco took the city from the Spaniards.
By the year 1604, after thefirst Anglo-Spanish War, pirates had established apirate haven at La Mamora. It became the main retreat ofAtlantic pirates under the command ofHenry Mainwaring.[1]Philip III of Spain had started a campaign against privateering that led to theraid on La Goulette of 1609 and theCession of Larache in 1610.
By the summer of 1614, both the Dutch and the Spanish had ambitions to seize the town. The Dutch Admiral,Jan Evertsen 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 andMuley Zaydan, the Spaniards raided the town in August, despite the validity of theTwelve Years' Truce, taking it with hardly any conflict.
In August 1614, an expeditionary force of 20 warships was sent across the Straits under the command of Luis Fajardo.[2] 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.[3]
RenamedSan Miguel de Ultramar, it would remain under Spanish rule for 67 years, until 1681, when theAlawite Sultan Ismaíl of Morocco recaptured it.