Battle of Saragossa

Context

The Spanish troops had been defeats with Almenara on July 27th, 1710, giving up the Catalogne and the capital of Aragon. The marquis de Bay, ordering the overcome army, stationed its troops between the Èbre and the Torrero mounts. August 15th, it held in failure an attack of cavalry; it followed of the skirmishes during five days consecutive, so that 19, the allied armies crossed Èbre in their turn without being worried. They were spread in row of battle during the night.

The battle

The left wing of united was made up of Catalan and Dutch regiments ordered by the Count Atalaya, the right wing of a task force anglo-Austrian ordered by James Stanhope. Starhemberg ordered the center, made up of German troops.

August 20th with 8:00 began an artillery battle which lasted until midday. The afternoon, the battle was a counterpart of that of Almenara: the cavalry Castilian attacked vigorously and was about to make the opening, when the anglo-Austrian troops counter-attacked successfully, relaxing the enemy rows. There were thousands of deaths, the encircled survivors preferring to go. Philippe V escaped the capture only while disguising himself as a simple infantryman, helped by a miller of the place.

Consequences

The Charles archduke ravelled in Saragossa the next day. The Spanish royal army was now destroyed, and the road of Madrid was released for the applicant of the Habsbourg. Philippe V left Madrid on September 9th and took refuge with Valladolid.

The entry of the archduke Charles in Madrid, on September 28th, did not have anything a triumph so much the population was hostile for him. He would have declared: “But this city is deserted! ” During the winter 1710, it finally had to leave Madrid to face the French counter-offensive: demolishes first once at Brihuega, it will be definitively overcome with the battles of Villaviciosa.

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