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Battle of Almenar

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Battle of Almenar
Part of the War of the Spanish Succession
Derrota-i-humillacion borbonica-en-almenar-27-7-1710-cataluña.jpg
Date27 July 1710
Location
hills of Almenar, near Balaguer (Catalonia), Spain
Result Grand Alliance victory
Belligerents
Spain Bourbon Spain  Habsburg Austria
Portugal Kingdom of Portugal
 Great Britain
 United Provinces
Commanders and leaders
Spain Francisco de Villadarias Habsburg Monarchy Starhemberg
Kingdom of Great Britain Stanhope
Strength
22,000[1] 24,000
Casualties and losses
1,000 dead
3,000 captured
400 dead

The Battle of Almenar also referred to as Almenara was a battle in the Iberian theatre of the War of the Spanish Succession.

In June 1710, the Bourbon-Spanish army of Phillip V crossed into Catalonia in an attempt to capture Balaguer; an Allied force of British, Portuguese, Dutch and Austrian troops supporting Archduke Charles countered these moves and the two armies met in battle just to the north of Lleida on the afternoon of 27 July. Philip's army was defeated and forced to withdraw behind the Ebro but remained intact.

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War of the Spanish Succession

War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1715. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Philip of Anjou and Charles of Austria, and their respective supporters, among them Spain, Austria, France, the Dutch Republic, Savoy and Great Britain. Related conflicts include the 1700–1721 Great Northern War, Rákóczi's War of Independence in Hungary, the Camisards revolt in southern France, Queen Anne's War in North America and minor trade wars in India and South America.

Philip V of Spain

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 44 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish monarchy surpassing Philip II. Philip instigated many important reforms in Spain, most especially the centralization of power of the monarchy and the suppression of regional privileges, via the Nueva Planta decrees, and restructuring of the administration of the Spanish Empire on the Iberian peninsula and its overseas regions.

Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy.

Balaguer

Balaguer

Balaguer is the capital of the comarca of Noguera, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It is located by the river Segre, a tributary to the Ebre. The municipality includes an exclave to the east. Balaguer also has a sister city in the western United States, Pacifica, California.

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy from 1711 until his death, succeeding his elder brother, Joseph I. He unsuccessfully claimed the throne of Spain following the death of his relative, Charles II. In 1708, he married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, by whom he had his four children: Leopold Johann, Maria Theresa, Maria Anna, and Maria Amalia.

Lleida

Lleida

Lleida is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida.

Ebro

Ebro

The Ebro is a river of the north and northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain. It rises in Cantabria and flows 930 kilometres (580 mi), almost entirely in an east-southeast direction. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea forming a delta in the Province of Tarragona, in southern Catalonia. In the Iberian peninsula, it ranks second in length after the Tagus and second in discharge volume, and drainage basin, after the Douro. It is the longest river entirely within Spain; the other two mentioned flow into Portugal. It is also the second-longest river in the Mediterranean basin, after the Nile.

Prelude

BalaguerLleidaBarcelonaTarragonaZaragosaAlfarrasclass=notpageimage| 1710 Campaign in Spain; key locations
Balaguer
Balaguer
Lleida
Lleida
Barcelona
Barcelona
Tarragona
Tarragona
Zaragosa
Zaragosa
Alfarras
Alfarras
1710 Campaign in Spain; key locations

By the spring of 1709, France was financially exhausted, the severe winter of 1708/09 led to widespread famine and Louis XIV was forced to withdraw French troops from Spain to reinforce his northern frontier. However, although the Battle of Malplaquet in September 1709 was technically an Allied victory, the casualties shocked Europe and halted their advance into France. In Spain, forces loyal to the Bourbon candidate Philip V recaptured Alicante in April 1709 and won a resounding victory over an Anglo-Portuguese army at La Gudiña in May. The Portuguese now declared an informal truce, allowing trade and agriculture to recommence.[2]

All sides wanted peace but negotiations in The Hague over the winter and spring of 1709/10 failed when the Allies demanded Louis agree to remove his grandson Philip by force if necessary. This approach was summarised by the British Whig party slogan No Peace Without Spain but was a major miscalculation. There was growing opposition to the war in Britain, now the major financial backer of the Alliance while the campaign in Spain had largely been a failure. Phillip was far more popular with the Spanish than his rival Archduke Charles and so the war continued.

In May 1710, Phillip and the Spanish-Bourbon army under Villadarias crossed the Segre river into Catalonia hoping to capture Balaguer. The first attempt failed due to torrential rain but French reinforcements increased the Spanish army to 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry and in June they tried again. The illness of the Allied commander Starhemberg enabled Philip to capture a number of small towns but after several weeks of marching and counter-marching, on 27 July Stanhope's division crossed the Segres at Alfarràs and combined with Starhemberg's forces on the heights of Almenar.[3]

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Louis XIV

Louis XIV

Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign in history whose date is verifiable. Although Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the Age of Absolutism in Europe, the King surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military, and cultural figures, such as Bossuet, Colbert, Le Brun, Le Nôtre, Lully, Mazarin, Molière, Racine, Turenne, and Vauban.

Battle of Malplaquet

Battle of Malplaquet

The Battle of Malplaquet took place on 11 September 1709 during the War of the Spanish Succession and was fought between a French army commanded by the Duke of Villars and a Grand Alliance force under John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough. In one of the bloodiest battles of the 18th century, the Allies won a narrow victory but suffered heavy casualties, while the French were able to withdraw in good order.

Alicante

Alicante

Alicante is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 as of 2020, the second-largest in the Valencian Community.

No Peace Without Spain

No Peace Without Spain

No Peace Without Spain was a popular British political slogan of the early eighteenth century. It referred to the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) in which Britain was a leading participant. It implied that no peace treaty could be agreed with Britain's principal enemy Louis XIV of France that allowed Philip, the French candidate, to retain the Spanish crown. The term became a rallying cry for opposition to the Tory government of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg)

Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg)

The Grand Alliance was the anti-French coalition formed on 20 December 1689 between the Dutch Republic, England and the Holy Roman Empire. It was signed by the two leading opponents of France: William III, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and King of England, and Emperor Leopold I, on behalf of the Archduchy of Austria.

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy from 1711 until his death, succeeding his elder brother, Joseph I. He unsuccessfully claimed the throne of Spain following the death of his relative, Charles II. In 1708, he married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, by whom he had his four children: Leopold Johann, Maria Theresa, Maria Anna, and Maria Amalia.

Francisco Castillo Fajardo, Marquis of Villadarias

Francisco Castillo Fajardo, Marquis of Villadarias

Francisco Castillo Fajardo, 2nd Marquis of Villadarias, was a Spanish general.

Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy.

Balaguer

Balaguer

Balaguer is the capital of the comarca of Noguera, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It is located by the river Segre, a tributary to the Ebre. The municipality includes an exclave to the east. Balaguer also has a sister city in the western United States, Pacifica, California.

James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope

James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope

James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope was a British soldier, diplomat and statesman who effectively served as Chief Minister between 1717 and 1721. He is also the last Chancellor of the Exchequer to sit in the House of Lords.

Alfarràs

Alfarràs

Alfarràs is a municipality in the comarca of the Segrià in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the right bank of the Noguera Ribagorçana river, and receives irrigation water from the Aragon and Catalonia canal. The town is served by the N-230 road between Balaguer and Binéfar.

Almenar

Almenar

Almenar is a municipality in the comarca of the Segrià in Catalonia, Spain. The Battle of Almenar, one of the main battles of the War of the Spanish Succession, was fought in the hills close to this town on 27 July 1710.

The battle

Villadarias opened the battle with a cavalry attack on the Allied defences which initially gave way. The Spanish wasted the opening by pursuing groups of fleeing enemies and allowed the Allied lines to reform.

British infantry and dragoons on the Allied left led by Stanhope and George Carpenter attacked the Bourbon army's right wing which fled, taking the second line with it; British casualties included the Earl of Rochford, Colonel of the 3rd Dragoon Regiment who was killed as they broke the Spanish lines.[4] The Austrians simultaneously attacked and destroyed the Bourbon right wing, Philip himself only just avoiding capture.

The battle took place late in the afternoon, preventing the Allies from following up their victory and allowing the Bourbon forces to gather their scattered cavalry and reassemble in the town of Zaragoza or Saragossa.

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George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter

George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter

Lieutenant-General George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter of Killaghy, 10 February 1657 to 10 February 1731, was a member of the landed gentry from Herefordshire and career soldier in the British Army. He served as Commander-in-Chief, Scotland from 1716 to 1724 and as a Whig MP from 1715 to 1727.

William Nassau de Zuylestein, 2nd Earl of Rochford

William Nassau de Zuylestein, 2nd Earl of Rochford

William Nassau de Zuylestein, 2nd Earl of Rochford, styled Viscount Tunbridge from 1695 to 1709, was a British Army officer and Whig politician who sat in the Irish House of Commons from 1705 and in the British House of Commons from 1708 until 1709 when he succeeded to the peerage and sat in the House of Lords. He was killed in battle.

Philip V of Spain

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 44 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish monarchy surpassing Philip II. Philip instigated many important reforms in Spain, most especially the centralization of power of the monarchy and the suppression of regional privileges, via the Nueva Planta decrees, and restructuring of the administration of the Spanish Empire on the Iberian peninsula and its overseas regions.

Zaragoza

Zaragoza

Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the Huerva and the Gállego, roughly in the center of both Aragon and the Ebro basin.

Aftermath

Shortly after this, Villadarias was replaced by the French general the Marquis de Bay, victor over an Anglo-Portuguese army at the Battle of La Gudina in May 1709. The Bourbon army was battered but largely intact.

Source: "Battle of Almenar", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, May 9th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Almenar.

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References
  1. ^ Lynn, John (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714. Longman. p. 339. ISBN 0582056292.
  2. ^ Falkner, James (2015). The War of the Spanish Succession 1701-1714. Pen and Sword Military. ISBN 978-1781590317.
  3. ^ Duc de Saint Simon, Louis (1902). Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 07 (2016 ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. Chapter 14. ISBN 1523296240.
  4. ^ Watson, Paula. "Nassau de Zuylestein, William, Viscount Tunbridge (1682-1710)". HistoryofParliament. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
Sources
  • Falkner, James The War of the Spanish Succession; (Pen and Sword, 2015);
  • Lynn, John A. The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714. (Longman, 1999);
  • Saint Simon, Louis; Memoirs of Louis XIV - Volume 7 (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2016);

Coordinates: 41°47′45″N 0°34′08″E / 41.79583°N 0.56889°E / 41.79583; 0.56889

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