In the year 1402, one of the most decisive episodes in the history of the Canary Islands archipelago begins: the arrival of the Norman expedition led by Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, which would formally initiate the European conquest of the Canary Islands.
The Norman knight
According to Fray Juan de Abreu Galindo, Jean de Bethencourt was a knight from Normandy, a fertile region of the kingdom of France, “enriched with knights and noble people” 1. Bethencourt, “eager to see lands, and to do things worthy of his house and spirit,” left his homeland for Spain in search of his uncle Monsieur Rubin de Bracamonte, Admiral of France 1. In La Rochelle he met another French knight, Gadifer de la Salle, with whom he would agree to undertake the expedition to the Atlantic islands.
The expedition
Selling and mortgaging some of his estates, and with the support of his brother Masen Reinaldo, Bethencourt and Gadifer embarked in three ships with up to two hundred men, not counting sailors, on the first of May 1400 1. They were accompanied by numerous knights, including Mamote de Betancor, Enrique de Betancor, Guillermo de Betancor, Arriele Perdomo, Pierre Picar and Rubin de Bracamonte, “whose descendants remain on these islands” 1.
The taking of Lanzarote
The first island they sighted was Lanzarote. Upon landing, the natives mounted a defense, “having been hurt by the raids that the Spanish, the first discoverers years before, had carried out” 1. However, as the French were well armed, they put the islanders to flight, who had no weapons other than stones and clubs. The king of Lanzarote, Guadarfia, eventually accepted peace and was the first to be baptized in the church of Rubicon, under the patronage of Saint Martial, receiving the name Luis 1.
Fuerteventura and expansion
Once Lanzarote was conquered, Bethencourt moved to the island of Fuerteventura in June 1405, taking advantage of the disputes between the island’s two kings, Guise and Ayose 1. As Gil Hernandez summarizes, “Jean de Bethencourt, feudal lord of Granville, set sail in 1402 from La Rochelle, accompanied by Gadifer de la Salle. He subdued Guadarfia on Lanzarote and founded the bishopric of San Marcial de Rubicon” 2. Three years later Fuerteventura was incorporated, and the subsequent conquest of El Hierro and La Gomera would form a lordship of four islands under Norman rule.
This expedition represented, as Gil Hernandez notes, the beginning of modernity and coloniality in the archipelago, a process that would irreversibly transform the indigenous Canarian societies 2.