Raid on Santiago de Cuba (1603)

Capture of Santiago De Cuba Part of the Anglo–Spanish War Map of the Bay of Santiago de Cuba Date 12 May 1603 Location Santiago de Cuba (Present day Cuba) Result English victory[1] Belligerents  Spain England Commanders and leaders Pedro de Valdés Christopher Cleeve Strength Militia & fortification 2 ships 200[2] Casualties and losses 4 vessels burned unknown

Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) Spanish Main San Juan de Ulúa São Vicente Santo Domingo Cartagena St. Augustine Spanish West Indies Havana 1st Puerto Caballos San Mateo Recife Trinidad • Orinoco La Guaira • Caracas • Coro Guadalupe 1st San Juan Pinos 2nd San Juan Tabasco Portobello 2nd Puerto Caballos Santiago de Cuba Atlantic Ponta Delgada Terceira Newfoundland Santiago 1st Azores 1st Flores 2nd Flores Faial Las Palmas 2nd Azores European waters Scheldt Pantelleria 1st Cádiz 1st Calais • Gravelines Corunna • Lisbon Bayona 1st Gibraltar Strait 2nd Gibraltar Strait Berlengas Gulf of Almería Barbary Coast Bay of Biscay Gironde 1st Cornwall 2nd Cádiz Cape Finisterre 2nd Cornwall • West Wales Sesimbra Dover Strait Gulf of Cádiz Low Countries and Germany Mons Goes Middelburg Haarlem 1st Geertruidenberg Leiden Delft Valkenburg Schoonhoven Gembloux Rijmenam Borgerhout Mechelen 1st Steenwijk Kollum Noordhorn Niezijl Lochem Lier Eindhoven Steenbergen Aalst Antwerp Arnhem 1st Grave Venlo Axel 1st Rheinberg 1st Zutphen 1st Sluis Bergen op Zoom 2nd Geertruidenberg Breda 2nd Zutphen Deventer Delfzijl Knodsenburg 1st Hulst Nijmegen 2nd Steenwijk Coevorden 3rd Geertruidenberg Huy 1st Groenlo Lippe 2nd Hulst Turnhout 2nd Rheinberg Meurs 2nd Groenlo Bredevoort Enschede Ootmarsum Oldenzaal Lingen Schenckenschans Zaltbommel Rees • 3rd Rheinberg Nieuwpoort 4th Rheinberg • 2nd Meurs Ostend 's-Hertogenbosch 2nd Grave Hoogstraten Ardenburg • Oostberg • 2nd Sluis France Arques Ivry Paris Rouen Caudebec Craon Blaye Morlaix Crozon 2nd Calais Amiens Ireland Carrigafoyle Smerwick Irish West Coast Kinsale Castlehaven

The Capture of Santigao De Cuba was a minor military event that took place towards the end of the Anglo–Spanish War in May 1603. Santiago de Cuba was attacked and sacked by English privateers led by Christopher Cleeve.^[3]

Events

Background

In late February 1603 Christopher Cleeve, in the large armed merchant galleon Elizabeth and Cleeve along with a pinnace left England on a privateering expedition to raid the Spanish Main; funded largely by a number of London Merchants.^[3]

Cleeve arrived in the Caribbean in April; Cleeve's main target was Santiago de Cuba which had escaped attacks by the English since the advent of the Anglo-Spanish war. Santiago de Cuba was the second largest town in Cuba having been founded in 1515. The town had been targeted by pirates before, notably in 1553.^[4]

Raid

On 12 May 1603 the English landed in a bay near Santiago de Cuba and met no resistance.^[2] They then took the small but unfinished fort; a ravelin and battery on the south-western beach of the promontory which covered the bay from the land side. Soon after Cleeve's men then marched towards the town and then launched an attack. They surprised the militia who attempted some resistance before being overwhelmed and the English then entered the city and went on the rampage.^[5] Many of the buildings were plundered including the cathedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, and in all a considerable amount of booty was acquired.^[2]

The city was the occupied for a few days before a ransom was then attempted but having no response with this Cleeve ordered his men to set fire to many buildings including the cathedral.^[5] In addition all the fortifications were dismantled or destroyed and four vessels were also plundered and burnt.^[2] Most of Santiago de Cuba was destroyed and the English pirates left with their booty unmolested after having been in the city for just under a week.^[1]

Aftermath

Cleeve then made a descent on Spanish Jamaica but left finding supplies and booty too few.^[2] Cleeve on his way back home past Cuba however intercepted and captured two small galleons in the Old Bahama Channel 28 August that conveyed the new Spanish governor of Florida Pedro de Ibarra who was captured.^[3]

The raid on Santiago was to be the last major attack on the Spanish Main by the English after nearly thirty years. Soon after James I ordered all privateers to cease while peace negotiations with the Spanish were being held in London which resulted in the Treaty of London.^[3]

The English returned in 1662 for another strike led by Christopher Myngs at the city; this led to the destruction of the city as well as the the destruction to the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca.^[6]

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Andrews, Kenneth R (1964). Elizabethan Privateering 1583-1603. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521040327. 
• Bradley, Peter T (2010). British Maritime Enterprise in the New World: From the Late Fifteenth to the Mid-eighteenth Century. Edwin Mellen Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0773478664. 
• Latimer, Jon (2009). The Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire, 1607-1697. Hachette UK. ISBN 9780297857648. 
• Marley, David (2008). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere. ABC CLLO. ISBN 978-1598841008. 
• Seymour, Jean-Jacques (2010). Les chemins des proies: une histoire de la flibuste. Ibis rouge. ISBN 9782844503657.  (French)