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Juan De Rena and the financing of the Tunis campaign 413

These papers give us a very different perspective from what has
prevailed to date in that they reveal the vital contribution made by the
Portuguese in this respect:

As I have written before to Your Majesty, there are not enough ships
available, other than the numerous caravels, tafurcas, Sevillian vessels and
chalupas that I have requisitioned in Seville and el Puerto [of San Lucar?].
The request I sent to the Portuguese ambassador asking them to send ships
from there will not, as Your Majesty writes, delay the dispatch of their
caravels. On the contrary, it will hasten it, because I specified in my letter
that these ships had to be in Malaga by the eight of March because that was
the date that Your Majesty had set for the fleet to sail. However, I wrote at
once to inform them what Your Majesty has written to me. The king of
Portugal’s factor has informed me that they have written to him from
[Portugal] that their fleet will be ready to sail by mid-March and not before
that. From this we can deduce without doubt that it will not be here before
the end of March. Nevertheless, if we can finalise the preparations here
before that date we shall do so 43 .

Mondéjar was critical of the decision to organise the Iberian fleet
and embark the troops in Barcelona because he argued that this
would increase costs, and it required them to ship the soldiers north,
that is, further from their final destination. Moreover, the merchants
he was dealing with in Andalucía were unwilling to provide victuals for
the fleet in Cataluña because that year Catalan wheat was cheaper
than in the markets of Granada, and they refused to send it to the port
if they were paid at the lower price . Another, more acute problem the
44
commissioners encountered was the shortage of lead. The great deficit
of lead in 1535 would be a recurring feature in the preparation of

43 Ags, E, 30, s. f., Málaga, 25 February 1535: «De navíos ay falta, como a v. mg.
tengo scripto, más de carabelas y tafurcas y barcos sevillanos y chalupas que para este
tiempo tendré rrecabdo por que en el Puerto y Sevilla tengo embargados cantidad dellos/
Esto que escribí al embaxador de Portugal que enviase de allá naos no ay el
inconveniente que v. mg. dice de dilatárse la venida de las carabelas, antes las dará más
prisa por que le escriví que las naos que me avia de embiar fuesen en Málaga ocho de
março por que para este tiempo quería v. mag. Que el armada se hiziese a la vela, más
todavía le escribí a la ora lo que v. mag. Manda/ El fator del rey de Portugal me dice que
le escriben de alla que el armada está presta para mediado março y no antes de manera
que se puede rrazonablemente inegar que no será aquí antes del fin de março, sin
embarco desto si lo de aquí pudiere antes estar en horden se hará».
44 «Con mercaderes e puesto en platica que lleven alguna cantidad de trigo y cebada
a Barcelona y no se determinan a llevarlo por lo suyo porque dicen que tienen aviso que
vale allá barato y si esto es tampoco conviene llevallo por de v. ma., ni es necesario v-
mg. mandara que se me de aviso de lo que den esto de no haear que en Barcelona dicen
que valía a xx de enero a xvi sueldos la quarterola, que sale a cinco reales y 3 maravedís
la anegada». Ags, E, 30, s. f., Málaga, 25 February 1535.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)