sack of Madeira
{{Short description|1617 pirate attack}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Sack of Madeira
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| partof = Barbary–Portuguese conflicts
| date = 1617
| result = Algerian victory
| combatant1 = {{flagicon|Portugal|1578}} Portuguese Empire
| combatant2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Algiers.jpg}} Regency of Algiers
| strength1 = Unknown
| strength2 = 8 vessels
800 men
| casualties1 = 1,200 enslaved
| casualties2 = Unknown
}}
{{Campaignbox Portuguese-Turkish War}}
The sack of Madeira occurred in 1617 when Algerian pirates known as Barbary Corsairs sacked the Island and took 1,200 inhabitants as slaves. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kyB9DAAAQBAJ&dq=madeira+algerian+1617&pg=PA2 White Women Captives in North Africa: Narratives of Enslavement, 1735-1830]
K. Bekkaoui
Fernand Braudel
University of California Press, The attack occurred during the height of slavery on the Barbary coast. Madeira was at that time a part of the Iberian Union headed by the Monarchy of Spain.
The Algerians had established a base on the islands of Cape Verde from which they operated against ships in the Atlantic. [https://books.google.com/books?id=fGbQT6FBtM4C&pg=PA11 The Verneys: Love, War and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England]
Adrian Tinniswood
Random House,
In 1617 the Algerians arrived in Madeira with 8 vessels and 800 men. They plundered the island and enslaved 1,200 inhabitants. During the sack, the Algerians burned the island's archives and sacked much, including church bells. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vIvVAAAAMAAJ&q=madeira+1617 Brown's Madeira, Canary Islands, and Azores: A Practical and Complete Guide for the Use of Tourists and Invalids]
A. Samler Brown
Simpkins, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-a48AAAAIAAJ&dq=madeira+1617+slave&pg=PA107 War and Society in the Seventh Century]
Sir George Norman Clark
CUP Archive It is also said that they had emptied the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago enslaving 663 inhabitants. {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KHxTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 |title=The Corsairs’ Longest Voyage: The Turkish Raid in Iceland 1627|author=Þorsteinn Helgason|publisher=BRILL}} In 1649 the French historian Pierre Dan described the 1617 invasion of Madeira:
"For having left Algiers on the fifteenth of July, with a squadron of eight well-armed vessels, they descended on the Island of Madeira, which depends on the Crown of Spain. When they approached, with eight hundred Turks whom they put to the ground, they ravaged the whole island, pillaged the ornaments and jewels of the Churches; took away the bells, and made slaves twelve hundred people, men, women, and children, whom they took to Algiers. As they were a league away, they discharged all the artillery of their ships as a sign of rejoicing; so that by this signal, those of the City, informed of their return, came to see them arrive".{{Cite book |last=Dan |first=Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2AVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA313 |title=Histoire de Barbarie, et de ses corsaires: Des royavmes, et des villes d'Alger, de Tvnis, de Salé, & de Tripoly. Divisée en six livres. Ov il est traitté de levr govvernement, de leurs mœurs, de leurs cruautez, de leurs brigandages, de leurs sortileges, & de plusieurs autres particularitez remarquables. Ensemble des grandes miseres et des crvels tourmens qu'endurent les Chrestiens captifs parmy ces infideles |date=1649 |publisher=Chez P. Rocolet |language=fr}}
Ten years later Algerian pirates took 400 people as slaves in a raid on Iceland and at least a 100 from Baltimore in Ireland in 1631.