The conquest of Lanzarote

The Island was known in the ancient world. The Phoenicians, who sought orchilla, lichen that grows on rocks to the north, had visited it. It was targeted for the red dye that was obtained. The only documentary evidence of medieval times, very doubtful, is the famous trip by Hesperydes. In 1312, the Genoese navigator, Lancelot Malocello, rediscovered the island for Europe and gave it its current name, which first appeared on the map of Angelino Portulano Dulcert in 1339.

Over the next fifty years several expeditions were organized, actually more like raids, looking for slaves, furs, and dyes. This was the beginning of the decline of the Aboriginal population.

In 1377, in the Biscay, Avendano Ruiz, commander of the Castilian privateer fleet, sank after a storm near the island of Lanzarote and was greeted by King Zonzamas. The king offered the hospitality of Queen Fayna’s bed, and Princess Ico was born from this relationship. She was white and blonde, and became the mother of the last king of Lanzarote, Guardafia. In 1393, the Castilian nobleman reached Almonaster Lanzarote. When he returned to the peninsula he brought some native products.

The first European expedition in search of slaves as plunder first stopped in Lanzarote and La Graciosa Island, as it was closer to the Iberian Peninsula. This contributed to a decrease in population during the fourteenth century, so that when the first expeditions set on conquering the island arrived, the population was in marked decline.

The final conquest of the island is the issue of Norman mercenaries and the adventurers Juan de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, in the service of Henry III of Castile. When visiting the island in 1402, there were only 300 natives left, and the team set up on Costa Del Rubicon, south of the island.

After the failed attempt to conquer Fuerteventura, Castile commissioned Bethencourt again and he is granted the lordship of Lanzarote. When he returned, Gadifer de la Salle suppressed the resistance of the natives by blood and fire. After successive failures in the conquest of other islands, and given the low commercial interest at the time in Lanzarote, Jean de Bethencourt gave the lordship of the island of his relative, Maciot Bethencourt.

Lanzarote is a feudal manor, and the lordship was handed down from the descendants of a noble Andalusian Bethencourt to Count Niebla, Hernan de Peraza, and Pedro Barba.

In these early years the island will be a repopulated by a large contingent of Berber origin, which will be merged with the Aboriginal people and European settlers.
During the following centuries, the island maintained a feudal power structure, up until the abolition of the feudal courts of Cadiz in 1812. Given the proximity to the coast of Africa, Lanzarote was the target of attacks by both Berber pirates and Europeans.

In 1586, the Berber pirate, Amurat, took the island with five men and seized the ruling family. Soliman invaded Lanzarote in 1618 and devastated the island. Sir Walter Raleigh, during his last expedition in search of Dorado, in 1617, attacked Arrecife and devastated the city. During the attacks, the people took refuge in the Cave of the Greens.