Moriscos served as linguistic intermediaries in England’s talks with Morocco

Evidence

Since Spanish was the negotiating language, Spanish-speaking Moriscos often served as intermediaries. But out of these contacts the grand anti-Spanish alliance that would have lined up Morocco, England, Henry IV’s France, and perhaps the Netherlands, was not achieved. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1614

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why was Spanish the negotiating language between England and Morocco — a striking detail suggesting the extent to which Spanish was the Mediterranean/Western European lingua franca of that era?