Note 28 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 6)

(p. 17). Chance of taking Gibraltar ... did not offer itself to him.—This project is especially notable in the light of later history, as of the years 1704, 1729, 1779-82, and of earlier times, e.g., 710. Prince Henry seems to have been one of the few men who valued aright (before quite modern times) the position from which the Arabs advanced to the Conquest of Spain, and from which the English obtained so great a hold over the Mediterranean. It was only in the later sixteenth century that one can discover anything like a widespread perception of Gibraltar's importance.