ABSTRACT

It is difficult to pinpoint with a high degree of exactitude the beginning of the expedition against the pirates of Sallee. Only a few years after the Sallee pirates began to prey on the English coast, Sir Francis Stewart reached the conclusion that an expedition against the town was necessary. On 16 August 1625, he wrote:

these piceroones I say will ever be hankering upon our coast, and the State will find it both chargeable and difficult to clear it or secure the Newfoundland fishermen from them unless it be directly resolved to sack Sallee; a sure way, if easy to be performed, as some report it is, that are lately come thence; in the meantime . . . your Grace [Buckingham] must expect many complaints.1