The Spanish Army of the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
refers to the Spanish military units that fought against France's
Grande Armée
''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...
during a period which coincided with what is also termed the Spanish War of Independence ( es, Guerra de la Independencia Española).
These regular troops were supplemented throughout the country by the
guerrilla actions of local militias which, in the case of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
, ran to thousands of well-organised "
miquelets
''Miquelets'' or ''Micalets'' (; es, Migueletes) were irregular Catalan and Valencian mountain light troops. They enjoyed a certain prominence in the wars in the Iberian Peninsula during the 17th and 18th centuries, and in peace seem to have on ...
", or "somatenes", who had already proved their worth in the
Catalan revolt of 1640 and in the
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...
(1701–1714), while in Andalusia, they were more modest in number, and sometimes little more than brigands who were, in some cases, feared by French troops and the civilian population alike but which were nevertheless a constant source of harassment to the French army and its
lines of communication
A line of communication (or communications) is the route that connects an operating military unit with its supply base. Supplies and reinforcements are transported along the line of communication. Therefore, a secure and open line of communicati ...
, as were the numerous spontaneous popular uprisings. So much so, that by summer 1811, French commanders deployed 70,000 troops only to keep said lines open between Madrid and the border with France.
[Bowen, Wayne H. and José E. Alvarez (2007]
''A Military History of Modern Spain: From the Napoleonic Era to the International War on Terror'', pp. 20–21. Greenwood Publishing Group.
At Google Books. Retrieved 26 September 2013. A list drawn up in 1812 puts the figure of such irregular troops at 38,520 men, divided into 22 guerrilla bands.
At some battles, such as the
Battle of Salamanca
The Battle of Salamanca (in French and Spanish known as the Battle of Arapiles) on 22July 1812 was a battle in which an Anglo-Portuguese army under the Earl of Wellington defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles, so ...
, the Army of Spain fought side-by-side with their allies of the
Anglo-Portuguese Army
The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and Portugal, Portuguese army that participated in the Peninsular War, under the command of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesl ...
, led by General
Wellesley (who would not become the Duke of Wellington until after the Peninsular War was over).
Background
Under the terms of the
Treaty of Fontainebleau, which divided the
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kno ...
and all
Portuguese dominions between France and Spain, Spain agreed to augment, by three Spanish columns (numbering 25,500 men), the 28,000 troops
Junot was already leading through Spain to invade Portugal. Crossing into Spain on 12 October 1807, Junot started a difficult march through the country, finally entering Portugal on 19 November.
The three columns were as follows:
* General
Caraffa's 9,500 men were to assemble at Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo and cooperate with Junot's main force.
* General
Francisco Solano's column of 9,500 soldiers, which was to advance from Badajoz to capture
Elvas and its fortress, invaded Portugal on 2 December 1807.
* General
Taranco's 6,500 troops occupied
Porto
Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
on 13 December. The general died the following January, and on 6 June 1808, when news of the rebellion in Spain reached Porto, the new commander of the garrison, General
Belestá, arrested the French governor, General
Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard dialect of French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to:
Places
* Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France
* Quesnel, British Columbia, a city in British Columbia, Canada ...
, and his 30-man dragoon escort and joined the armies fighting the French.
Irregular troops
Following on from other related decrees, on 17 April 1809, the Junta Central issued orders for all able-bodied patriots to join the Corso Terrestre (literally, "Land Corsairs").
[Chartrand, René (2013]
''Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War 1808–14''. Osprey Publishing.
At Google Books. Retrieved 14 September 2013. By the following August, the Corso Terrestre of
Navarra
Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...
, initially comprising fifteen men, led by
Francisco Xavier Mina
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...
, had carried out a series of successful ambushes, and soon consisted of 1,200 infantry troops and 150 cavalry, now known as the Primero de Voluntarios de Navarra ("First Volunteers of Navarra"). By November 1811, Juan Palarea Blanes, known as "El Médico", based in La Mancha, had raised both the Husares Francos Numantinos, a light cavalry unit, and the Cazadores Francos Numantinos, a light infantry unit, both of which were incorporated into the 4th Army in 1813, with the cavalry unit later joining
Espoz y Mina
Francisco Espoz Ilundáin (17 June 1781 – 24 December 1836), being better known as Francisco Espoz y Mina, was a Spanish guerrilla leader and general.
Biography
He was born in Idocin in Navarre. His father, Juan Esteban Espoz y Mina, and h ...
's division in Navarre.
[
]
May – November 1808
The jubilation following General Castaños
Castaños is a city in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.
It is located at 101° 25' 58" West, 26° 47' 3" North, in the state's central region ''(Región Centro)''.
External links
Municipal information on Coahuila state website
{ ...
' mid-July victory at Bailén
Bailén (archaically known as Baylen in English language, English) is a town in the province of Jaén, Spain, province of Jaén, Spain.
History
Bailén is probably the ancient Baecula, where the Roman Republic, Romans, under Scipio Africanus, Sc ...
was short-lived, and General Merlin's sacking of Bilbao, on 16 August 1808, caused much popular discontent throughout the country, which was aimed specifically at the Juntas
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
and the generals.
On 5 September, a war council was convened, attended by General Cuesta; Castaños; Llamas
The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era.
Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...
; la Peña; the Duque del Infantado
Duke of the Infantado ( es, Duque del Infantado) is a Spanish peerage title that was granted to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Figueroa, son of Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana, by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon a ...
, representing General Blake; and another officer (unknown) representing Palafox. Cuesta, as the senior general, attempted to persuade Castaños to join him in leading a military government separated from the Juntas, but Castaños refused. Then, having tried, to no avail, to persuade his colleagues to name him commander in chief, Cuesta stormed out of the meeting.[ Having taken matters into his own hands, he would later be arrested and relieved of his command, only to have it restored shortly afterwards.
On 10 November, the Junta Central published its manifesto, dated 28 October 1808, in which, among other declarations, it declared its intention of maintaining a force of 500,000 troops, together with 50,000 cavalry.][ Rodríquez García, Francisco (1865]
Crónica del Senoría de Vizcaya, pp. 93–95
At Google Books. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
According to the manifesto, the existing diverse regiments and corps of the Spanish Army would be organised into four large corps, presided over by a Junta Central de Guerra (Central War Board), to be headed by Castaños, as follows:
* Army of the Left (''Ejército de la izquierda''): Comprising the Army of Galicia (under Blake), the Army of Asturias (under Acevedo), and General La Romana's men from Denmark, and as many enlisted men they could raise from the Cantabrian mountains
, etymology=Named after the Cantabri
, photo=Cordillera Cantábrica vista desde el Castro Valnera.jpg
, photo_caption=Cantabrian Mountains parallel to the Cantabrian Sea seen from Castro Valnera in an east-west direction. In the background, th ...
and the other mountainous regions they passed through.[
* Army of the Right (''Ejército de la derecha'' or ''Ejército de Cataluña''): Comprising the troops and people from Catalonia, together with the divisions that had disembarked from Portugal and Mallorca, and those sent form Granada, Aragón and Valencia.][
* Army of the Centre (''Ejército del centro''): Would be made up of the four divisions from Andalucia (under Castaños), together with those of Castile (under Cuesta), Extremadura and those of Valencia and Murcia that had entered Madrid under Llamas. It was hoped that the British forces would join this Army in the event that they decided to advance up towards France.][
* The Army of the Reserve would comprise Palafox, Saint March and ]O'Neill
The O'Neill dynasty (Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin, that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically the most prominent family of the Northern ...
's Valencia division.
Autumn Campaign (1809)
The Junta Central's Autumn Campaign was politically motivated,[Rickard, J (2008)]
"Spanish Junta's Autumn Campaign, October–November 1809"
Retrieved 31 August 2013. and despite Del Parque's victory at Tamames
Tamames is a municipality located in the province of Salamanca
Salamanca () is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León (Castilla y León). It is bordered by the provinces of Zamora, Vallad ...
in October, the Spanish Army's subsequent defeats at the battles of Ocaña and Alba de Tormes
Alba de Tormes is a municipality in the province of Salamanca, western Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. The town is on the River Tormes upstream from the city of Salamanca. Alba gave its name to one of Spain's most i ...
led to the Junta's fall at the beginning of 1810.[
The campaign was to be carried out by the Army of Estremadura, under the ]Duke of Alburquerque
Duke of Alburquerque ( es, Duque de Alburquerque) is a hereditary title in the Peerage of Spain, accompanied by the dignity of Grandee and granted in 1464 by Henry IV to Beltrán de la Cueva, his "royal favourite" and grand master of the Order ...
's much depleted force of 8,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry, as he had had to transfer three divisions of infantry and twelve regiments of cavalry to reinforce the Army of La Mancha, under Venegas, and which, after its defeat at Almonacid, had been reduced to only 25,000 men.
The Army of La Mancha now comprising some 50,000 men, the Junta removed Venegas (who had taken over from Cartaojal, sacked for his incompetence at the Battle of Ciudad Real
The Battle of Ciudad Real was fought on 27 March 1809 and resulted in a First French Empire, French victory under Horace François Bastien, baron Sébastiani, General Sebastiani against the History of Spain (1700–1810), Spanish under General ...
in March) replacing him with Aréizaga, who was able to bring the force up to 48,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 60 cannon, making it one of the largest forces Spain had ever created.
The Army of the Left which, in theory, was 50,000 strong (although only 40,000 of them actually took part in the campaign), was formed from La Romana’s Army of Galicia, with Ballasteros’s Army of the Asturias and the Del Parque's troops. The latter was given command of this Army.
1812–1814
On 22 September 1812, the Cortes named Wellington ''generalissimo'' (supreme commander) of the Spanish armies. The commander of the 4th Army, General Ballesteros, was arrested and relieved of his command in October 1812, and exiled for protesting Wellington's command and trying to instigate an uprising.[Chartrand, René (1999]
''Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (3): 1812–1815'', pp. 3–5. Osprey Publishing.
At Google Books. Retrieved 15 September 2013. By mid-1813, Spain's regular forces consisted of some 160,000 troops, around a third of which were fighting alongside Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army
The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and Portugal, Portuguese army that participated in the Peninsular War, under the command of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesl ...
.[
* 1st Army: By June 1813, the Army of Catalonia, now known as the 1st Army, under General ]Copons
Copons is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Anoia in Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of ...
, comprised 16,000 men. Pedro Agustin Giron, until then in command of the Army of the Centre, would be named commander of the Army of Catalonia that August.[ Muñoz, p. 420. "El 12 de agosto fue relevado del mando del cuarto ejército español el General Castaños, por haberle llamado las Córtes á desempeñar su plaza de Consejero de Estado, sucediéndole el Mariscal de Campo Manuel Freire, y destinado al ejército de Cataluña al de igual clase Don Pedro Agustin Giron, Comandante general del Centro. Castaños, que conoció el pretesto con que la Regencia le separaba del mando, escribió en estos términos al Ministro de la Guerra: 'Tengo la satisfacción de entregar al Mariscal de Campo Freire, sobre la frontera de Francia, el mando del ejército que he tomado en Aldea Gallega, delante de Lisboa.'"]
* 2nd Army: When Blake's Army of Valencia, now known as the 2nd Army, surrendered to Marshal Suchet at Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
, at the beginning of 1812, it comprised 28,000 men. Of these, some 7,000 were able to escape capture, and by June 1813, its new commander, General Elio, had over 30,600 troops under him.[
* 3rd Army: The Army of Murcia, rose from some 5,500 men at the beginning of January 1812 to 12,600 men under the Duke del Parque in June 1813. By April 1814, the ]Prince of Anglona
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
had 21,000 men under him.[
* 4th Army: The 4th Army (whose previous commander, Ballesteros, had been relieved of his command in October 1812, and exiled for protesting Wellington's command) was attached to Wellington's forces. In August 1813, Freire was promoted to general and succeeded Castaños, who had been called to the Cortes,][ in command of the 35,000 troops of the Fourth Army.][
* 5th Army:
]
See also
* 3rd Swiss Regiment Reding
* Anglo-Portuguese Army
The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and Portugal, Portuguese army that participated in the Peninsular War, under the command of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesl ...
* British Army during the Napoleonic Wars
The British Army during the Napoleonic Wars experienced a time of rapid change. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, the army was a small, awkwardly administered force of barely 40,000 men.Chappell 2004, p. 8. By the end of ...
* Guerrilla warfare in the Peninsular War
Guerrilla warfare in the Peninsular War refers to the armed civilian actions carried out by non-regular troops against Napoleon's Grande Armée in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War. These armed men were a constant source of drain and ...
* List of Spanish generals of the Peninsular War
The following list of Spanish general officers (Peninsular War) lists the generals and other general officers who served in the Army of Spain during the Peninsular War (1808–1814). The rank given refers to the ones held until the end of the war ...
* Spain under Joseph Bonaparte
Napoleonic Spain was the part of Spain loyal to Joseph I during the Peninsular War (1808–1813) after the country was partially occupied by French forces. During this period, the country was considered a client state of the First French Empire. ...
* Timeline of the Peninsular War
The following table shows the sequence of events of the Peninsular War (1807–1814). It includes major battles, smaller actions, uprisings, sieges and other related events that took place during that period.
For ease of reference using modern ma ...
* Types of military forces in the Napoleonic Wars
The types of military forces in the Napoleonic Wars represented the unique tactical use of distinct military units, or their origin within different European regions. By and large the military forces during the period had not changed significantly ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
* {{Cite book, last = Muñoz Maldonado, first = José, publication-date = 1833, title =Historia política y militar de la Guerra de la Independencia de España contra Napoleon Bonaparte desde 1808 á 1814. Tomo III, escrita sobre los documentos auténticos del gobierno por el Dr. D. José Muñoz Maldonado. Madrid: Imprenta de D. José Palacios
*
Guia de Forasteros en Madrid para el año 1821
'. Imp. Nacional, 1821. At Google Books (provides dates and formation of regiments, etc.)
Army units and formations of Spain
Military units and formations of the Napoleonic Wars
Military units and formations of the Peninsular War