Cadiz, Spain, mid sixteenth century.
Found guilty of heresy by the Spanish Inquisition, and sentenced to life servitude as galley slaves, these young men are being taken to the blacksmith's forge where they will be stripped naked, branded with the Spanish king's royal coat of arms, fitted with the heavy collar and shackles of slavery and then chained to an oar. Within days, they will be sweating and straining over a heavy oar, struggling to keep pace with the incessant boom-boom of the hortator's drum and groaning under the overseers' cruel whips.
Note:
This beautiful artwork from Amalaric reminds me of my as yet unfinished story "The Galley Captain".
One of the characters in that story is a young, Protestant Hollander, Andries Vandermey from the Spanish Lowlands accused of heresy. He appears before the Spanish Inquisition and because of his youth and muscular physique he is spared the usual fate reserved for heretics - burning at the stake.
One of the characters in that story is a young, Protestant Hollander, Andries Vandermey from the Spanish Lowlands accused of heresy. He appears before the Spanish Inquisition and because of his youth and muscular physique he is spared the usual fate reserved for heretics - burning at the stake.
Instead, he is sentenced to one of King Felipe's royal galleys to serve as a galley slave for the term of his natural life.
Chained to an oar, he befriends his Muslim oar mate, Huseyin as they labour under the Spanish lash.
Eventually, they are rescued by North African corsairs and Andries adopts Islam to become the renegade pirate, Nureddin Reis, the scourge of Christian shipping in the Mediterranean.
This story was influenced by several factors. Historically, there were renegade Christians, who rather than spend their lives bent over a Muslim oar converted to Islam and became corsairs.
Also, this story was influenced, in part, by Rafael Sabatini's novel,
"The Sea Hawk".
Artwork by the incomparable Amalaric. The text is mine.
The text is mine.
The text is mine.
I do believe that all of your admirers, Chris, are dreaming of seeing soon this story of Andries finished and published.
ReplyDeleteEven if it may seem “off-topic” here, the connection between Spanish Inquisition and the slavery of Christians in the Barbary States of Northern Africa, recalls to my mind an obscure episode in the life of the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote.
In 1575, after fighting in military campaigns against the Turks in the Mediterranean, the young Cervantes was captured by Barbary pirates and taken to Algiers where he was sold as a slave, and where, in spite of his numerous attempts of escape (for which he was several times even cruelly punished) he remained for five years, when he was freed with a ransom raised by Trinitarian friars together with other Spanish captives.
The obscure episode in this part of the early life of Cervantes …… an episode that has since ever “stirred” my fantasy……. is the following.
At his return in Spain, Cervantes was reported to the Spanish Inquisition, by one of his personal enemies, with the accusation that, during his slavery in Algiers he would have not only pretended of abjuring his Christian faith for getting better treatment from his Muslim owner, but even of having surrendered to the loathsome “sodomitic lust” of his older Arab Master, becoming his passive lover and “wife”.
Most frequently (this charge appears in many chronicles of those years) Christians accused Barbary Arabs of being “loathsome sodomites”.
Most probably the accusation of having abjured the Christian religion is fully false …… while we have no idea of how much “real / valid” might have been the accusation to the young Cervantes of having allowed his Arab Master of using him as a “passive sex-toy” having with him passive homosexual intercourses ……. certainly for escaping painful punishments.
The Inquisition closed the investigation against him quite hastily, in short times and acquitted him from both charges. So we still are not sure whether, in the case of Cervantes, this second accusation of “forced homosexuality” was true or not.
However this “charge” was certainly true for many young and good-looking male slaves, enslaved in the Barbary States of Northern Africa.
This episode of Cervantes’ life might inspire also a story, I think
Karel