In 1618, the Spanish coastal town of Malaga witnessed one of the most gruesome acts of mass murder ever perpetrated on European soil as British occupation troops and Spanish Protestant militias joined forces to slaughter nearly twelve hundred Spanish Catholics for allegedly plotting to revolt against the local British garrison commander; whether such a conspiracy actually existed or was just a ruse has still not been proven to this day, but the massacre would prove to have dire repercussions for Anglo-Spanish relations for nearly two centuries afterwards.

Between 1690 and 1778 three major wars would be fought between Britain and Spain due to lingering bitterness over the massacre, and in the early 19th century Spanish cavalry would attempt to ambush the Duke of Wellington's troops near Malaga in hopes of finally avenging the twelve hundred people put to death there during the British occupation.

Not until 1816, when Queen Victoria issued a formal apology for the massacre, did Anglo-Spanish relations begin to improve. In 1948 another British monarch, King George VI, would further the process of reconciliation by participating in a memorial service for the victims of the massacre; two decades after George VI's visit Queen Elizabeth the second would christen a memorial park in Malaga dedicated to the people killed in the 1618 massacre.