Merchants ambushed in foreign lands in the Late Middle Ages: the case of seafarers from Cuatro Villas in the North of Castile, Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT: After the War of the Castilian Succession (1475?1479), the Kingdom of Castile underwent major economic and commercial growth. The foreign policy of the Catholic Monarchs focused on strengthening political and trade links with other neighbouring powers such as England, Portugal and Flanders, and this was used by merchants to build up their wealth. However, the historian researching these merchants will discover that they suffered multiple attacks while undertaking their trade in supposedly friendly waters. This study will focus on assessing these attacks, learning what consequences they had for their victims and finding out how they could have been resolved. With this in mind, this paper shall take the example of seafarers from a region in Northern Castile known as Cuatro Villas de la Costa (Four Towns of the Coast) and discuss their experiences (sometimes as aggressors and sometimes as victims) to find out the mechanisms employed in Castile to solve conflicts generated at sea.