This Day in History: 1508-07-23 : Pedro Navarro takes el Peñón de Velez de la Gomera
On 23 July 1508 the Spanish commander Pedro Navarro seized the Rock of Vélez de la Gomera, a major stronghold of Mediterranean pirates.
The conquest arose almost by chance, when the Spanish captain was pursuing a fleet of Barbary pirates. Nevertheless, the Spanish campaign against Mediterranean Islam followed a pre-meditated plan rooted in Queen Isabella the Catholic’s long-standing wish—set out in her will—to spread Christianity across North Africa. The strategy had two goals: first, to evangelise the infidels, and second, to create a security buffer that, in case of conflict, would carry the war onto their own continent.
Before Pedro Navarro’s success, Mediterranean expeditions had been few and of mixed fortune. The Mayor of Los Donceles captured Mers-el-Kébir in 1505 but suffered disaster when he tried to take Tremecén two years later, losing 3,000 men. For that reason Ferdinand the Catholic chose an experienced soldier such as Pedro Navarro, a veteran of the Italian campaigns under the Great Captain.
Pedro Navarro had discovered that the promontory of Vélez de la Gomera served as a key refuge for the pirates harassing the Mediterranean, and—knowing they enjoyed the connivance of the local chieftain, a debauched old satyr given over to wine and pleasures—he resolved to seize the Rock and claim it for the Spanish crown.
The conquest of this strategic Mediterranean outpost caused complications with Portugal over the Treaty of Tordesillas, which assigned the Fez region, including Vélez, to Portuguese rule. Because the fortress was vital to defending Spain’s coasts, Ferdinand pursued diplomacy in good humour and good faith, with his own daughter, Queen Maria, mediating. In the Cintra Agreement, signed on 18 September 1509, Vélez de la Gomera was ceded to Castile, along with the entire coast from there to Melilla. In return, Castile ceded to Portugal the African coastline opposite the Canary Islands, between Cape Bojador and Cape Noun, except for a small coastal enclave named Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña.