Battle of Almansa

Battle of Almansa

Part of: War of the Spanish Succession

date	April 25, 1707
place	Almansa , Albacete Province
output	French and Spanish victory
consequences	Extension of the power of Philip V to almost all of Spain

Parties to the conflict
Great Britain United Netherlands Austria Portugal	France Spain
Commander
Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway António Luís de Sousa, 2nd Marquis of Minas	James Fitzjames, 1st Duke of Berwick-upon-Tweed
Troop strength
42 battalions of infantry (11,000 men), 53 squadrons of cavalry (5,000 men), 24 guns altogether 16,000 men	52 battalions of infantry (15,000 men), 77 squadrons of cavalry (6,000 men), 20 guns altogether 21,000 men
losses
5,000 men wounded or killed, 7,000 men captured	2,000 men wounded or killed

The information on troop strength and losses can vary in the literature.

The Battle of Almansa (also Almanza ) on April 25, 1707 took place near the city of Almansa in southeastern Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession . It was one of the most important battles on the Spanish theater of war, as the crushing defeat of the Allies resulted in a turn of the war in favor of the French and Spanish on the peninsula.

prehistory

The Allies were initially on the offensive in the campaign of 1707. Their army was somewhat weakened, however, as Archduke Karl had set out with some regiments to protect Catalonia . The allied army under Marquis das Minas and Galloway marched from Valencia towards Madrid . Various enemy storage facilities were destroyed and the city of Villena in Murcia was besieged. The French Marshal Berwick gathered his troops at Almansa. The Allies decided to attack the French and Spanish there before an expected reinforcement had arrived.

course

When news arrived that the Galloway army was advancing, Berwick was preparing for a battle on the Almansa plain. In the center he posted his infantry, the wings were formed by the cavalry. The whole thing was divided into two meetings. The artillery was positioned on a rise behind the center of the front. Galloway raised his army in a very similar way. However, the lines were thinner and the flanks were reinforced by infantry.

After the initial gunfire, Galloway advanced the whole line. The left wing made the first contact with the enemy. The center followed. This was formed mainly by English and Dutch troops. The advance was quite successful and forced the enemy to withdraw his artillery. The first meeting of the Spanish and French with the help of the second meeting was only able to hold up with difficulty. However, Berwick put the right wing of the Allies, where mainly Dutch and Portuguese were, to flight. The troops thus freed were used by Berwick against the enemy’s left wing. This was decisive in the battle. In the middle too, Galloway's attack finally collapsed completely.

His army had to withdraw. Almost all of the guns were lost. The fleeing troops were further weakened by the pursuing cavalry of the enemy. Two thousand men surrendered the day after the battle. When the Allied army arrived in Tortosa , there were only 3,500 men left.

consequences

The battle did not mean the defeat of the Allies on the Iberian Peninsula, but the troops in support of Philip V were now strengthened. Valencia passed into French hands on May 8th. Zaragoza fell on May 26th and Lerida , Catalonia, surrendered on October 14th. After a siege on October 4th , Ciudad Rodrigo fell into the hands of the Spanish and French on the Portuguese border . At the end of the year, almost all of Spain, with the exception of Catalonia, was under the rule of Philip V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gaston Bodart: Military-historical War Lexicon, (1618-1905). Vienna 1908, p. 151.
2. ↑ John A. Lynn: The French Wars 1667-1714. The Sun King at War. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2002, p. 67, ISBN 9781841763613 .

literature

• Bernhard von Poten (Ed.): Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences. Volume 1, Bielefeld / Leipzig 1877, pp. 120f.
• Hanns Eggert Wilibald von der Lühe: Military conversation lexicon. Volume 1, Leipzig 1833, pp. 139f.
• Tony Jaques, Dennis Showalter: Dictionary of battles and sieges. A guide to 8500 battles from antiquity through the twenty-first century. Volume 1, Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut) 2007, p. 37.