Battle of Alcácer Quibir

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Battle of Alcácer Quibir" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Battle of Alcácer Quibir (also known as "Battle of Three Kings" (

, on 4 August 1578.

A Moroccan victory, the battle has been described as "the greatest military disaster the Portuguese ever suffered in the course of their overseas expansion."[6] It marked an end to Portuguese attempts to reconquer territories it had lost in Morocco.^[6]

The combatants were the army of the deposed Moroccan Sultan

.

The Christian king

.

Prelude

King Sebastian of Portugal

Sebastian, who would later be known in Portugal as the Desired, was the son of the

.

The

in 1562 from a Moroccan siege. Accordingly, in 1568, the kingdom began to prepare for intervention in Morocco.

This policy was not only supported by the mercantile bourgeoisie as it would benefit commerce in this area (primarily, gold, cattle, wheat, and sugar), but also by the nobility. Up to that time Portuguese military action in Africa had been confined to small expeditions and raids; Portugal had built its vast maritime empire from Brazil to the East Indies by a combination of trade, sea exploration, and technological superiority, with Christian conversion of subject peoples being one, but by no means the only, end in view. Sebastian proposed to change this strategy entirely.

In 1574 Sebastian visited some of the Portuguese bases in North Africa and led a successful raid on Muslim territory beyond the then Portuguese city of

. It is said that the expeditionary force numbered 500 ships, and the army in total numbered about 18,000 men, including the flower of the Portuguese nobility.

Sultan Abd al-Malik of Morocco

Morocco, meanwhile, was under the rule of the Saadi (or Saadian) dynasty, a Moroccan Sharifian dynasty. Their rise to power began as a resistance to the Portuguese presence in Agadir and by the 1550s they controlled most of present-day Morocco and had supplanted the earlier Wattasid dynasty.^[8] Upon the death of Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib in 1574 his son Muhammad II al-Mutawakkil inherited the throne, but two years later he was overthrown by his uncle Abd al-Malik. Abd al-Malik had travelled to Istanbul in 1574 and secured Ottoman support from the Sultan there himself. The beylerbey of Algiers provided him with troops and with these Abd al-Malik was able to depose his nephew after winning a decisive victory near Fez. Once on the throne, as an Ottoman vassal he had the Friday prayers and the khutba in mosques delivered in the Ottoman sultan's name (Murad III), adopted Ottoman clothing, and organized his army along Ottoman lines with the help of Turkish officers.^{[8][9][10]: 188} After this, the Saadi army, whose bulk was recruited from guich troops ("military tribes" mobilized to serve as regular levies^[11]), combined mounted arquebusiers, infantry armed with rifles, large numbers of light cavalry, and a detachment of artillery; most of which were newly-trained in Ottoman tactics. In addition to his local guich troops and Berber contingents, many of the soldiers were recruited from Andalusis previously expelled from the Iberian Peninsula (or descended from those refugees), Berber tribes from the east such as the Zwawa, and from the Turks and ex-Ottoman soldiers in the region.^{[12]: 92–104, 153–155 [8]: 214–215}

Ottoman presence

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Indications of the presence of an Ottoman force accompanying the Moroccans to the battlefield vary between sources. Historian Stephen Cory, in reviewing relations between the Saadians and Ottomans in this period, states that the battle was won by the Saadians "without direct Ottoman assistance."^[13] Abderrahmane El Moudden, in a large study of Ottoman-Saadian diplomacy in this period, notes that some modern Turkish sources attribute the 1578 victory to Ottoman forces led by Ramazan Pasha on the field – though he also notes that some of these sources are liable to exaggerate Turkish military history.^[14]

In an encyclopedic entry about King Sebastian, historian Allen Fromherz indicates the presence of Ottoman forces at the battle, including Janissaries.^[15] Historian R. G. Grant states that Abd al-Malik's army was "partly supplied by the Ottoman Turks" and that it combined "Moroccan cavalry with Ottoman musket-armed infantry and cannon".^[16] Professor of Islamic Studies, Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, states that the Turks "could not take over the affairs of Morocco after [the Battle of Alcácer's] victory to which they contributed much". He also mentions that Abd al-Malik's army included Turkish troops, that its officers were Turks and so was the commander of his army, who is alleged to have had Abd al-Malik poisoned in order to secure total Ottoman control over Morocco.^[17]

Campaign

After haranguing his troops from the windows of the Church of Santa Maria in Lagos, Sebastian departed that port in his armada on 24 June 1578.

He landed at

, in Portuguese Morocco, where Abu Abdallah joined him with an additional 6,000 Moorish allied troops, and marched into the interior.

Abd al-Malik I, who was gravely ill, had meanwhile collected a large army, rallying his countrymen to

.

Battle

On 4 August 1578, the Portuguese and Moorish allied troops were drawn up in battle array, and Sebastian rode around encouraging the ranks. But the Moroccans advanced on a broad front, planning to encircle his army.

The Sultan had 10,000 cavalry on the wings, and in the center had placed Moors who had been driven out of Spain and thus bore a special grudge against Christians.^[18] Despite his illness, the Sultan left his litter and led his forces on horseback.

The battle started as both sides exchanged several volleys of gunfire from

. Stukley, commanding the Portuguese center, was killed by a cannonball early in the battle. The Moroccan cavalry advanced and began to encircle the Portuguese army. Both armies soon became fully engaged in a melee.

The flanks of the Portuguese army began to give way to the Moorish cavalry, and eventually the center became threatened as well. Seeing the flanks compromised, and having lost its commander early in battle, the Portuguese center lost heart and was overcome.

The battle ended after nearly four hours of heavy fighting and resulted in the total defeat of the Portuguese and Abu Abdallah's army with 8,000 dead, including the slaughter of almost the whole of Portugal's nobility. 15,000 were captured and sold into slavery, and around 100 survivors escaped to the coast. The body of King Sebastian, who led a charge into the midst of the enemy and was then cut off, was never found.^[19]

The Sultan Abd Al-Malik died during the battle from natural causes (the effort of riding was too much for him), but the news was concealed from his troops until total victory had been secured. Abu Abdallah attempted to flee but was drowned in the river. Because of the deaths during the fighting of Sebastian, Abu Abdallah, and Abd Al-Malik, the battle became known in Morocco as the Battle of the Three Kings.

Legacy

Abd Al-Malik was succeeded as Sultan by his brother

For Portugal, the battle was an unmitigated disaster. Sebastian died on the battlefield along with most of the

in 1581.

Later, at the beginning of his reign, Philip II ordered that the mutilated remains said to be Sebastian's (and so recognized after the battle by some of his close companions),^[

.

Partly in reaction to the national trauma of this disastrous defeat, a cult of 'Sebastianism' which portrayed the lost monarch in terms similar to King Arthur arose.^[21] The legend of Portugal's "Once and Future King" who would some day return to save his nation has ebbed and flowed in Portuguese life ever since.^[22]

In fiction

• The battle was the subject of the
  Thomas Stukeley. It is also mentioned peripherally in Thomas Heywood's 1605 play If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody. The real story of one of the most unfortunate and latest ransomed captives, Dom João de Portugal of the Counts de Vimioso, inspired the play Frei Luís de Sousa by Almeida Garrett
  .
• The battle is reanacted in the 1990 film The Battle of the Three Kings.^[23]
• In the 1990 film
  "Non", ou A Vã Glória de Mandar by the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira
  features a representation of the battle.
• The battle is represented in the 2020 video game Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition as a historical battle mission under the name "The Battle of the Three Kings".
• The battle is mentioned in the story "Among the Hairy Earthmen" by R. A. Lafferty, where it is depicted as one of a series of Renaissance battles provoked by extraterrestrial juvenile delinquents inhabiting human bodies.

See also

• History of Morocco
• History of Portugal
• Military history of Morocco
• Military history of Portugal

References

Bibliography

• Partly based on an entry on Sebastian in
  The Popular Encyclopedia; or, Conversations Lexicon
  (London: Blackie & Son, 1864)
• E. W. Bovill, The Battle of Alcazar (London: The Batchworth Press, 1952).
• Mary Elizabeth Brooks, A King for Portugal. The Madrigal conspiracy, 1594–95. On the impersonation of King Sebastian by Gabriel de Espinosa. With plates, including portraits (Madison and Milwaukee: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1964), Chapter 1.
• Marshall Cavendish: World and Its Peoples (2009)
• Lyle N. McAlister, Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492–1700, Volume 3 (1984)
• Spencer, C. Tucker (2009). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO.
  ISBN 978-185109-672-5
  .
• Ralph Peters, Endless War: Middle-Eastern Islam Vs. Western Civilization (2011)
  ISBN 978-0-81170-823-4
• Valensi, Lucette (2009). Fables de la mémoire – la glorieuse bataille des trois rois, 1578 : souvenirs d'une grande tuerie chez les chrétiens, les juifs & les musulmans. Péninsules. Editions Chandeigne.
  ISBN 978-2-915540-59-8
  .

35°01′N 5°54′W / 35.017°N 5.900°W / 35.017; -5.900