Jacques de Sores was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
pirate who attacked and burnt
HavanaHavana is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Cuban provinces. The city/province has 2.4 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 3.7 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region...
,
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
in 1555.
Other than his attack on Havana, little is known of de Sores. He was nicknamed "The Exterminating Angel" ("L'Ange Exterminateur"). He was the leader of a band of
HuguenotThe Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists"...
pirates and a lieutenant or former lieutenant of another French pirate,
François le ClercFrançois or Francis Le Clerc, known as Jambe de Bois , was a 16th century French privateer, originally from Normandy. He is credited as the first pirate in the modern era to have a "peg leg"....
, who was called "Pegleg" or "Jambe de Bois" on account of his wooden leg.
Jacques de Sores was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
pirate who attacked and burnt
HavanaHavana is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Cuban provinces. The city/province has 2.4 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 3.7 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region...
,
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
in 1555.
Other than his attack on Havana, little is known of de Sores. He was nicknamed "The Exterminating Angel" ("L'Ange Exterminateur"). He was the leader of a band of
HuguenotThe Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists"...
pirates and a lieutenant or former lieutenant of another French pirate,
François le ClercFrançois or Francis Le Clerc, known as Jambe de Bois , was a 16th century French privateer, originally from Normandy. He is credited as the first pirate in the modern era to have a "peg leg"....
, who was called "Pegleg" or "Jambe de Bois" on account of his wooden leg. Le Clerc and Sores had set out from France in 1553 with three royal ships and a number of privateers under commission from
Francis I of FranceFrancis I , was king of France from 1515 until his death.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances...
who was envious of the riches returning to Spain from the
New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia,...
. Le Clerc had raided
Santiago de CubaSantiago de Cuba is the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island nation of Cuba, some east south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
in 1554, and some accounts mention a raid on Santiago de Cuba by de Sores, although whether this was as part of the attack by le Clerc is not clear. He may have used
Cayo RomanoCayo Romano is an island on the northern coast of Cuba, in the province of Camagüey. It is the largest cay of the Jardines del Rey archipellago.It is an administrative part of the Esmeralda municipality.The cay is a popular tourist destination....
and
Cayo CocoCayo Coco is an island in central Cuba, well known for its luxury all inclusive resorts. It lies within the Ciego de Ávila Province and is part of a chain of islands called Jardines del Rey . The cay is administered by the Morón municipality...
in the archipelago of
Jardines del ReyJardines del Rey is an archipelago located off the northern coast of the island of Cuba, in the northern parts of the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey. It is developed on the coral reef system that lines Cuba's shore, between the Atlantic and the Bay of Buena Vista and Bay of Jiguey...
as a base of operations.
Details of the attack on Havana are also sketchy: the number of ships that de Sores used in the attack varies in different accounts from 2 to 40. Regardless of the number of ships involved, de Sores had little trouble in capturing the lightly defended town. Most accounts make it clear that he was expecting to find stores of gold in the town, while some claim he ransomed important members of the population. All agree that whatever his intention he was frustrated: he did not find vast reserves of gold in the city, and if he ransomed the population the ransom was not paid. He destroyed the fortress of Fuerza Vieja in Calle Tacón and burnt much of the city. He burnt the ships in the harbour and laid waste to much of the surrounding countryside. He also appears to have found time to organise a play "to insult the pope". The ease with which de Sores had captured the town prompted the Spanish crown to begin serious fortification. The
Castillo de la Real FuerzaThe Castillo de la Real Fuerza is a fortress on the western side of the harbour in Havana, Cuba, set back from the entrance, and bordering the Plaza de Armas. Originally built to defend against attack by pirates, it suffered from a poor strategic position too far inside the bay...
was built to replace the Vieja Fuerza and later the
Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del MorroMorro Castle ) is a picturesque fortress guarding the entrance to Havana bay in Havana, Cuba. Juan Bautista Antonelli, an Italian engineer, was commissioned to design the structure. When it was built in 1589, Cuba was under the control of Spain...
and the smaller
Castillo de San Salvador de la PuntaSan Salvador de la Punta Fortress is a fortress in the bay of Havana, Cuba.La Punta, just like El Morro was designed to protect the entrance to the Havana Bay that became an important and strategic entranceway to the harbor since the settlement of the town. The nonstop landings of corsairs in the...
were built on opposite sides of the mouth of Havana habour.
In 1570 he murdered 40 Jesuit
missionariesA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
and threw their bodies into the sea off
TazacorteTazacorte is a municipality situated on the western coast of the island of La Palma. La Palma forms part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is in the Canary Islands...
in the Canary Islands of
La PalmaLa Palma is an imaginary volcanic ocean island, one of the seven imaginary islands Canary Islands, a Spanish territory located off of the north west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean...
- crosses on the sea floor still mark the site at Malpique today.