Battle of Almansa
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| Battle of Almansa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War of the Spanish Succession | |||||||
| Image:Batalladealmansa.jpg | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Image:Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg Kingdom of Great Britain Image:Flag Portugal (1707).svg Kingdom of Portugal | Image:Bandera de España(1701-1748).gif Crown of Castile | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Image:Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg Earl of Galway | Image:Pavillon royal de France.svg Duke of Berwick | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 22,000 | 25,000 | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 5,000 dead or wounded 12,000 captured | 3,500 dead or wounded | ||||||
War of the Spanish |
|---|
| Carpi – Chiari – Cremona – Luzzara – Cádiz – Friedlingen – Vigo Bay – Ekeren – Höchstädt – Schellenberg – Blenheim – Málaga – Elixheim – Cassano – Calcinato – Ramillies – Turin – Almansa – Toulon – Oudenarde – Lille – Malplaquet – Almenara – Saragossa – Brihuega – Villaviciosa – Bouchain – Denain – Barcelona |
The Battle of Almansa, fought on April 25, 1707, was one of the most decisive engagements of the War of the Spanish Succession. At Almansa, the Franco–Spanish Empire army under Berwick soundly defeated the allied forces of Portugal, Britain, and the United Provinces led by the Earl of Galway, reclaiming most of eastern Spain for the Bourbons.
It has been described as "probably the only battle in history in which the British forces were commanded by a Frenchman, the French by a Briton"[1].
Contents |
[edit] The battle
The Bourbon army of about 25,000 was composed of French and Spanish troops in equal proportion, as well as an Irish regiment. Opposing them was a mainly Anglo-Portuguese force with strong Dutch, German, and French Huguenot elements.
The battle began with an artillery exchange. When Galway committed his reserves to an attack on the Bourbon centre, Berwick unleashed a strong force of Franco-Spanish cavalry against the weakened Anglo-Portuguese lines, sweeping away the Portuguese horse. A general rout followed. Galway lost 5,000 men killed and 12,000 taken prisoner; of his army of 22,000 only 5,000 escaped to Tortosa.
[edit] Aftermath
The victory was a major step in the consolidation of Spain under the Bourbons. With the main pro-Habsburg army in Spain destroyed, the duc d'Anjou regained the initiative and recovered Valencia. The city of Xàtiva was burned, and its name changed to San Felipe in order to punish it. (In memory of these facts, nowadays the portrait of the monarch still hangs upside down in the local museum of L'Almodí [1])
Before long, the only remaining allies of Charles of Habsburg were his supporters in Catalonia and Balearic Islands.
[edit] Legacy
Frederick the Great referred to Almansa as "the most scientific battle of our century," while Winston Churchill once compared the crushing British defeat to the disasters awaiting the British Army at the hands of Nazi Germany in the early years of the Second World War.
In the present-day Land of Valencia, proverbs recalling this defeat are still in common usage: Quan el mal ve d'Almansa, a tots alcança ("Evil tidings spare no one when they come from Almansa," or, more literally, "When the wrong comes from Almansa, it reaches everybody"), De ponent, ni vent ni gent ("From the west, neither wind nor people").
[edit] External links
- ^ Norwich, John Jules (2007). The Middle Sea. A History of the Mediterranean. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0701176083.
http://historiadealmansa.usuarios.tvalmansa.com/la_batalla_de_almansa.htm Batalla de Almansaca:Batalla d'Almansa es:Batalla de Almansa fr:Bataille d'Almanza gl:Batalla de Almansa nl:Slag van Almansa oc:Batalha d'Almansa pl:Bitwa pod Almansą
