Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

The accession of James I (1603-1625) to the throne of England shifted
relations from peaceful diplomacy to naval assaults. As he “was antithetical to
Islam,” he damaged relations with Algiers by “issuing letters of marque to his
subjects that encouraged them to seize Muslim ships and passengers.” 23
Despite the Order in Council of 1595 which recalled letters of marque because
the English privateers committed irregularities for which they were sued at
admiralty courts and punished, those continued to have “a freer hand in the
Mediterranean, where Turkish and Algerine ships were looked on as fair
game.” 24 Such un-thoughtful stand, at a time he neglected England’s navy,
would cause the Algerian corsairs to retaliate forcefully: not only did they
attack merchant shipping in the Mediterranean but they extended corsairing to
England itself (Channel coast). After years of Privateering that was more
damaging to England than to Algiers, 25 James I pressed for a treaty via the
Sublime Porte, which was negotiated directly at Constantinople in 1622 with
the Pasha of Algiers who happened to be on a visit there. 26
The Dutch, however, innovated. Clause 12 of the Ottoman-Dutch treaty
of 1612 authorized them to negotiate directly with Algiers. 27 In 1622, the Dutch
Consul held a tripartite meeting in Constantinople with the Grand Vizier and
the same visiting Pasha who concluded a treaty without referring to the Divan
23 Matar, “English Accounts of Captivity,” pp. 560-61; also Reginald G. Marsden, Documents Relating
to Law and Custom of the Sea. Vol. I: A.D. 1205-1648 (London: The Navy Records Society, 1915-
1916), pp. xxvi-xxvii.
24 Marsden, Law and Custom of Sea, pp. xxiii, 320.
25 Between 1609 and 1616, the Royal Navy admitted losing 466 English and Scottish ships to Algerian
corsairs. Davis, “Counting European Slaves,” p. 90.
26 Panzac, Corsaires barbaresques, p. 26.
27 Montmorency, “The Barbary States in International Law,” p. 90; Alexander H. de Groot, “Ottoman
North Africa and the Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Revue de
l’Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 39: 1 (1985), p. 134.
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