The Moriscos, the Spanish descendants of Muslims who had converted to Christianity, had long been accused of collaboration with the Barbary Pirates to attack the coast Spanish coast.

They are unpopular among the ‘Old Christian’ people, especially in Valencia.

Habsburg monarch Philip III of Spain, on the advice of Juan de Ribera, Archbishop and Viceroy of Valencia, had in 1609 issued a decree for the expulsion of Moriscos from Spain.

To accomplish this, the Navy and thirty thousand soldiers have been mobilized with the mission of transporting the Muslims to Tunis or Morocco.

Approximately three hundfred thousand Moriscos have been expelled from the peninsula from 1609 to 1614.

While the royal treasury certainly benefits from the asset seizure of four percent of the population, the measure significantly damages the economies of the Kingdom of Valencia, Aragon, and Murcia.

The cheap labor and the number of rent paying owners in these areas decreases considerably, and the cultivation of sugar and rice has now to be substituted for white mulberry, vineyards, and wheat.

...Morocco, where again they find themselves an alien element. (The Moriscos will be assimilated after several generations, but something of their Spanish heritage will survive into modern times.)

Morocco had progressively fallen into a state of anarchy since the death of Mulay al-Mansur in 1603, with Zidan Abu Maali, the Saadi sultan in Marrakech, losing authority, and with warlords taking territory from Zidan, such as ...

...Abu Mahalli in the south and ...

...Sidi al-Ayachi in the north.

Salé has become a sort of independent Republic under Moroccan marabout and warlord Sidi al-Ayashi, who leads a counter-offensive against Spain, privateering against its shipping, and obtaining the help of the Moriscos and the English.

The Spanish had seized the opportunity provided by the Moroccan civil war to capture the city of Larache in 1610.

Al-Ma'mura, also known as La Mamora, (present Mehdya), located on the Atlantic coast of present day Morocco, had become the main base of the pirate Henry Mainwaring.

Returning from Newfoundland to the coast of Spain in midsummer 1614, Mainwaring had taken a Portuguese ship and plundered her cargo of wine, then had taken a French prize and stolen 10,000 dried fish from her hold.

With Mainwaring away, a Spanish fleet under Don Luis Fajardo, sailing from Cádiz on August 1, 1614, reduces the town.

Fajardo, after negotiations with Mulay Zidan, leaves a strong garrison of 1,500 men, and calls the harbor San Miguel de Ultramar.

Abou Fares Abdallah, one of the three sons of Ahmad al-Mansur, is based in Fes and has only local power.

Mulay Zidan had established friendly relations with the Low Countries, with the help of envoys such as Samuel Pallache, and from 1609 had developed a Treaty of Friendship.

He has sent several more envoys to the Low Countries, such as Muhammad Alguazir, Al-Hajari and Yusuf Biscaino.

James I of England has sent the diplomat John Harisson to Morocco in 1610 and again in 1613 and 1615 in order to obtain the release of English captives.

Mainwaring's relations with the Moors are such that he is able to secure the release of their English prisoners.

So feared is Mainwaring’s pirate fleet that Spain offers him a pardon and high command in return for his services under the Spanish flag.

Sidi al-Ayashi manages to briefly re-capture al-Mamura, and extends his power as far as

Taza.