Battle of Almansa

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Almansa


caption=
partof=the War of the Spanish Succession
date=April 25, 1707
place=Almansa, near Albacete, Spain
result=Decisive Franco-Spanish victory
combatant1=flagicon|UK|1606 Great Britain
flagicon|Portugal|1707 Portugal
flagicon|Netherlands|pri United Provinces
commander1=flagicon|UK|1606 Earl of Galway
flagicon|Portugal|1707 Marquês das Minas
combatant2=flagicon|France|restauration [George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana, "The American Cyclopaedia", New York, 1874, p. 250, "...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis...". * [http://www.anyflag.com/history/fleur23.htm] The original Banner of France was strewn with fleurs-de-lis. * [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgdisplaylargemeta.cfm?strucID=585779&imageID=1236061&parent_id=585395&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&num=0&imgs=12&total=98&pos=1&snum=] :on the reverse of this plate it says: "Le pavillon royal était véritablement le drapeau national au dix-huitième siecle...Vue du chateau d'arrière d'un vaisseau de guerre de haut rang portant le pavillon royal (blanc, avec les armes de France)." [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Flag] from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour."] France
flagicon|Spain|1701 Spain
commander2=flagicon|France|restauration Duke of Berwick
strength1=22,000
strength2=25,000
casualties2=3,500 dead or wounded
casualties1=5,000 dead or wounded
12,000 capturedThe Battle of Almansa, fought on April 25, 1707, was one of the most decisive engagements of the War of the Spanish Succession. At Almansa, the Franco–Spanish army under Berwick soundly defeated the allied forces of Portugal, Britain, and the United Provinces led by the Earl of Galway, reclaiming most of eastern Spain for the Bourbons.

It has been described as "probably the only battle in history in which the British forces were commanded by a Frenchman, the French by a Briton" [] .

The battle

The Bourbon army of about 25,000 was composed of French and Spanish troops in equal proportion, as well as an Irish regiment. Opposing them was a mainly Anglo-Portuguese force with strong Dutch, German, and French Huguenot elements.

The battle began with an artillery exchange. When Galway committed his reserves to an attack on the Bourbon centre, Berwick unleashed a strong force of Franco-Spanish cavalry against the weakened Anglo-Portuguese lines, sweeping away the Portuguese horse. A general rout followed. Galway lost 5,000 men killed and 12,000 taken prisoner; of his army of 22,000 only 5,000 escaped to Tortosa.

Aftermath

The victory was a major step in the consolidation of Spain under the Bourbons. With the main allied army destroyed, the pretender duc d'Anjou regained the initiative and gained Valencia.

The city of Xàtiva was burned, and its name changed to "San Felipe" in order to punish it. (In memory of these facts, nowadays the portrait of the monarch still hangs upside down in the local museum of L'Almodí [http://www.ayto-xativa.org/museu/cas/museo_fichas_detalle.asp?id=12] )

Before long, the only remaining allies of the Habsburg pretender, Archduke Charles, were his supporters in Catalonia and Balearic Islands.

Legacy

Frederick the Great referred to Almansa as "the most scientific battle of our century," while Winston Churchill once compared the crushing British defeat to the disasters awaiting the British Army at the hands of Nazi Germany in the early years of World War II.

In the present-day Valencian Community, the saying: "Quan el mal ve d'Almansa, a tots alcança" ("Evil tidings spare no one when they come from Almansa," or, more literally, "When the wrong comes from Almansa, it reaches everybody" (Compare English: "It's an ill wind that blows no good")) recalls this defeat, since one of the side effects of this defeat was the suppression of the autonomy of the Kingdom of Valencia within the Spanish Habsburg monarchy.

References

External links

* [http://www.almansa2007.com Almansa 2007 III Centenario]
* [http://www.uv.es/~charco/documentos/almansa.htm La Batalla de Almansa]
* http://historiadealmansa.usuarios.tvalmansa.com/la_batalla_de_almansa.htm Batalla de Almansa
* [http://www.glosters.org.uk/textonly_timeline.php A description of the battle plus a song from the A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs]