| History of Morocco |
| Larache: The Battle of the Three Kings |
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| On the 4th of August, 1578, the Moroccan army ordered by Moulay Abdelmalek Es-Saâdi, uncle of king Moulay Mohammed (to whom he had seized the power...), fought battle to the Portuguese army on the left bank of the Makhazen wadi... |
The young king of Portugal, Sebastien 1st, under pretext of helping Moulay Mohammed to regain his throne, sought to reconquer the cities formerly invested by the Portuguese (Agadir, Mogador, Safi, Azemmour, etc), which had preserved only three fortified towns in Morocco, Mazagan, Tangier and Ceuta.
The fate wanted that these three sovereigns perish in the battle known since then as the battle of the Three Kings.
It was one of the most deadly battles of the history of the 16th century, |
and which had as a consequence for Morocco the advent of the brother of Abdelmalek, Abou el Abbas Ahmed, which sat on the throne the evening of the combat, seeing himself granting on this occasion the nickname of El-Mansour, the Victorious...
In Portugal, the fact that king Sebastien was deprived of a successor brought the annexation of the country by Spain of Philippe II, and the birth of a long-lived myth, according to which the young king would return one day to regain his throne.... |
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