18. This Warrior Queen Refused to Disappear Into Her Royal Hubby’s Harem
Sayyida al Hurra spent years ruling Tetouan as its queen. However, after years of widowhood, she needed to remarry for political reasons, and wed the sultan of Morocco. She was not about to vanish into her new husband’s harem, however. To emphasize her independence, and to demonstrate that she had no intention to giving up her power and position, the pirate queen refused to leave Tetouan for the wedding. The sultan had to come to her – the only time in Moroccan history that a sultan tied the knot outside his capital.
In the meantime, from her base in Tetouan, Sayyida was spurred on by bitter memories of her exile from Granada. She exacted vengeance on Spain for having expelled her from her birthplace, and conducted a ruthless campaign of piracy against the Spaniards. She allied with Khayrl al-Din Barbarossa, the era’s most prominent corsair, who rose to become the Ottoman Empire’s most successful admiral. With Barbarossa controlling the Eastern Mediterranean and Sayyida controlling the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast off Morocco and Iberia, the duo went to work.
