Smithers, A.J., The Tangier Campaign: Tempus Publishing Ltd. 2003
A J Smithers' gung-ho account of Tangier is not even billed as a novel - it is highly amusing, but is also dangerously misleading in many of its assertions.
Serious inaccuracies begin on p.27[1] where the handover of the city to the English is inaccurate in almost every detail.
‘the Moors were waiting for them under cover of the sand-hills' Smithers is for some reason convinced Tangier was surrounded by sand-hills, and thought somehow they could provide cover for an ambush. In fact, although there were sand-hills to one side of the city walls, most of the surrounding countryside was covered in long grass, on occasion with the addition of wild flowers or grain crops – a much more conducive place for a well-disciplined force to lay an ambush.
Following the raid which resulted in the loss of many of the Portuguese Horse it was not true ‘Thus matters stood' – in fact the Portuguese governor finally requested Lord Sandwich's help in defending the city, already offered some weeks before and on Peterborough's arrival Tangier was already occupied by several hundred seamen from Sandwich's fleet. Those men had taken control of the vital weapons stores and much of the artillery.
‘Christendom in North Africa, all four acres of it' did not consist solely of Tangier, there were several other 'Christian' enclaves under Spanish control, including nearby Ceuta.
The inaccuracies and sweeping generalisations continue throughout the book in cavalier fashion that might be appropriate for a light read, but is not to be mistaken for a serious resource for the study of the English possession.
Fact Check
[1] Smithers, A.J., The Tangier Campaign: Tempus Publishing Ltd. 2003
Main Source:
Smithers, A.J., The Tangier Campaign: Tempus Publishing Ltd. 2003