ABSTRACT
The decision to evacuate Tangier and demolish its fortifications may have been contemplated by King Charles for months after the departure of the Moroccan ambassador Mohamed ben Haddū and the outright rejection by the Moroccan court of the peace terms he had concluded in London. As the four-year treaty signed between the Tangier garrison and the Moroccan officials in 1680 was drawing to its end, Charles was left with the unenviable choice between continuing a costly and destructive war for which he lacked both financial means and popular support, and abandoning the city to the belligerent and unpredictable ‘Moors’ who already were swarming again outside Tangier’s decaying walls. In mid-September 1683, a fleet of 21 sails arrived in the bay of Tangier under the command of a young admiral, George Legge, First Baron Dartmouth, with secret instructions from King Charles to supervise the evacuation mission. 1
