Battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas

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Battle of Camaret
date March 10, 1695
place La Vall d'en Bas and Olot , Catalonia , Spain
output Spanish victory
Parties to the conflict

France Kingdom 1792France France

Spain 1506Spain Spain

Commander

Urbain Le Clerc de Juigné †

Ramon de Sala i Saçala

Troop strength
1300 regular infantry 650 militias
losses

1,086 dead or prisoners

7 dead
5 wounded

Battles and sieges in the
Palatinate War of Succession (1688–1697)

The battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas took place on March 10, 1695 on the Catalan front of the War of the Palatinate Succession . It was placed between a detachment of French regular infantry under the command of Brigadier Urbain Le Clerc de Juigné, the governor of the nearby French-occupied Castellfollit de la Roca , and 16 companies of Catalan miquelets and some armed peasants under the command of Ramon de Sala i Saçala, the veguer the city of Vic . Juigné's forces were on a punitive expedition to burn down the village of Sant Esteve d'en Bas , whose residents had refused to pay war taxes to the French army. The French were attacked by the Catalan militias in two skirmishes and almost wiped out.

The first and bloodier confrontation took place in the Malatosquera forest and the Sant Roc bridge, where the French lost 500 men to death or wounding. Defeated, Juigné and his remaining men withdrew to Olot , where they holed up in a convent . The Catalans forced the French to surrender by setting fire to the building. With seven dead and five wounded only minor losses, the Miquelets and the farmers under Sala i Saçala killed 260 French and captured 826. Juigné was among the fallen. The French defeat was followed only a month later by the blockade of the French garrisons of Castellfollit and Hostalric by Spanish troops. Because of the impossibility of holding both positions, the French decided to tear down the fortresses and evacuate them.

background

Portrait of Anne Jules de Noailles by Hyacinthe Rigaud , 1691. Grenoble, musée des Beaux-arts

Catalonia was one of the main theaters of war in the Palatinate War of Succession. For the Spanish viceroy of Catalonia , the Duke of Villahermosa , the first phase of the conflict was marked by a lack of funds and poor relations with the peasantry because of the revolt of the Barretinas . In 1689, the Admiral of Castile , Juan Gaspar Enríquez de Cabrera , told the Spanish Council of State that "the best relief that Catalonia can bestow is that of external skills that can be obtained from Flanders, Milan or Navarre." The French army under the However, the Duke of Noailles also suffered from a lack of supplies and so there were material battles in the first four years of the war. In 1694, King Louis XIV granted his army in Catalonia greater amounts of resources and so Noailles was able to break through the Spanish defense by defeating the Spanish army at the Battle of Torroella , on the banks of the Ter and the ports of Roses , Palamós and Cadaqués as well could capture the important city of Girona .

In 1695, the French high command found that the inhabitants of the territories occupied by the French were reluctant to pay war taxes, which is why it began to suppress an organized and increasingly successful resistance. In the winter of 1694/95 the residents of Calella fought back a punitive expedition of 800 to 1000 men, which the French had sent from the Blanes fortress , killing between 60 and 100 soldiers. French troops were also harassed by Catalan militias, the Miquelets , who ambushed Noailles' men in forests and on ridges. One of the most successful leaders here was Captain Ramon de Sala i Saçala, the Veguer of Vic, who was victorious against the French twice during the winter: in late December he overran a convoy on the way to Hostalric, killing 25 French soldiers and 25 and on February 24 he defeated a company of French dragoons at Navata , killing 7 men and arresting 28 others and 32 horses.

One of the villages that refused to pay was Sant Esteve d'en Bas. Although a French detachment ransacked the village as punishment, the villagers still refused to obey. A force of 700 men was sent out on December 28 to capture the city elders, but the French found the village deserted and ransacked it again, taking two priests hostage. When the residents of the area were still rebellious in March 1695, Monsieur de Saint-Sylvestre, the French governor of Girona, the Brigadier Juigné, the commander of the garrison of Castellfollit, commanded the village of 1,300 men from the garrison and from Figueres , Banyoles and to punish Besalú a third time. These troops were provided by the German-Alsatian regiment, the Swiss Manuel and Schellenberg regiments and the French royal artillery regiment. Philippe de Courcillon , a famous French diarist, described them as part of the "best troops in this country".

battle

A miquelet by Philibert-Benoist de La Rue

The French forces left Castellfollit on the evening of March 9th, passed Olot some distance away and spent the night at the palanca de Cudella , a ford on the Fluvià river . At dawn some farmers and miquelets spotted them and sent a warning to Sant Esteve d'en Bas. Women and children took shelter in the surrounding mountains while the men prepared to fight the French column. They also sent for help to Ramon de Sala i Saçala, who was with captains Josep Mas de Roda and Pere Baliart i Teula in the neighboring town of Sant Feliu de Pallerols , to dig three new companies of miquelets there. Meanwhile, Juigné arrived in la Vall d'en Bas - the Bas Valley -, left a rear guard in El Mallol and took up position on the hill of Puigpardines. From there he sent a third of his men to burn down Sant Esteve. The French had already set 16 buildings on fire when Ramon de Sala at the head of 8 companies Miquelets and Pere Baliart at the head of another 8 arrived in the village, forcing the French to flee back to Juigné's position.

On the hill of Puigpardines, Juigné was already fighting against 80 armed farmers from the local Sometent when the arrival of Salas, Mas' and Baliarts Miquelets made him retreat. When they tried to flee back across the Fluvià, they found the way blocked. Juigné then decided to try to escape to Olot via the Malatosquera forest and the Sant Roc bridge, but the Catalans had already expected it. Sala divided his miquelets into two groups of 300 men each and while Josep Mas de Roda led the first of these groups, chasing the French and attacking them in the forest, the second group blocked the bridge at Sant Roc. During the fight under the trees, Juigné lost 25 men and parts of the ammunition.

Grenadier, sergeant, officer and drummer of the Regiment d'Alsace 1696, by Alfred Touchemolin

Despite these attacks, the French column managed to gain control of the bridge and to get to the other bank of the Fluvià. While translating, the Miquelets and the farmers fired from the south at the fleeing French and killed 70 of the soldiers. According to Charles Sevin de Quincy , a contemporary French artillery general and military historian during the reign of Louis XIV, Juigné's corps was able to retreat to Olot in a well-ordered manner. On the other hand, Esteve Paluzie i Cantalozella , a 19th-century Catalan local historian, claims that French troops fled headless, leaving the Catalans behind 150 prisoners who were brought to Sant Esteve d'en Bas under heavy escort.

When they arrived in Olot, most of Juigné's men took up positions in the convent of El Carme, while 90 Swiss soldiers from the rear guard holed up in the village's hospital. While the Swiss troops quickly surrendered to the onslaught of the attacking Catalans, most of the French division with Juigné held the position for two hours. The miquelets and farmers surrounded the building and were able to cut a breach in the walls only to be repulsed in hand-to-hand combat. They lost three men with two killed and one wounded. Sala's men broke through the walls of a chapel and stormed the convent again, but when the French rallied inside, the attack was repulsed again. Sala then ordered the gates of the building to be set on fire, but the French filled the gap with stones and masonry. However, the Catalans eventually managed to enter the building by setting fire to large amounts of pitch and sulfur on the two breakthroughs reached. The fire and smoke blinded the French and took their breath away, whereupon they withdrew to the cloister of the convent. Soon after, Juigné, badly wounded in battle, sought negotiations and surrendered.

Aftermath

The French division surrendered under the promise that the officers would not be exposed, but all soldiers were taken as prisoners of war and their weapons and valuables were handed over to the French. Juigné stayed with 136 other wounded soldiers and a German captain in Olot for medical treatment, but died soon afterwards. The French casualties amounted to 251 to 260 men killed - including 32 officers - and 826 men prisoners, whereas the Miquelets had only 7 killed and 5 wounded. These figures are considered certain because the French director of Girona, René Desgrigny, sent a letter to the village elders of Olot, in which he asked about the number and rank of prisoners and explored the possibility of an exchange. In this letter Desgrigny noted that Monsieur Juigné could consider himself lucky to be dead, otherwise the defeat would have cost him dearly. The 690 unharmed French prisoners were taken first to Vic and later to Barcelona , where they arrived on March 15th. Their entry was watched by a large crowd and by the Spanish viceroy, the Marquis of Gastañaga .

View from Castellfollit de la Roca (2014)

In the weeks that followed the battle, Spanish troops and local militia increased pressure on the Castellfollit garrison. On April 5, Catalan Miquelets , supported by five companies of dragoons and some farmers, beat a group of French forces from Berga and Castellfollit, killing 60 soldiers and taking 200 prisoners. Noailles, at that time already suffering from rheumatism , ordered Lieutenant General Saint-Sylvestre to assemble a convoy to relieve Castellfollit. This convoy was escorted to protect 2,000 infantry and 600 cavalry. A corps of miquelets , Spanish dragoons and peasants under the command of Blai de Trinxeria attacked and defeated this convoy on April 15. The French garrisons of Castellfollit and Hostalric then fell under an effective blockade. On May 19, Saint-Sylvestre assembled an army of 8,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry and horrified Hostalric, but not Castellfollit, which was still under siege. This partial failure caused differences between Noailles and Saint-Sylvestre.

At the end of June, Louis XIV replaced Noailles with Louis II. Joseph de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme . Noailles accused Saint-Sylvestre of incompetence and, as he had already done with other high-ranking officers, of plundering the country for his own benefit, which had turned the peasants against the French troops and provoked armed resistance. On July 8th, Vendôme led his troops in front of Castellfollit. The French garrison, which had evacuated the population and already eaten their horses and mules, and had been decimated by desertions, was in an untenable position and Vendôme had only come to evacuate the remains and razor the fortress. When this was done, the French army set out for Hostalric and destroyed the defenses there too. On July 28th she returned to Girona.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Espino, p. 569
  2. ↑ Espino, p. 580
  3. ↑ Espino, p. 617
  4. ↑ Young, p. 232
  5. ↑ Espino, p. 681
  6. ↑ Young, p. 233
  7. ↑ a b Espino, p. 694
  8. ↑ a b Espino, p. 698
  9. ^ Espino, p. 695
  10. ↑ Espino, pp. 696-697
  11. ↑ a b c d Paluzie, p. 92
  12. ↑ Monsalvatje, p. 72
  13. ↑ Courcillon, p. 329
  14. ↑ Monsalvatje, p. 67
  15. ↑ a b Monsalvatje, p. 68
  16. ↑ a b c Paluzie, p. 93
  17. ^ Sévin, p. 169
  18. ↑ a b Monsalvatje, p. 69
  19. ↑ a b c d Monsalvatje, p. 70
  20. ↑ a b Sévin, p. 170
  21. ↑ Paluzie, p. 94
  22. ↑ Paluzie, p. 108
  23. ↑ Monsalvatje, p. 71
  24. ^ Espino, p. 697
  25. ↑ Espino, p. 711
  26. ↑ Espino, p. 712
  27. ↑ Espino, p. 714

literature

  • Philippe de Courcillon: Mémoires et journal du Marquis De Dangeau: publiés pour la première fois sur les manuscrits originaux . 3. Edition. Mame et Delaunay-Vallée, Paris 1830.
  • Antonio Espino López: El frente catalán en la Guerra de los Nueve Años, 1689-1697 . Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ​​Belaterra 1994, ISBN 978-84-692-0227-2 .
  • Francisco Monsalvatje y Fossas: Noticias históricas. El vizcondado de Bas . Juan Bonet, Olot 1893.
  • Esteve Paluzie i Cantalozella: Olot: su comarca, sus extinguidos volcanes, su historia civil, religiosa y local . Establ. Tip. de Jaime Jepús, Barcelona 1860.
  • Charles Sévin: Histoire militaire du regne de Louis le Grand, Roy de France . 3. Edition. D. Mariette, Paris 1726.
  • William Young: International Politics and Warfare in the Age of Louis XIV and Peter the Great . iUniverse, Lincoln 2004, ISBN 0-595-32992-6 .