The
Siege of Cádiz was a siege of the large
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
naval base of
CádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
by a
FrenchThe First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
army from February 5, 1810 to August 24, 1812 during the
Peninsular WarThe Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
. Following the occupation of
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
on March 23, 1808,
CádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
became the Spanish seat of power, and was targeted by 60,000 French troops under the command of Marshal Claude Victor for one of the most important sieges of the war. Defending the city were 2,000 Spanish troops who, as the siege progressed, received aid from 10,000 Spanish reinforcements as well as
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
troops.
During the siege, which lasted two and a half years, the
Cortes GeneralesThe Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...
government in Cadiz (the
Cádiz CortesThe Cádiz Cortes were sessions of the national legislative body which met in the safe haven of Cádiz during the French occupation of Spain during the Napoleonic Wars...
) drew up a
new constitutionThe Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...
to reduce the strength of the monarchy (a constitution eventually revoked by Fernando VII).
In October 1810, a mixed Anglo-Spanish relief force embarked on a disastrous
landing at FuengirolaAt the Battle of Fuengirola a small Polish garrison of a mediæval Moorish fortress in Fuengirola held off a much larger Anglo-Spanish expeditionary corps under Lord Blayney.- Background:...
. A second relief attempt was made at
TarifaTarifa is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, on the southernmost coast of Spain. The town is located on the Costa de la Luz and across the Straits of Gibraltar facing Morocco. The municipality includes Punta de Tarifa, the southernmost point in continental Europe. There are five...
in 1811. However, despite defeating a detached French force of 15,000-20,000 under
Marshal VictorClaude Victor-Perrin, First Duc de Belluno was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
at the
Battle of BarrosaThe Battle of Barrosa was an unsuccessful French attack on a larger Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force attempting to lift the siege of Cádiz, Spain during the Peninsular War...
, the siege was not lifted.
In 1812, the
Battle of SalamancaThe Battle of Salamanca saw Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies under the Duke of Wellington defeat Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces among the hills around Arapiles south of Salamanca, Spain on July 22, 1812 during the Peninsular War....
eventually forced the French troops to retreat from
AndalusiaAndalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, for fear of being cut off by the allied armies. Defeat at Cádiz contributed to the liberation of Spain from French occupation, due to the survival of the Spanish government and the use of Cádiz as a jump off point for the Allied forces.
Prelude to the battle
In the early 19th century, war was brewing between
Napoleon INapoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
and the
RussianThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
TsarTsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Alexander IAlexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
, and Napoleon saw the shared interests of Britain and Russia in defeating him as a threat. Napoleon's advisor, the Duke of Cadore, recommended that the ports of Europe be closed to the British, stating that "Once in Cadiz, Sire, you will be in a position either to break or strengthen the bonds with Russia".
Soult and his French army invaded Portugal in 1809, but were beaten by Wellesley at Oporto on May 12. The British and Spanish armies advanced into mainland Spain, however a lack of faith in the Spanish army forced
Arthur WellesleyField Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
to retreat back into Portugal after Spanish defeats in the
Battle of OcanaThe Battle of Ocana or Battle of Ocaña was fought on 19 November 1809 between French forces under Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult and King Joseph Bonaparte and the Spanish army under Juan Carlos de Aréizaga, which suffered its greatest single defeat in the Peninsular War...
and
Battle of Alba de TormesIn the Battle of Alba de Tormes, fought on November 26, 1809, a French army commanded by Major General Jean Marchand routed Lieutenant-General Duke del Parque's retreating Spanish army during the Peninsular War.-Strategic situation:...
. By 1810, the war had reached a stalemate. Portuguese and Spanish positions were strengthened by Wellesley with the construction of the
Lines of Torres VedrasThe Lines of Torres Vedras were lines of forts built in secrecy to defend Lisbon during the Peninsular War. Named after the nearby town of Torres Vedras, they were ordered by Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington, constructed by Sir Richard Fletcher, 1st Baronet and his Portuguese workers between...
, and the remainder of the Spanish forces was forced back to defend the Spanish government at Cádiz against Soult's Army of Andalusia.
Siege
The port of Cádiz was surrounded on land by the armies of Soult and Victor, in three entrenched positions at Chiclana, Puerto Real and Santa Maria, positioned in a semicircle around the city. In the case of the former position, only an area of marshland separated the forces. The French initially sent an envoy with a demand for surrender, however this was refused. The resulting bombardment of the Spanish coastal city involved some of the largest artillery pieces in existence at the time, including
Grand Mortars, which were so large they had to be abandoned when the French eventually retreated, and fired projectiles to distances previously thought impossible, some up to 3 miles in range. (The
Grand Mortar was placed in
St. James's ParkSt. James's Park is a 23 hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London - the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St. James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St. James the Less.- Geographical location :St. James's...
in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
as a gift to the British in honour of the Duke of Wellington.) The French continued to bombard Cadiz through to the end of 1810, however the extreme distance lessened their effect.
The terrain surrounding the strong fortifications of Cádiz proved difficult for the French to attack, and the French also suffered from a lack of supplies, particularly ammunition, and from continuous guerrilla raiding parties attacking the rear of their siege lines and their internal communications with Andalusia. On many occasions, the French were forced to send escorts of 150–200 men to guard couriers and supply convoys in the hinterland. So great were the difficulties that one historian judges that French reinforcements continued to arrive through to April 20, and the capture of an outer Spanish fort guarding the road through to the Puerto Real helped to facilitate the arrival of these forces. This captured fort also provided the French which a vantage point to shell ships coming in and out of the besieged Spanish port.
During 1811, Victor's force was continually diminished because of requests for reinforcement from Soult to aid his siege of
BadajozIn the Battle of Badajoz , the Anglo-Portuguese Army, under the Earl of Wellington, besieged Badajoz, Spain and forced the surrender of the French garrison....
. This reduction in men, which brought the French numbers down to between 20,000–15,000, encouraged the defenders of Cádiz to attempt a breakout. A sortie of 4,000 Spanish troops, under the command of General Zayas, was arranged in conjunction with the arrival of an Anglo-Spanish relief army of around 16,000 troops that landed 50 miles to the south in
TarifaTarifa is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, on the southernmost coast of Spain. The town is located on the Costa de la Luz and across the Straits of Gibraltar facing Morocco. The municipality includes Punta de Tarifa, the southernmost point in continental Europe. There are five...
. This Anglo-Spanish force was under the overall command of Spanish General
Manuel La PeñaManuel la Peña , sometimes referred to as Lapeña, was a Spanish military officer who served during the Peninsular War . Although widely regarded as incompetent, he rose through the Spanish army's ranks to become Captain General of Andalusia...
, with the British contingent being led by Lieutenant-General
Sir Thomas GrahamGeneral Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, GCB, GCMG, GCTE was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer....
. On February 21, 1811 the force set sail for Tarifa, and eventually landed at
AlgecirasAlgeciras is a port city in the south of Spain, and is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar . Port of Algeciras is one of the largest ports in Europe and in the world in three categories: container,...
on February 23. Eventually marching towards Cádiz on February 28, the force met a French detachment of two French regiments at Barrosa. While the
battleThe Battle of Barrosa was an unsuccessful French attack on a larger Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force attempting to lift the siege of Cádiz, Spain during the Peninsular War...
was a tactical victory for the Allied force, with a French
regimental eagleFrench Imperial Eagle refers to the figure of an eagle on a staff carried into battle as a standard by the Grande Armée of Napoleon I during the Napoleonic Wars....
captured, it was strategically indecisive.
Smaller sorties of 2,000–3,000 men continued to operate out of Cadiz from April to August 1811. On October 26, British naval gunboats from
GibraltarGibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
also destroyed French positions at St. Mary's killing French artillery commander
Alexandre-Antoine Hureau de SénarmontAlexandre-Antoine Hureau de Sénarmont was a French artillery general.He was born at Strasbourg, and educated at the Metz school for engineer and artillery cadets. In 1785 he was commissioned in the artillery, in which he served as a regimental officer for fifteen years...
. An attempt by Victor to crush the small Anglo-Spanish garrison at Tarifa over the winter of 1811–1812 was frustrated by torrential rains and an obstinate defence, marking an end to French operations against the city's outer works.
On July 22, 1812, Wellesley won a tactical victory over
Auguste MarmontAuguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont, 1st Duke of Ragusa was a French General, nobleman and Marshal of France.-Biography:...
at
SalamancaThe Battle of Salamanca saw Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies under the Duke of Wellington defeat Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces among the hills around Arapiles south of Salamanca, Spain on July 22, 1812 during the Peninsular War....
. The Anglo-Portuguese army then entered Madrid on August 6 and advanced towards
BurgosBurgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...
. Realising that his army was in danger of being cut off, Soult ordered a retreat from Cádiz set for August 24. After a long artillery barrage, the French placed together the muzzles of over 600 cannons, to destroy them. While these guns were rendered unusable to the Spanish and British, the Allied forces did capture 30
gunboatA gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
s and a large quantity of stores.
In literature
- The siege of Cádiz features prominently in Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...
's Sharpe's Fury, in which Richard SharpeSharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series wherein the eponymous character was played by Sean Bean....
is forced to help defend the city from the French before going on to take part in the Battle of BarrosaThe Battle of Barrosa was an unsuccessful French attack on a larger Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force attempting to lift the siege of Cádiz, Spain during the Peninsular War...
.
- Arturo Pérez Reverte's El asedio is a murder mystery located in Cádiz during the siege.