Conquest of the Azores

Conquest of the Azores
Part of the War of the Portuguese Succession

Map of the Terceira Island. By Jan Huygen van Linschoten.
Date 2 August 1583
Location Terceira Island, Azores Islands
Result Decisive Spanish victory[1][2]
Belligerents
Kingdom of Portugal

(Loyal to Prior of Crato)
 France
 England[3]

  Spain

(Under Philip of Spain)
Commanders and leaders
Prior of Crato Álvaro de Bazán
Strength
9,200 men[4]
30 warships		 11,700 men[4]
96 warships
Casualties and losses
9,000 dead or captured[1]
(Mostly prisoners)		 400 dead or wounded

The Conquest of the Azores, principally Terceira Island, took place on 2 August 1583, between the Portuguese loyal to the claimant Dom António, Prior of Crato, supported by French and English troops, and the Spanish-Portuguese forces loyal to King Philip commanded by the admiral Don Álvaro de Bazán during the War of the Portuguese Succession.

Contents

The Battle

Secure within his Lisbon base, the Marquis of Santa Cruz prepared an amphibious invasion force. This time his aim was not to fight a fleet but to land an army: the task force could certainly defend itself if necessary, but its primary role was to put troops, together with their supporting equipment and supplies, on a selected beach-head and then to back them up until the military objectives had been gained.

After only one day's fighting Terceira fell and the Spanish-Portuguese troops won an easy victory thanks to the good command of Don Álvaro de Bazán. The same day, the Spanish-Portuguese force landed in Faial, where they defeated and captured a garrison of five French and one English companies, 700 men all told.[3] The French and English soldiers on the islands were allowed to retire unharmed, but sixteen supporters of Dom António who had tried to flee on the night of the attack, were executed.

Dom António and a handful of his supporters were lucky to escape with their lives.[1]

Consequences

With the conquest of the Terceira Island, the Azores Islands were completely controlled by the Habsburg King, Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal) and the war ended with the complete incorporation of the Kingdom of Portugal and its colonies into the Iberian Union.[2]

Dom António returned to France and lived for a time in Ruel, near Paris. Fear of spies, employed by Philip II of Spain, drove António from one refuge to another until he finally went to England.

Elizabeth I of England and her advisers viewed with trepidation the rising tide of Spanish victories (the conquest of the Azores Islands in the south and of the Flemish coast in the north) in 1583.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Geoffrey Parker p.73
  2. ^ a b Nascimiento Rodrigues/Tessaleno Devezas p.122
  3. ^ a b Tenison, Eva Mabel (1960). Elizabethan England. Leamington Spa, Volume IV, pp. 211-213. ISBN 1846649161
  4. ^ a b Konstam. The Armada Campaign (1588) p.44

References