Capture of Recife (1595)

Capture of Recife (1595)
Part of the Anglo–Spanish War

Recife in the early 17th century by Gillis Peeters
Date30 March - April 1595
Location
Atlantic Ocean, Recife, Captaincy of Pernambuco, Colonial Brazil
Result English victory[1][2]
Belligerents

Spain Spain

England England
Commanders and leaders
Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho James Lancaster
Strength
350 soldiers and militia[3]
Unknown Indian allies		 5 ships
30 prizes
400 soldiers & sailors[4]
Casualties and losses
1 galley frigate captured,
29 other prizes[5]
Recife: 120 killed, wounded or captured
8 ships captured
All stores captured[6]		 60 casualties or to disease
1 prize scuttled[6][7]

The Capture of Recife also known as James Lancaster's 1595 Expedition or Lancaster's Pernambucan expedition was an English military expedition during the Anglo–Spanish War in which the primary objective was the capture of the town and port of Recife in the Captaincy of Pernambuco in the Portuguese colony of Brazil (then within the Iberian Union with Spain) in April 1595. An English expedition of ships led by James Lancaster sailed via the Atlantic capturing numerous prizes before he captured Recife. He held the place for nearly a month and then proceeded to defeat a number of Portuguese counterattacks before leaving. The booty captured was substantial, Lancaster chartered Dutch and French ships that were also present there thus making the expedition a military and financial success.[2][3]

  1. ^ Bicheno pg 308-09
  2. ^ a b Ebert p.146
  3. ^ a b Foster pg 35-54
  4. ^ Frank p. 42-47
  5. ^ Holmes, Abiel (1829). The Annals of America: From the Discovery by Columbus in the Year 1492, to the Year 1826. Harvard University: Hilliard and Brown. p. 111.
  6. ^ a b Andrews pg 211-12
  7. ^ Markham, Clements Robert (1877). The Voyages of Sir James Lancaster to the East Indies, Volume 56. Hakluyt Society. pp. 35–37.