Battle of Algeciras
Part of the Reconquista
Marinid gravestone, 13th century (Museo Municipal de Algeciras).
Date 25 July 1278 Location Strait of Gibraltar, Emirate of Granada, Spain Result Marinid Victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Castile Order of Santa María de España	Marinid dynasty Emirate of Granada
Commanders and leaders
Pedro Martínez de Fe	Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr
Strength
Castilian navy •100 ships	Marinid navy • 72 ships Nasrid navy • 12 ships
Casualties and losses
All but 3 ships and hundreds drowned	Unknown

Part of a series on the
History of Spain
Prehistory Prehistoric Iberia
Early history Pre-Roman peoples Carthaginian Spain (575–206 BCE)
Roman Hispania Roman Conquest (206–27 BCE) Hispania (218 BCE–472 CE) Romanization Diocese of Hispania
Early Middle Ages Kingdom of the Suebi (409–585) Kingdom of the Visigoths (418–721) Byzantine Spania (552–624)
Middle Ages Muslim conquest (711–716) Al-Andalus (711–1492) Reconquista (711–1492) Christian kingdoms (718–1479)
Early modern period Catholic Monarchs (1479–1516) Granada War (1482–1492) Colonisation of the Americas (1492–1898) Habsburgs (1516–1700) Golden Age (1556–1659) Bourbons (1700–1808) War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) Nueva Planta Decrees (1707–1716)
Peninsular War Abdications of Bayonne (1808) Napoleonic Spain (1808–1813) Cortes of Cádiz (1810–1814) Constitution of Cádiz (1812) Treaty of Valençay (1813)
Absolutist restoration Sexenio Absolutista (1814–1820) Trienio Liberal (1820–1823) Ominous Decade (1823–1833)
Reign of Isabella II Regency of María Cristina (1833–1840) First Carlist War (1833–1840) Regency of Espartero (1840–1843) Década moderada (1844–1854) Second Carlist War (1846–1849) Bienio progresista (1854–1856) Glorious Revolution (1868)
Sexenio Democrático Provisional Government (1868–1871) Reign of Amadeo I (1870–1873) Third Carlist War (1872–1876) First Republic (1873–1874)
Restoration Spain Reign of Alfonso XII (1874–1885) Regency of María Cristina (1885–1902) Reign of Alfonso XIII (1886–1931) Spanish–American War (1898) Spain during World War I (1914–1918) Rif War (–1927) Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923–1930) Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer (1930–1931)
Second Republic Provisional Government (1931) First Biennium (1931–1933) Second Biennium (1933–1936) Revolution and Asturian miners' strike (1934) 1936 general election (1936) 1936 coup d'état (1936) Civil War (1936–1939) Nationalist victory (1939)
Francoist Spain Spanish Maquis (1939–1965) Spain during World War II (1939–1945) Blue Division (1941–1944) Basque conflict (1959–2011)
Contemporary history Transition to democracy (1975–1978) Current constitution (1978) 1981 coup d'état attempt Madrid train bombings (2004) 2008–2014 financial crisis 2017 Barcelona attacks Coronavirus pandemic (2020–present)
Topic Economic history Law enforcement LGBT history Military history Religious history
Timeline
Spain portal  History portal
v t e

The Battle of Algeciras was a naval battle which occurred on July 25, 1278. The battle pitted the fleets of the Kingdom of Castile, commanded by the Admiral of Castile, Pedro Martínez de Fe, and the combined fleets of the Marinid dynasty and that of the Emirate of Granada, commanded by Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr. The battle was fought in the context of the Moorish naval expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula. The battle, which took place in the Strait of Gibraltar, resulted in a Muslim victory.

This battle coincided with a simultaneous siege of the city of Algeciras which lasted from 1278–79 and was commanded by the Infante Sancho. The Castilian prince would abandon the siege later in 1279, marking the end of the first action of the long battle for the Strait of Gibraltar.

History

In 1275, the Marinid Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq disembarked on the peninsula commanding an army with the strategic objective to occupy the city of Tarifa. Along this route, he directly participated in various actions, including the Battle of Écija.

By 1278, King Alfonso X of Castile, sent a large fleet from Sevilla with the goal of blockading that same city. The fleet, which was made up of more than 100 ships of different types, was commanded by the Order of Santa María de España, a military-religious Spanish order which was concentrated in naval warfare. The fleet was commanded by the Admiral of Castile, Pedro Martínez de Fe. The Marinid Sultan worked to gather his own fleet of 72 ships and was reinforced with a small fleet of 12 ships sent by the Sultan of Grenada, Muhammad II.

Once these two fleets were united, the Muslim fleets recognized a tactical advantage seeing that the Castillian fleet was in poor condition as many of its crew members were afflicted by an attack of scurvy. They decided to attack on the 25th of July and the action took place off the coast of Algeciras and resulted in the practical destruction of the entire Castilian fleet.

Aftermath

A large portion of the responsibility for the destruction of the Castilian fleet fell on the infante Pedro who appropriated much of the fleets and the siege's tax funding and condemned it to serious supply problems.^[1] King Alfonso X however failed to punish his son and instead chose to blame the fleets failure on the Jewish tax collectors Yishaq de la Maleha, ordering his arrest, appropriating all his assets and ordering his execution.

The embarrassment following the battle led to the subsequent irrelevance of the Order of Santa María de España which was integrated with the Order of Santiago in 1280 after that order's ranks were decimated in the Battle of Moclín. After the integration into the Order of Santiago, the Order of Santa María de España ceased to exist.