Capture of Santiago (1585)

Capture of Santiago
Part of the Anglo–Spanish War
Drake at Santiago, Cape Verde, 1589 hand-colored engraving, by Baptista Boazio, 1589
Date 11–28 November 1585 Location Cidade Velha, São Domingos & Praia (Present day Santiago Cape Verde) Result English victory
Belligerents
Spain Portugal under Philip of Spain	England
Commanders and leaders
Gaspar de Andrade	Francis Drake Christopher Carleill
Strength
500 soldiers & militia 3 batteries	23 Ships 1,000 Soldiers & Sailors
Casualties and losses
Light 8 ships captured	2 killed

 Spain

The Capture of Santiago was a military event that took place between 11–28 November 1585 during the newly declared Anglo-Spanish War. (Santiago is the largest island of Cape Verde archipelago.) An English expedition led by Francis Drake captured the port town of Cidade Velha in the Cape Verde islands that had recently belonged to the Crown of Portugal. He sacked it and then marched inland before doing the same at São Domingos and Praia. Afterwards Drake left and continued his expedition to successfully raid the Spanish possessions in the Americas.

War had already been declared by Phillip II of Spain after the Treaty of Nonsuch in which Elizabeth I had offered her support to the rebellious Protestant Dutch rebels. The Queen through Francis Walsingham ordered Sir Francis Drake to lead an expedition to attack the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike.

The expedition gathered at Plymouth, England on 14 September 1585 with Sir Francis Drake in command of twenty one ships with 1,800 soldiers under Christopher Carleill. Sailing from Plymouth he first attacked Vigo in Spain and held the place for two weeks ransoming supplies. Drake however intended this to be a diversionary raid where it was hoped to trick the Spanish to think they were not heading towards the Caribbean, by doing this he had already made sure his presence was felt at Las Palmas in the Canary islands. After taking on water from the undefended La Gomera island, he continued his voyage, heading south towards the former Portuguese Cape Verde Islands. By virtue of the Iberian Union, the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 was in abeyance, and the commencement of war with Spain, Portuguese colonies and ships were now a target for the English.

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