[6] Tangier was considered too large for the Portuguese to adequately defend, hence King Afonso V ordered that three quarters of the city be demolished and the walls restricted to the remaining part.

The captain of Tangier Dom Rodrigo de Castro was warned of the impending attack shortly before the army of Fez reached the vicinity of the by a messenger dog that had arrived from Portuguese Asilah with a message hung around its neck.

[12] In 1532, King John III had already expressed to the Pope his intention of withdrawing from some fortresses in Morocco, however when he requested the opinions of the grandees of Portugal on the matter in 1534, he declared his wish to maintain Tangier.

[16] The tenure of Jorge de Mendonça, the last captain of Tangier nominated by the Portuguese Crown before the Iberian Union was marked by hardships in the city.

The garrison had lost most of its horsemen and veteran soldiers in the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir, and there was a lack of food, which caused many to die of starvation, while poor weather prevented his successor from reaching the city with reinforcements for months.

[17] In 1580, it passed with the rest of Portugal's domains into Habsburg control as part of the Iberian Union but maintained its strictly Portuguese garrison and administration.