The siege of Santo Domingo was fought between April23, 1655 and April30, 1655, at the Spanish

Colony of Santo Domingo In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

. A force of 2,400 Spanish troops led by Governor Don Bernardino Meneses y Bracamonte, Count of Peñalba successfully resisted a force of 13,120 soldiers led by General

Robert Venables Robert Venables (ca. 1613–1687), was an English soldier from Cheshire, who fought for Parliament in the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and captured Jamaica in 1655. When the Anglo-Spanish War began in 1654, he was made joint comm ...

and 34 ships under Admiral Sir

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

of the English Commonwealth.

Background

In 1655 the

Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execut ...

, under Oliver Cromwell, decided to declare war on Spain. Religious fanaticism played a role in this, as the

puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

s running the Commonwealth loathed the Catholicism of Spain. More practically, England had a large standing army with ambitious commanders and Cromwell wished to occupy them with a successful campaign, preferably far from home. In addition it was believed that war with Spain would be both easy and profitable. Command of an expedition to the Caribbean to capture Spanish colonies named the "Western Design" was given to General

, with Admiral Sir

commanding the naval contingent of 34 ships. Their authority was constrained by two Civil Commissioners whom Cromwell has tasked with ensuring the loyalty of both Venables and Penn. The 13,000 troops sent to the Caribbean were selected for the mission based on which would be least missed due to perceived practical or political weakness. Administrative and financial problems meant that the expedition sailed short of equipment and supplies. It was hoped that the English might take possession of Santo Domingo, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Invasion

High winds and surf made it difficult for the English to land near their first objective, the city of Santo Domingo. They eventually landed on April13, 1655. However, the 13,000 Englishmen were put ashore at the mouth of the

Nizao River The Nizao River is one of the most important rivers in the Dominican Republic. Three hydroelectric power/ electrical plants have been built along its path, the largest at Jiguey Dam. It is dried because of decade of aggregate extraction. Luis Ca ...

, some thirty miles from the city. It took them four days, short of water, food and military supplies, to make their way to within sight of the city. They were then ambushed and routed by 2–300 local militia. Spanish records assert that some 1,500 British soldiers were killed, wounded and or taken prisoner. The English fleet carried out an ineffectual attempt to bombard the city into submission, then sailed off to re-embark the army's survivors.

Aftermath

The British naval historian N.A.M. Rodger notes that "in one afternoon the invincible reputation of the

New Model Army The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...

had been thrown away". The English left Santo Domingo and sailed for Jamaica, which they successfully conquered in a six-day campaign. Venables and Penn were disgraced and imprisoned in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

. Historian C.H. Firth opined that the main cause of the failure at Hispaniola was the lack of co-operation on the part of Venables and Penn. Venables never obtained the confidence either of his officers or his soldiers.

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

Clerk of the Acts The Clerk of the Acts, originally known as the Keeper of the King's Ports and Galleys, was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy and a principal member of the Navy Board. The office was created by King Charles II in 1660 and succeeded the earlier ...

to the

Navy Board The Navy Board (formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes) was the commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headquartered within the ...

, considered Admiral Penn a "false knave". Historian John Morrill wrote " enableswas over-promoted and under-supported in a high-profile fiasco in the Caribbean that cost him his reputation." His army was composed of inferior and undisciplined troops hastily assembled and badly equipped. Due to the valor of the governor, Don Bernardino de Meneses y Bracamonte, Count of Peñalva, the site of the battle was named in his honor:

Puerta del Conde La Puerta del Conde (The Count's Gate) was the main entrance to the fortified city of Santo Domingo (in present-day Dominican Republic), named to honor Governor Captain-General Bernardino de Meneses Bracamonte y Zapata, 1st Count of Peñalva, wh ...

, the Count's Gate. One anecdote of the invasion is that the English were terrified by the nocturnal noise of the crabs on the beach of Haina; in honour of the victory the Spaniards created a commemorative gold crab, which they paraded down the streets of Santo Domingo in triumph. The gold crab has not survived; it was stolen by General Joseph de Barquier, the last French governor on the island.

Background

Invasion

Aftermath

British Fleet

British Army

Notes

See also

References

Further reading