Magellan Wounded in Combat in Morocco, Defects to Spain
(Profiles: Magellan, Part 2)
For Ferdinand Magellan, life moved swiftly from tropical amphibious combat in Southeast Asia to war in North Africa on horseback.
Magellan returned to Lisbon in 1512 or 1513, bringing with him Enrique, the slave he claimed at Malacca. Unfortunately, the Malay teenager was about all the fortune Magellan collected in seven years’ service in India, where a single shipment of spices returned to Europe could provide for a man’s retirement.
Magellan invested the riches he collected in a trade deal that went sour, a slap in the face he learned of on return to Lisbon. (The 2022 Mark Wahlberg film Uncharted was way off; Magellan never “amassed a fortune.”)
In August 1513, Magellan was pressed into service in a cavalry unit sent to Morocco, along with his brother, Diogo de Sousa. To put down a rebellion in Azamor (Azemmour), southwest of Casablanca, King Manuel I launched a major assault on the coastal city. Magellan joined a force of 500 ships, 13,000 foot soldiers, and 2,000 cavalry — the largest ever sent from Portugal, which suddenly had substantial wealth pouring in from Asia and Africa at its disposal.
This was Magellan’s practical experience leading up to the circumnavigation: serving as a soldier in far-flung fleets, often huge. In 1505, Magellan sailed to India with the new viceroy Francisco de Almeida. That colonizing fleet consisted of 21 ships and 1,500 men, among them noblemen like Magellan, as well as slaves, convicts, not to mention merchants, shoemakers, carpenters, priests, judges, and physicians.*
At Azamor, Magellan was among the first to land and reach the city walls, and as in the past, his spirit outpaced his luck. At the start, Magellan’s finances were such that he had difficulty affording a horse, and at Azamor his mount was quickly killed by an enemy lance. Shortly after, Magellan himself was hit by a lance, in the knee — an injury that left him with a permanent limp. It was one of several times he had been wounded in battle.
Magellan’s fortunes with King Manuel continued to deteriorate, and humiliated, Magellan finally followed through on his threat to reach the Moluccas “by way of Portugal or Castile.” In 1518, Magellan defected to the newly united Spain, the union of Castile and Aragon. His plan was to approach the Spanish crown for backing, just as Christopher Columbus had decades earlier.
Columbus won backing from Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Magellan would be applying to their grandson, the new Spain’s new King Carlos I, a young Habsburg who would soon after become Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
In 1518 Magellan met with Charles and his advisers at Valladolid. There, he presented maps, documents, and people — including his slave Enrique, who probably spoke better Spanish than the 18-year-old monarch from Flanders.
King Charles agreed to fund the mission, naming Magellan and a partner, the astronomer Rui Faleiro, as co-commanders, though Faleiro was suffering from mental illness by this time and did not ultimately join the expedition.
Magellan may have won over Charles and his Flemish advisers, but Spanish officials were horrified at the thought of a Portuguese leading a major Spanish venture. They immediately set to work sabotaging the project. They made it difficult for Magellan to prepare his ships and hire crew, and merchants in Seville delivered only half the provisions paid for (which the fleet learned of only at Puerto San Julian when it was too late).
More-deadly challenges loomed, as well. The Portuguese were likely trying to assassinate Magellan before he made it to sea, and they were expected to send ships to stop him if he did. Worse, going forward, the real enemy was within. The fleet set sail with a ready conspiracy among senior officers to mutiny at some point.
Just getting his Armada de Molucca launched was a major feat for Ferdinand Magellan, before he ever set out across the Atlantic to sail south off the end of the map.
Read Part 3, coming soon.
Notes:
* Today people debate whether to call Magellan, Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and others “explorers,” “navigators,” or “colonizers.” The historian Yuval Harari offers the correct description in his book Sapiens: “explorer-conquerors.” They set out to “explore” (to find and take over) and to learn.
By John Sailors
Images:
• Top: André Peres, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Azamor: Georg Braun; Frans Hogenberg, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Faleiro: FrotzYes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
© 2022 by John Sailors. All rights reserved.
Enrique’s Voyage Profiles
Enrique of Malacca Completes First Circumnavigation — by Language
On March 28, 1521, Enrique of Malacca became the first person to complete a linguistic circumnavigation of the globe — he traveled so far in one direction that he reached a point where his language was spoken. Enrique’s journey began a decade earlier following the sack of Malacca, when he became a slave of Ferdinand Magellan. Read more.
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V Backs Magellan’s Armada
Ferdinand Magellan’s Armada de Molucca was financed by Carlos I (1500–1558), the newly crowned king of a unified Castile and Aragon. Carlos was an eighteen-year-old Habsburg from Flanders who barely spoke Spanish. Between the time he agreed to back Magellan’s expedition and its departure, he became Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, and archduke of Austria. Read More.
Magellan’s Real Circumnavigation, Enrique of Malacca Taken as Slave (Magellan, Part 1)
Schoolchildren around the world are taught the name Ferdinand Magellan[1] — “the first person to circumnavigate the globe” — many in grade school and again high school. But few people know Magellan’s story, that he was killed in the Philippines halfway through that circumnavigation, and moreover, that he still came within 2,600 kilometers of fully circling the earth. Read more.
Magellan Sees Combat in Morocc and Colonial Invasions (Magellan Part 2)
For Ferdinand Magellan, life moved swiftly from tropical amphibious combat in Southeast Asia to land war on horseback in North Africa. Magellan returned to Lisbon in 1512 or 1513, bringing with him Enrique, the slave he claimed at Malacca. Unfortunately, the Malay teenager was about all the fortune Magellan collected in seven years’ service in India. Magellan invested the riches he collected in a trade deal that went sour, a slap in the face he learned of on return to Lisbon … Read more.
© 2022 by John Sailors. All rights reserved.
