Portuguese Tangier

Portuguese Tangier covers the periods when the Moroccan port of Tangier was ruled by Portugal, from 1471 to 1580 and again from 1641 to 1661. Portugal had failed to take the city in 1437, 1458 and 1464; it finally succeeded on 28 August 1471, after the Portuguese conquest of Asilah, when the inhabitants abandoned the town. King Afonso V ordered three quarters of Tangier demolished to make it defensible and appointed a captain with a small garrison. The city became a Portuguese base for trade and warfare on the Strait of Gibraltar, but it was expensive to hold and exposed to attack from the sultanate of Fez. During the Iberian Union it remained under Portuguese administration, and after 1641 it was again held directly by Lisbon. In 1661 Tangier was given to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza on her marriage to Charles II, together with Bombay and a large sum of money. The English later abandoned it in 1684.