John of Austria - Morisco Revolt in Granada

Morisco Revolt in Granada

When news reached him at Christmastide of the revolt in Granada of the Moriscos (Moors who had converted to Christianity), he volunteered to serve in any capacity. The local grandees in charge, the Marquis of Mondéjar in Granada and the Marquis of los Vélez in Almeria, soon fell out over matters of tactics, strategy and the place of clemency. The revolt spread and aid came from Barbary and the Turks. In April 1569 Philip appointed Don Juan commander-in-chief with Quijada as his chief adviser.

In Granada, Don John built his forces with care, learning about logistics and drill. Requeséns and Santa Cruz patrolled the coast with their galleys, limiting aid and reinforcements from Barbary. In December Don John unexpectedly took the field with a large and well-supplied army. First clearing rebels from near Granada, he then marched east through Guadix, where veteran troops from Italy joined him, bringing his numbers to 12,000. In late January he assaulted the rebel stronghold of Galera. Fighting was long and hard and casualties heavy. When Galera fell, Don Juan had it levelled and salt ploughed into its soil. The surviving inhabitants were sold into slavery.

As the campaign continued, a musket ball grazed Don John's helmet in a skirmish, while Quijada was fatally wounded at his side. Philip sympathized with Don John's distress at the loss of Quijada, who had been like a father to him, but admonished him that generals should not be in the thick of combat, but take a safe position from which to direct the battle. His troops, however, came to see Don John as more akin to his father Charles V than his famously desk-bound brother Philip. Increasingly, they addressed Don Juan as Your Highness. The example of Galera and Don John's determined advance intimidated other Morisco villages, which soon began to surrender to Don John's forces. Through 1570 the revolt gradually sputtered out as its leaders quarreled, sought individual advantage, and murdered each other, while the Turks and their Barbary allies turned to the invasion of the Venetian colony of Cyprus. To eliminate the possibility of further revolts in Granada, Philip dispersed its Moorish (Morisco) population in small groups among the Old Christian towns and villages of the Castilian hinterland, reportedly hoping they would assimilate. Eventually, Philip III would order the expulsion of all Moriscos from Spain in 1609.