The Battle of the Three Kings Is Fought in Morocco

On 4 August 1578, an expansive Christian expeditionary force and a defending Moroccan army clashed near Ksar-el-Kebir by the Loukkos River. The confrontation arose from a dynastic conflict within the ruling Saadi dynasty of Morocco. Deposed sultan Abu Abdallah Mohammed II had travelled to Portugal seeking foreign military assistance to regain power from his uncle, Sultan Abd al-Malik I, who had captured the throne two years earlier with Ottoman backing. Eager to assert Portuguese power in North Africa, King Sebastian I of Portugal committed vast resources to Abu Abdallah's cause.

Sebastian assembled a diverse force carried by an armada of hundreds of vessels. In addition to Portuguese nobility and infantry, his army included Castilian volunteers, German and Flemish mercenaries, and Italian recruits under English commander Thomas Stukley, bringing the invasion army to roughly twenty thousand men. After landing at Arzila, Sebastian united his troops with about six thousand allied soldiers loyal to Abu Abdallah and marched inland, ignoring cautionary warnings from European relatives.