Siege of Cannanore (1507)
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| Siege of Cannanore (1507) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the First Luso-Malabarese War | |||||||
 St. Angelo Fort in Cannanore | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Portuguese Empire |
Kōlattunād Calicut | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lourenço de Brito |
Kolathiri Samorin | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
2 ships 150 soldiers[1] |
21 cannons 40,000 Nāyars 20,000 men from the Zamorin.[2] | ||||||
The siege of Cannanore was a four-month siege, from 27 April 1507 to 27 August 1507, when troops of the local ruler (the Kōlattiri Raja of Cannanore), supported by the Zamorin of Calicut besieged the Portuguese garrison at St. Angelo Fort in Cannanore, in what is now the Indian state of Kerala. It followed the Battle of Cannanore, in which the fleet of the Zamorin was defeated by the Portuguese.[3]
In early 1501, shortly after the opening of hostilities between the Portuguese admiral Pedro Álvares Cabral and the Zamorin of Calicut, the Kōlattiri Raja of Cannanore invited the Portuguese to trade in the spice markets of Cannanore instead. Treaties were signed and a crown factory, defended by a small palisade, was established in 1502. In late 1505, D. Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese vice-roy of the Indies, secured permission to erect the stone fortress of Santo Angelo in Cannanore. The fortress garrison of 150 men was placed under the command of Lourenço de Brito.[4]
The old Kolathiri Raja who had energetically pursued the Portuguese alliance died sometime in 1506. As the succession was disputed, the Zamorin of Calicut, as formal suzerain of the Kerala coast, nominated an arbitrator to sort through the candidates. The new Kolathiri Raja of Cannanore was consequently indebted to the Zamorin and less inclined to the Portuguese.[5]
Hostilities were in large part due to the Portuguese sinking an Indian ship and killing the crew by stitching them into sails and throwing them into the sea, on the grounds that they were not carrying one of the Cartaz, the passes the Portuguese were imposing on all ships of the region.[6] Such passes had to be signed by either the commander of Cochin or Cannanore.[7] The population of the adjoining state of Kōlattunād was greatly angered by this event, and asked their ruler, the Kōlattiri, to attack the Portuguese.[7]