English Tangier

Tangier was a possession of the Kingdom of England between 1661 and 1684. England acquired the city as part of the dowry of the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza when she married King Charles II of England. The diplomatic roundabout accompanying the marriage treaty is almost a story in itself. The English garrisoned and fortified the city, but the cost of maintaining the possession against the hostile Moroccan forces around it became too great. In 1684 the English blew up the defences and evacuated the city, which subsequently became part of Morocco.

History

Background

Tangier commands the entry into the Mediterranean and was the principal commercial centre on the North West coast of Africa. The Portuguese started their colonial empire by taking nearby Ceuta in 1415, and they occupied Tangier in 1471. Years of conflict between Portugal and the Moroccans under the Wattasid and Saadi dynasties followed. However, in 1659, the position changed: Rule of Morocco by the Saadi dynasty (who had steadily lost control of the country to various warlords and, in the East, to the Ottomans) finally came to an end, and (after the Dila'i interlude) the Alaouite Dynasty came to the forefront. Mulai al-Rashid took Fes in 1666, and Marrakech in 1669, essentially unifying all of Morocco. Before then, in about 1657, Ahmad al-Khadir ibn Ali Ghailan (known to the English as Guyland or Gayland) and his family had taken control of much of the Gharb, the Rif and the coastal areas around Tangier.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659 specifically pledged Louis XIV to withdraw support from Portugal under the Braganzas, and released Spanish troops and ships to pursue the continuing Portuguese Restoration War. Portugal sought a renewal of the alliance with England to counterbalance the renewed Spanish threat to its independence. The alliance (originating in 1373) had been adjusted and renewed in 1654 (under Cromwell) and was again renewed in 1660 after the English Restoration. Negotiations for the marriage of Charles to Catherine of Braganza (originally proposed by Charles I) had started shortly on or, perhaps, before the Restoration, and the intended marriage was announced at the opening of the Cavalier Parliament on 8 May 1661. The announcement was not entirely believed in the Courts of Europe. As part of the negotiated dowry Portugal was to hand over the port of Tangier and the island of Bombay/Mumbai but it is unclear when those terms became known. The Portuguese government was content to part with Tangier, albeit many had reservations. The anchorage was expensive to maintain, not particularly safe for shipping, exposed to the Atlantic and to the destructive Levanter (easterly) winds, and so required significant improvement.

Spain had tolerated Portuguese occupation of Tangier as part of the Treaty of Tordesilhas, had left it undisturbed under Portuguese administration during the Iberian Union and the long-running Restoration War. But Spain was strongly opposed to English possession of Tangier, insisted that the cession would be illegal and, indeed, the paper presented by the Spanish Ambassador in May 1661 openly threatens war. Apart from the threat which an English naval presence at the Straits of Gibraltar would (and did) pose to Spain's Atlantic trade, the English fleet activities in the Mediterranean under Robert Blake and Edward Montagu in 1650 to 1659 had shown the vulnerability of the maritime links between Spain and its Italian possessions, Sicily and Naples. With its emphasis on its transatlantic possessions, Spain had no Mediterranean fleet, and could not protect its shipping there. The presence of a significant English base so close to its own territory was unwelcome. By a proclamation of 7 September, 1660, Charles had declared peace with Spain, but in the same month, the Commons passed a bill annexing Dunkirk and Jamaica (both taken from Spain). There was a fear that the Portuguese commander at Tangier would hand the port over to Spain rather than heretic England or that Spain would otherwise attempt physically to prevent the handover, even if that fell short of war.

The Dutch Republic, in intense trade competition with England (when not actually at war), had no wish to see the English navy further establish the Mediterranean power it had developed and so also opposed English occupation of Tangier. Any alliance between Portugal (with which it was still at war) and England (against which it had suffered heavily in the First Anglo-Dutch War was an undesirable prospect: The Dutch hoped to seize further Portuguese overseas possessions and, in 1660, equipped a fleet for that purpose. The Dutch tried, unsuccessfully, to strengthen relations with King Charles by the Dutch Gift in July, 1660. The States-General also sought, in negotiations from July 1660 until September 1662, a treaty or pact of friendship with England, but refused to extend such a treaty to any colonies outside Europe except, specifically, the island of Pulo Run. While the negotiation of that Anglo-Dutch treaty went on, Charles offered to mediate between the United Provinces and Portugal (the Anglo-Portuguese treaty, a very short time later, required this). That intervention resulted in the Treaty of The Hague of 6 August 1661, ignored by the VOC which seized Cranganore, Cochin, Nagapattinam and Cannanore from Portugal in 1662-1663. Given that Charles (at the time) sought the advancement of his nephew, later William III, as Stadtholder and that Johan De Witt, the Grand Pensionary, was a confirmed Republican, and had excluded William III through the 'secret' (but widely leaked) Act of Seclusion annex to the Treaty of Westminster and was unable or unwilling to rein in the VOC's aggressively anti-English and anti-Portuguese activities, the Dutch Republic had no significant influence in Restoration England, and De Witt's diplomatic failures in 1660-1661 marked the beginning of the end of the Dutch Golden Age.

England had been instrumental in the defeat of Spain in the Spanish Netherlands (for which it received Dunkirk).

English take possession

Even before Charles and Catherine's marriage treaty was announced (in May 1661), Admiral Sir Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, was commissioned to bring Catherine over to England. By this time, James, Duke of York and Albany was Lord High Admiral, and the Earl was Lieutenant Admiral. In July, 1660, Montagu had secured the position of Clerk of the Acts at the Navy Board for his kinsman and protégé, Samuel Pepys. As early as 28 February 1661, Pepys speculates on "two great secrets under dispute but yet known to very few: first, Who the King will marry; and What the meaning of this fleet is which we are now sheathing to set out for the southward. Most think against Algier against the Turk, or to the East Indies against the Dutch who, we hear, are setting out a great fleet thither." By 15 April, Pepys was aware that the fleet was bound for Portugal; on 20 April was told that the destination was Algiers; and on 10 June that Sandwich was to proceed to Algiers to "settle the business" go back to Lisbon and collect Catherine in three ships, meeting another fleet there. The corsair fleet of Algiers was a growing problem and the business which was to be settled, by negotiation or by bombardment, was a treaty not to molest English ships. Sandwich left London on 13 June for the fleet (with John Lawson as Vice-Admiral) to assemble at the Downs and from there sailed to Malaga, where he anchored on July 4. Briefly delayed by illness, he arrived off Algiers on July 29. There was little negotiation, and a short bombardment, but weather prevented more significant action. Sandwich left Lawson to blockade Algiers, and proceeded to Lisbon. The marriage, by proxy, of Charles and Catherine was notified to the Governor of Tangier (Don Luis D'Almeida) by letter from the King of Portugal on 4 September 1661. Lord Sandwich sailed to Tangier on 3 October, taking transports for the evacuation of the Portuguese Tangier Garrison. He was there for some three months, with the Portuguese Governor and forces procrastinating with respect to the hand over; Lawson's squadron joined him there, unsuccessful in subduing Algiers (although a storm severely damaged the harbour there the next year and enabled a peace later that year).

The Portuguese inhabitants were not happy with these arrangements and departed on English ships, leaving a new civilian population made up of only the wives and families of the English military.

On 6 September 1661, King Charles appointed Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, as Governor and Captain General of all the forces in Tangier. When Peterborough landed he found the town derelict and under constant attack from some 17,000 Berbers.

The Tangier Regiment (later known as the 2nd Regiment of Foot and later still as the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment) arrived in Tangier on 29 January 1662, together with a former Parliamentarian regiment from the garrison of Dunkirk and with remnants of two regiments from the disbanded Royalist Irish Forces which had been serving in Flanders; they officially took over Tangier from Montagu's small naval garrison. The three additional regiments were also placed under Peterborough's command; thus he arrived in Tangier with a force of five hundred horse and two thousand foot, with between two and three hundred soldiers' wives, to serve in a domestic capacity. This was the first time that wives had officially accompanied an English army on an overseas posting. These units were augmented later in 1661 by elements of Rutherfurd's (Scottish Royalist) Regiment and Roger Alsop's (Parliamentarian) Regiment just before Peterborough was replaced by Andrew Rutherfurd, 1st Earl of Teviot as Governor. The Regiments were merged (into two in 1662) ultimately becoming a single regiment (1668), and this, the Tangier Regiment, remained in Tangier thereafter, a total of 23 years, until the port was finally evacuated in 1684.

The English planned to improve the harbour by building a mole, which would reach 1,436 feet long and cost £340,000 before its demolition. The improved harbour was to be six hundred yards long, thirty feet deep at low tide, and capable of keeping out the roughest of seas. Work began on the fortified harbour at the end of November, 1662, and work on the Mole in August, 1663. Each redoubt had four hundred men guarding the excavation site, while to the front balls of spikes, stakes and piles of gunpowder-and-stone mix, which acted as basic landmines, were laid. The work continued for some years under a succession of Governors. With an improved harbour the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar later played in British naval strategy.

Tangier declared a free city

On 4 June 1668, Tangier was declared a free city by charter, with a mayor and corporation to govern it instead of the army. The charter made it equal to English towns.

In 1674, William O'Brien, 2nd Earl of Inchiquin took up the post of Governor, in succession to the Earl of Middleton. In 1675, a garrison school was founded, led by the Rev. Dr George Mercer.

On 30 December 1676, Charles ordered a survey of the city and garrison of Tangier, which was costing about £140,000 a year to maintain. The survey showed that the total inhabitants numbered 2,225, of whom fifty were army officers, 1,231 other ranks, with 302 army wives and children. Amongst the buildings was a hospital and an army school.

Tangier circa 1670

In 1680, the pressure from the Moroccans increased, as the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail joined forces with the Chief of Fez in order to pursue a war against all foreign troops in his land. Reinforcements were needed at the Garrison, which was raised to 3,000 in number. The Royal Scots, shortly followed by a further (new) foot regiment, the Second Tangier Regiment, (later the King's Own, 4th Regiment of Foot) raised on 13 July 1680, were sent to Tangier, reinforced the King's Battalion (formed from the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards) and the remnant of the old Tangier Regiment. The Guards Battalion had landed in July 1680, and fierce attacks were made against the Moors, who had gained a footing on the edge of the town, finally defeating them by controlled and well-aimed musket fire. The Battalion remained in Tangier until the fort was abandoned.

Also in 1680 the Earl of Inchiquin resigned and was replaced by Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, who died before taking up his post.

Growing concerns about the cost of the colony

For some time Parliament had been concerned about the cost of maintaining the Tangier garrison. By 1680 the King had threatened to give up Tangier unless the supplies were voted for its sea defences, intended to provide a safe harbour for shipping. The fundamental problem was that in order to keep the town and harbour free from cannon fire the perimeter of the defended area had to be vastly increased. A number of outworks were built but the siege of 1680 showed that the Moroccans were capable of isolating and capturing these outworks by entrenchments and mining.

Map of Tangier under English rule, 1680

The garrison at Tangier had to be constantly reinforced, having cost nearly two million pounds of royal treasure, and many lives had been sacrificed in its defence. Merchant ships continued to be harassed by Barbary pirates, and undefended crews were regularly captured into slavery. The so-called Popish Plot in England had intensified the dread of Catholicism, and the King's frequent request for more troops to increase the size of the garrison raised suspicions that a standing army was being retained in Tangier to ensure a Catholic succession and absolute monarchy.

In October 1680, Colonel Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth, arrived as Governor, but was taken mortally ill soon afterwards. Lt-Colonel Edward Sackville of the Coldstream Guards took over the governorship temporarily until on 28 December 1680 Colonel Piercy Kirke was appointed Colonel and Governor.

In England, in the Exclusion Crisis, the House of Commons of England petitioned the King to give his assent to the Bill of Exclusion (which had passed the Commons, but not the Lords) intended to disinherit the Duke of York (later James II & VII). The Earl of Shaftesbury (effectively the Prime Minister) urged Parliament to disapprove any taxes unless and until the bill was passed. The King refused to prejudice his brother's right of succession and dismissed the Exclusion Bill Parliament and, later, the Oxford Parliament. But he could no longer afford the cost of the colony in Tangier.

Evacuation of Tangier

Although the attempt by Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco to seize the town had been unsuccessful, a crippling blockade by the Jaysh al-Rifi ultimately forced the English to withdraw. In 1683, Charles gave Admiral Lord Dartmouth secret orders to abandon Tangier. Dartmouth was to level the fortifications, destroy the harbour, and evacuate the troops. In August 1683 Dartmouth, as Admiral of the Fleet and Governor and Captain General in Tangier, sailed from Plymouth. He was accompanied by Samuel Pepys who wrote an account of the evacuation.

Once in Tangier, one of Lord Dartmouth's main concerns was the evacuation of sick soldiers "and the many families and their effects to be brought off". The hospital ship Unity sailed for England on 18 October 1683 with 114 invalid soldiers and 104 women and children, alongside HMS Diamond. HMS Diamond arrived at The Downs on 14 December 1683. Dartmouth was also able to purchase the release of many English prisoners from Ismail's bagnio, including several officers and about 40 men, some of whom had spent 10 years in the hands of the Moroccans.

All the forts and walls were mined for last-minute destruction. On 5 February 1684 Tangier was officially evacuated, leaving the town in ruins. Thereafter Kirke's Regiment (The Tangier Regiment) returned to England. The main force of 2,830 officers and men and 361 wives and children finally completed the demolition of the harbour wall and fortifications, and evacuated the garrison during the early months of 1684. The 2nd Tangier Regiment left late in the second week of February for Plymouth with some six hundred men and thirty wives and children. The Earl of Dumbarton's regiment (The Royal Scots) went into quarters at Rochester, and Trelawney's (Second Tangier) Regiment to Portsmouth. Some of the departing soldiers were to be rewarded with large land grants in the newly acquired Province of New York. Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick, a Lieutenant-Governor of Tangier, became New York Provincial Governor and William "Tangier" Smith, the last mayor of Tangier, obtained 50 miles of Atlantic Ocean front property on Long Island.

Governors

Main article: List of governors of Tangier

Term	Incumbent	Notes
29 January 1662 to 1663	Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, Governor
1663 to 4 May 1664	Andrew Rutherford, 1st Earl of Teviot, Governor
4 May 1664 to 1664	Sir Tobias Bridge, Governor
1664 to April 1665	John Fitzgerald, Governor
April 1665 to 1666	John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, Governor	unable to take oath of conformity
1666 to 1669	Sir Henry Norwood, Governor
1669 to 1670	John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton, Governor	1st Term
1670 to 1672	Sir Hugh Chomondeley, acting Governor
1672 to 1674	John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton	2nd Term
1674 to 1675	Budget Meakin, acting Governor
1675 to 1680	William O'Brien, 2nd Earl of Inchiquin, Governor
1680 to 1680	Palmes Fairbourne, Governor
1680 to 1680	Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory	died after appointment but before taking up position
1680 to October 1680	Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth, Governor	died soon after taking up position as Governor
October 1680 to 28 December 1681	Sir Edward Sackville, Governor
28 December 1681 to 1683	Sir Percy Kirke, Governor
1683 to 6 February 1684	Admiral Lord Dartmouth, Governor

See also

• List of governors of Tangier
• John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
• George Elliott (surgeon)
• Roger Elliott
• Alexander Spotswood
• Tangier Protocol

Bibliography

• Corbett, J.S. England in the Mediterranean (London, New York, Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co, 1904)
• E. Chappell, ed., The Tangier Papers of Samuel Pepys (London: Navy Records Society, vol. LXIII, 1935)
• John Childs, The Army of Charles II (London: 1976)
• Martin Malcolm Elbl, Portuguese Tangier (1471-1662): Colonial Urban Fabric as Cross-Cultural Skeleton (Peterborough: 2013), Chapter Eight and other (for the English Mole, the earlier Portuguese Breakwater, and their relative positions, from English plans; and for Wenceslaus Hollar at Tangier)
• Sir James Halkett, 'Tangier – 1680: The Diary of Sir James Halkett', in Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (1922)
• W. F. Lord, The Lost Possessions of England (London: 1896)
• E. M. G. Routh, Tangier: England's Lost Atlantic Outpost, 1661-1684 (London: 1912)
• A. J. Smithers, The Tangier Campaign: the Birth of the British Army (Stroud: 2003)
• Clifford Walton, A History of the British Standing Army, 1660-1700 (London: 1894)
• Public Records Office ADM 106/294 Roger Allsopp 1673
• ADM 106/314
• ADM 12/18
• ADM 12/28B
• British Library Manuscript Collection: 1671-1675 - Samuel Luke, Merchant, Tangier, Morocco. Reference Sloane MSS
• B. Museum Add. Mss.36528 Diary of John Luke (see & Judge Advocate to John Middleton, Earl of Middleton, Govr of Tangier)