Sea battle of Saltés
Sea battle of Saltés (1381)
| date | July 17, 1381 |
|---|---|
| place | Saltés Island |
| output | Castilian victory |
| consequences | Dominance of Castile by sea. Victory of Castile in the Third Ferdinandic War |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 23 galleys | 17 galleys |
| losses | |
|
All but 1 galley captured |
Low human losses |
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Chevauchées of the 1340s: Saint-Omer - Auberoche
Edward III. Campaign (1346/47): Caen - Blanchetaque - Crécy - Calais
War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364) : Champtoceaux - Brest - Morlaix - Saint-Pol-de-Léon - La Roche-Derrien - Tournament of Thirty - Mauron - Auray
France's allies : Neville's Cross - Les Espagnols sur Mer - Brignais
Chevauchées of the 1350s: Poitiers
Castilian Civil War & War of the Two Peter (1351–1375): Barcelona - Araviana - Nájera - Montiel
French counter-offensive: La Rochelle - Gravesend
Wars between Portugal and Castile (1369– 1385): Lisbon - Saltés - Lisbon - Aljubarrota
Battle of Northern France: Rouen - Baugé - Meaux - Cravant - La Brossinière - Verneuil
Jeanne d'Arc and the turn of the war: Orléans - Battle of the herring - Jargeau - Meung-sur-Loire - Beaugency - Patay - Compiegne - Gerberoy
The naval battle off the island of Saltés ( July 17, 1381 ) was a naval battle between a Portuguese and a Castilian fleet that essentially took place in the waters near the island of Saltés (in what is now the province of Huelva , Andalusia , Spain ), during the Third Ferdinand's War took place.
prehistory
Ferdinand I of Portugal claimed the throne of Castile after the death of Peter I , from which the Ferdinandic Wars relaxed. In 1381 he broke the Treaty of Santarém (1373), which had concluded peace after the Second Ferdinandean War. In the new war he relies on a newly signed alliance with England. The Duke of Lancaster had also been entitled to the Castilian throne since 1371 and saw in this pact a way of making his claim effective. That is why he promised Ferdinand I about 2,000 men to support him, half of whom were the feared English archers . They were under the orders of the Earl of Cambridge.
To prevent the English contingent from being intercepted at sea by the Navy of Castile, the Portuguese monarch planned a naval blockade around the mouth of the Guadalquivir , since the fleet was stationed in Seville under Fernando Sánchez de Tovar . He knew that the Castilians had 17 galleys there and collected a fleet of 23 galleys that set out from Lisbon in mid-July 1381 under the orders of Juan Alfonso Tello , Count of Barcelos.
battle
Around the time the Portuguese fleet left, Sanchez de Tovar sailed north-west. After reaching the open sea, the two squadrons sighted each other off the coast of Algarve . The Castilian admiral ordered to turn around and return to port. His Portuguese opponent pursued him.
Tovar was tactically superior to his opponent. He ordered to row at high speed. The pursuing Portuguese ships reached different speeds so that the gaps between them widened and their formation expanded. After about two hours on the hot summer's day, the Portuguese rowers were exhausted and thirsty. So many of their ships stayed behind. Eight of them stopped when they reached the small island of Saltés near Huelva .
Tovar ordered his people to stop. They rested briefly, then turned around and attacked the enemy in a compact formation. They attacked the galleys ahead with great force and captured them. When the other Portuguese ships approached the Castilians, they were taken without difficulty.
Consequences
Of the 23 Portuguese galleys, only one escaped that did not reach the battlefield and turned off beforehand. The remaining 22 were taken to the port of Seville. Juan Alfonso Tello was among the prisoners. In the meantime the English reached Lisbon and the troops went ashore.
The complete victory of Sanchez de Tovar's fleet meant the Castilian supremacy in the Atlantic. The following year the Castilians came to the gates of Lisbon both by land and by sea. The English ground troops could do little here. This and friction with the Duke of Lancaster forced Ferdinand I to make peace with John I in August 1382 , which meant the victory of the Castilians in the Third Ferdinandic War .
In the subsequent Treaty of Badajoz (1383) Ferdinand I had to marry his daughter to John I, which after his death led to the Portuguese Revolution that same year .
See also
bibliography
- Cesáreo Fernández Duro: La marina de Castilla . Editmex, Madrid 1995, ISBN 84-86288-00-2 (Spanish).
- Francisco Condeminas Mascaró: La marina militar española . Compendio histórico. New edition edition. Ediciones Aljaima, Málaga 2000, ISBN 84-930472-4-4 (Spanish).