The Battle of Mendigorría Grand took place during 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 Monarchy of Spain, Spanish monarchy: the conservative a ...

on July 16, 1835 south of Mendigorría,

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

. The

Carlists Carlism (; ; ; ) is a Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty, one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855), on the Spanish throne. The ...

were commanded by

Vicente González Moreno Vicente González Moreno (9 December 1778, Cádiz – 6 September 1839) was a Spanish general who supported the Carlists during the First Carlist War. He was appointed commander of Carlist forces after the death of Zumalacárregui. As a cad ...

, who assumed this post after the death of Zumalacárregui at the Siege of Bilbao. The Carlist pretender

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is an 1867 five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the 1787 play '' Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

was also at Mendigorría. When the Liberals attacked, the Carlists found themselves in a difficult strategic position: they had the

Arga River The Arga is a river of Navarre, in Spain, and is a tributary of the Aragón River, itself a tributary of the river Ebro. The Arga was known as the river Runa in antiquity. Situated in the north-east of Spain, the river stretches some and has a ba ...

behind them and only one way across, the Bridge of Larraga. The Liberal left flank was led by

Baldomero Espartero Baldomero Fernández-Espartero y Álvarez de Toro (27 February 17938 January 1879) was a Spanish marshal and statesman. He served as the Regent of the Realm, three times as Prime Minister and briefly as President of the Congress of Deputies ...

, the central flank by

Luis Fernández de Córdova Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

. The Carlist fiercely defended themselves but were forced to retreat. Don Carlos was able to escape thanks to the efforts of the defense of the Larraga bridge by the Carlist brigadier Bruno Villareal. The battle was a Liberal victory, though the Liberals did not press forward and take advantage of the situation.

External links

MENDIGORRIA. 1835-VII-16
Mendigorría Mendigorría Mendigorría July 1835 {{Spain-battle-stub