TheDos de Mayo orSecond of May Uprising took place inMadrid, Spain, on 2–3 May 1808. The rebellion, mainly by civilians, with some isolated military action^[4] byjunior officers, was against the occupation of the city by French troops, and was violently repressed by theFrench Imperial forces,^[5] with hundreds of public executions.

Dos de Mayo
Part of thePeninsular War
The Second of May 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes, byFrancisco de Goya
Date 2 May 1808 Location Madrid,Spain 40°25′N3°42′W / 40.417°N 3.700°W /40.417; -3.700 Result French victory Uprising suppressed but insurrection spreads throughout Spain Mass executions in reprisal Outbreak of thePeninsular War
Belligerents
France	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Joachim Murat	Pedro Velarde y Santillán † Luís Daoíz de Torres †
Casualties and losses
31 killed, wounded or captured[1] 150 dead[2] 31 dead, 114 wounded[3]	200 killed, wounded or captured[1] 200 dead, 200 wounded, 300 executed[3]

Peninsular War: Spain

220km
137miles

12

Toulouse

11

Vitoria

10

Tordesillas

9

Burgos

8

Salamanca

7

Ciudad

6

Talavera

5

Corunna

4

Tudela

3

Bailén

2

Valencia

1

Madrid

   

  current battle

  Wellington in command

  Wellington not in command

The city had been under the occupation ofNapoleon's army since 23 March of the same year.^[6] KingCharles IV had been forced by the Spanish people during theTumult of Aranjuez to abdicate in favor of his sonFerdinand VII, and at the time of the uprising both were in the French city ofBayonne at the insistence of Napoleon. An attempt by the French generalJoachim Murat to move Charles IV'sdaughter and her children along with hisyoungest son to Bayonne sparked a rebellion.^[7]

TheDos de Mayo was among the few spontaneous popular uprisings of the war, launched without significant fore-planning, funding, or leadership by government elites. While elements within the Spanish military and state bureaucracy did envision military action to expel the French from the country, Murat's hold on Madrid was held to be unassailable in the short term. The two most senior uniformed leaders involved in theDos de Mayo, Daoíz and Velarde y Santillán, were caught unprepared by the actions of the laboring poor: Velarde, a 28-year-old artillery captain, was secretly plotting a campaign elsewhere in the country, but considered a direct attack on the Spanish capital impractical – drawn to the sound of gunfire, he joined the fighting contrary to his own military instinct, and would perish leading the defense of the Monteleón artillery barracks.^[8]

On 2 May a crowd began to gather in front of theRoyal Palace in Madrid. Those gathered entered the palace grounds in an attempt to prevent the removal ofFrancisco de Paula. Marshal Murat sent a battalion of grenadiers from theImperial Guard to the palace along withartillery detachments. The latter opened fire on the assembled crowd, and the rebellion began to spread to other parts of the city.^[3]

What followed was street fighting in different areas of Madrid as the poorly armed population confronted the French troops. Marshal Murat had quickly moved the majority of his troops into the city and there was heavy fighting around thePuerta del Sol and the Puerta de Toledo. Murat imposed martial law in the city and assumed full control of the administration.^{[citation needed]} Little by little, the French regained control of the city, and many hundreds^{[citation needed]} of people died in the fighting. The painting by Spanish artistFrancisco de Goya,The Charge of the Mamelukes, portrays the street fighting that took place.^[3] TheMamelukes of the Imperial Guard fighting residents of Madrid in the Puerta del Sol, wearing turbans and using curved scimitars, provoked memories ofMuslim Spain whenArabs had ruled Spain.

There were Spanish troops stationed in the city, but they remained confined to barracks. The only Spanish troops to disobey orders were from the artillery units at thebarracks of Monteleón, who joined the uprising. Two officers of these troops,Luis Daoíz y Torres andPedro Velarde y Santiyán are still commemorated as heroes of the rebellion. Both died during the French assault of the barracks, as the rebels were reduced by vastly superior numbers.^[3]

The repression following the crushing of the initial rebellion was harsh. Marshal Murat created a military commission on the evening of 2 May to be presided over byGeneral Grouchy. This commission issued death sentences to all of those captured who were bearing weapons of any kind. In a statement issued that day Murat said: "The population of Madrid, led astray, has given itself to revolt and murder. French blood has flowed. It demands vengeance. All those arrested in the uprising, arms in hand, will be shot."^[9]

All public meetings were prohibited and an order was issued requiring all weapons to be handed in to the authorities. Hundreds of prisoners were executed the following day, a scene captured in a famous painting by Goya,The Third of May 1808. As the French had been attacked with a variety of improvised weapons, any craftsmen found with shearing scissors, kitchen knives, sewing needles, or other tools of their trade were summarily shot. Only a handful ofFrench-speakingmadrileños were able to avoid execution by pleading in words intelligible to their executioners.^[10]

That same day, in the nearby town ofMóstoles, news of the repression prompted Juan Pérez Villamil, who was secretary of the Admiralty and prosecutor of the Supreme War Council, to encourage the mayors of the town, Andrés Torrejón and Simón Hernández, to sign adeclaration of war calling on all Spaniards to rise up against the invaders. The name of this declaration was "Bando de los alcaldes de Móstoles" or "bando de la Independencia", which means "Edict of the Independence."

TheDos de Mayo Uprising, together with the subsequent proclamation of Napoleon's brotherJoseph as king led to a rebellion against French rule. While the French occupiers hoped that their rapid suppression of the uprising would demonstrate their control of Spain, the rebellion actually gave considerable impetus to the resistance.^[11]

The uprising and subsequent revolts leading to the Peninsular War have sometimes been compared to theWar in the Vendée, as it shared some similarities in that both were counterrevolutionary uprisings ("the common people's Baroque victory over the Enlightenment", in the words of historian Ronald Fraser). However, the Spanish revolts originated amongst urban populations rather than the rural peasantry and were spread nationally instead of just being concentrated in one region, as well as being aimed to restore a popular king. The revolt also depended upon cross-class appeal, with the labouring classes willing to fight on the insistence that the nobility and clergy likewise enlisted into military service.^[12]

TheDos de Mayo Uprising putIberia in revolt against French rule starting with theAction of Valdepeñas.

TheInvasion of Portugal had started with theoccupation of Lisbon in 1807. But theDos de Mayo Uprising started a rebellion in Portugal with theCombat of Padrões de Teixeira.

TheBritish intervention started with theBattle of Roliça led by Wellington.

TheSpanish conventional warfare started with theBattles of El Bruch.

Napoleon startedhis invasion of Spain with theBattle of Zornoza.

The Second of May is now a public holiday in theCommunity of Madrid. The place where the artillery barracks of Monteleón was located is now a square called thePlaza del Dos de Mayo, and the district surrounding the square is known asMalasaña in memory of one of the heroines of the revolt, the teenagerManuela Malasaña, who was executed by French troops in the aftermath of the revolt.^[3]

Several memorials to the heroes of 2 May are located around Madrid, including theMonumento a los Caídos por España (Monument to those who fell to their deaths for Spain).

The name of theSpanish Navyscrew frigateVilla de Madrid,in commission from 1863 to 1884, although literally meaning simply "City of Madrid", was chosen with the intention of honoring the role of the people of Madrid in theDos de Mayo Uprising.

• Chandler, David (1966).The Campaigns of Napoleon. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.ISBN 978-0025236608. Retrieved29 April 2021.
• Cowans, Jon. (2003).Modern Spain: A Documentary History. University of Pennsylvania Press.ISBN 0-306-81083-2.
• Esdaile, Charles J. (2003).The Peninsular War. Palgrave MacMillan.ISBN 978-1403962317. Retrieved29 April 2021.
• Fraser, Ronald (2008).Napoleon's Cursed War: Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War. Verso.
• Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2002).The Peninsular War, 1807–1814. Oxford : Osprey.ISBN 978-1841763705. Retrieved30 April 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Diego García, Emilio de (2007)."El significado del dos de mayo"(PDF).Madrid. Revista de Arte, Geografía e Historia (9):13–26.ISSN 1139-5362.
• Glover, Michael (2003).The Peninsular War 1807–1814. Penguin Books.ISBN 0-14-139041-7.
• Oman, Charles (1992).A History of the Peninsular War. Vol. 1. Clarendon Press. Retrieved29 April 2021.

• Timeline of the Peninsular War

• Gates, David (2001).The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War. Da Capo Press.ISBN 0306810832.

• A Spanish language account of the events
• Napoleon's Total War