Third Siege of Gibraltar

Third Siege of Gibraltar
Part of Moorish Gibraltar
Date February – June 1333 Location Gibraltar Result Moroccan victory
Belligerents
Sultanate of Morocco	Kingdom of Castile
Commanders and leaders
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman of Morocco Abd al-Malik Abd al-Wahid Muhammed IV of Granada	Alfonso XI of Castile Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena Don Vasco Perez de Meira

The Third Siege of Gibraltar was mounted between February–June 1333 by a Moorish army under the prince Abd al-Malik Abd al-Wahid of Morocco. The fortified town of Gibraltar had been held by Castile since 1309, when it had been seized from the Moorish Emirate of Granada. The attack on Gibraltar was ordered by the recently crowned Marinid ruler Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman in response to an appeal by the Nasrid ruler Muhammed IV of Granada. The onset of the siege took the Castillians by surprise. The stocks of food in Gibraltar were heavily depleted at the time due to the thievery of the town's governor, Vasco Perez de Meira, who had looted the money that was meant to have been spent on food for the garrison and to pay for the upkeep of the castle and fortifications. After over four months of siege and bombardment by Moorish catapults, the garrison and townspeople were reduced to near-starvation and surrendered to Abd al-Malik.

In 1309, Castillian troops under Ferdinand IV of Castile captured Gibraltar, then known as the Medinat al-Fath (City of Victory), from the Muslim-ruled Emirate of Granada. Its fortifications were repaired and improved by the Castillians. In 1315 the Granadans attempted to retake Gibraltar in the brief and unsuccessful Second Siege of Gibraltar.

The alliance between the Nasrids of Granada and the Marinids of Morocco had fallen into abeyance following the loss of Gibraltar, but the accession of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman led to a renewal of the pact between the two Muslim states. A force of 7,000 men under the command of Abu al-Hasan's son, Abd al-Malik, was secretly transported across the Strait of Gibraltar to rendezvous with the forces of Muhammad IV of Granada at Algeciras in February 1333. The Castillians were distracted by the coronation of King Alfonso XI and were slow to respond to the invasion force, which was able to lay siege to Gibraltar before much of a response could be organised.

...
Wikipedia