The Battle of Ramales, a battle of the

First Carlist War The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1840, the first of three Carlist Wars. It was fought between two factions over the succession to the throne and the nature of the Spanish monarchy: the conservative and devolutionist ...

, occurred at Ramales in

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

on May 12, 1839. The Liberals were commanded by Baldomero Espartero, the Carlists by

Rafael Maroto Rafael Maroto Yserns (October 15, 1783 – August 25, 1853) was a Spanish general, known both for his involvement on the Spanish side in the wars of independence in South America and on the Carlist side in the First Carlist War. Childhood a ...

History

The Liberals, initially outnumbering the Carlists twice over, ended up having four times as many forces. This resulted from the fact that Maroto kept eight of his seventeen battalions in reserve and had ordered the defenders of the fortification of Guardamino to abandon this post. Maroto was later accused of complicity with his opponent Espartero for having performed these two actions. Espartero ordered

Leopoldo O'Donnell Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorris, 1st Duke of Tetuán, Grandee, GE (12 January 1809 – 5 November 1867), was a Spanish general and Grandee who was Prime Minister of Spain on several occasions. Early life He was born at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in t ...

to attack the Carlists positioned in the heights of Mazo, while Ramón Castañeda was ordered by Espartero to attack the Carlists at the Peña del Moro. Ramales was battered by the Isabeline artillery, but the Liberals were only able to take this town after annihilating a Carlist force of 27 men entrenched in a nearby cave. There are different versions of the story of how this annihilation took place. Some attribute the actions of the Liberal guerrilla Juan Ruiz Gutierrez, known as ''Cobanes'', and say that Cobanes threw straw into the cave and then set it on fire, thereby dislodging the Carlist defenders. Others attribute the victory to a 7-hour siege of artillery or the use of

Congreve rockets The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor William Congreve (inventor), Sir William Congreve in 1808. The design was based upon Mysorean rockets, the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the E ...

. Ramales was ultimately conquered but was destroyed both by the Carlist forces in retreat and by the Liberal occupiers. Ramales was renamed ''Ramales de La Victoria'' after the battle, and Espartero received the title of ''Duque de La Victoria'' (Duke of La Victoria). For the Carlists, the loss of Ramales meant that they had to evacuate the valley of Carranza, lost the metal

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

Guriezo Guriezo is a municipality located in the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain. According to the 2013 census, the town has a population of 2,424 inhabitants. Its capital is El Puente. Settlements History Megalithic evidence from the surrou ...

, and had to abandon the chance to operate from Cantabrian lands and potentially invade

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

and Galicia.

References

Ramales Ramales 1839 in Europe 1839 in Spain Conflicts in 1839 May 1839 events {{Spain-battle-stub