Battle of Saragossa
Part of theWar of the Spanish Succession
A painting of the battle
Date 20 August 1710 Location Zaragoza, Spain Result Grand Alliance victory[1]
Belligerents
Austria Habsburg Spain  Great Britain  Dutch Republic  Portugal	Bourbon Spain
Commanders and leaders
Guido Starhemberg Lord Stanhope Count of Atalaia	Marquis de Bay
Strength
30,000[1][2]	26,000[1][2] 20 guns
Casualties and losses
1,500 dead or wounded	5,000 to 6,000 dead or wounded 7,000 captured 20 guns captured

TheBattle of Saragossa, also known as theBattle of Zaragoza, took place on 20 August 1710 during theWar of the Spanish Succession. ASpanish Bourbon army loyal toPhilip V of Spain and commanded by theMarquis de Bay was defeated by aGrand Alliance force underGuido Starhemberg.^[1] Despite this victory, which allowed Philip's rivalArchduke Charles to enter the Spanish capital ofMadrid, the allies were unable to consolidate their gains. Forced to retreat, they suffered successive defeats atBrihuega in November andVillaviciosa in December, which effectively ended their chances of installing Archduke Charles on the Spanish throne.

The 1710 Spanish campaign opened on 15 May when the Spanish Bourbon army commanded byPhilip V in person andFrancisco Castillo Fajardo, Marquis of Villadarias, advanced on the town ofBalaguer.^[3]Guido Starhemberg, commander of the Allied forces inCatalonia, halted this attempt by preventing the Spanish from fording theSegre river, a success in which the officers of the British contingent had a leading role.^[4]

Having received reinforcements, in June Philip made another attempt upon Balaguer with 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry,^[4] but was defeated atAlmenar on 27 July. The allied troops had taken up a strong defensive position and repelled the Spanish attacks until the British commander,James Stanhope, leading their vanguard, broke the Spanish lines.^[3] Philip was forced to withdraw toZaragoza, capital ofAragon, while Villadarias was replaced by the French generalAlexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay.^[5]

On 9 August the Spanish army reached Zaragoza and de Bay positioned his troops with the riverEbro on his left and the Torrero heights to the right. On 15 August, an Allied cavalry attack was repulsed, followed by five days of minor skirmishes before the Allies crossed the Ebro in force on 19 August and were allowed to deploy during the night.^[1]

The two forces were roughly equal in strength, the allies having thirty-seven battalions of infantry and forty-three squadrons opposed to the Spanish-Bourbon army of thirty-eight battalions and fifty-four squadrons.^[6] The Allied left, composed of Catalonian and Dutch troops, was led by theCount of Atalaya, the right by Stanhope, made up of British, Portuguese and Austrian cavalry, with Starhemberg in charge of the centre, mainly German, Austrian and Spanish infantry.^[1]

On 20 August at 08:00 an artillery-duel started which lasted four hours^[7] before Stanhope charged the Bourbon-Spanish left. At first the Spanish andWalloon troops of the Bourbon army seemed to gain the advantage, having defeated a body of eight Portuguese squadrons, which they chased from the field.^[8] This opened a gap in the Bourbon lines, which opened a gap for Stanhope who scattered put to flight the disorganized Spanish soldiers, while at the centre and the right their attacks were repulsed.^[9]

The battle followed the same pattern as at Almenar, with the allies repulsing fierce Bourbon cavalry charges before counter-attacked with their infantry and pushing the Spanish back.^[1] In less than three hours, the Allies army won a comprehensive victory,^[9] capturing the Bourbon artillery along with 73 standards. Between 5,000 or 6,000 Spanish soldiers were killed or wounded, and another 7,000captured, with Allied losses estimated as 1,500 men dead or wounded.^[10]

Archduke Charles entered Zaragoza the next day. The defeat of the army ofPhilip V of Spain was severe, the way toMadrid was open.^[1] Philip V abandonedMadrid on 9 September and went toValladolid. Archduke Charles entered a very hostile and almost empty Madrid on 28 September. Charles commented: "This city is a desert!" In the winter of 1710, Archduke Charles and the allied troops had to abandon Madrid, due to the great opposition of the people of Madrid and the dangerous strategic situation. After this, the British army suffered a defeat at theBattle of Brihuega,^[11] and the rest of the allied army was defeated at theBattle of Villaviciosa.^[11]

• Kamen, Henry.Felipe V, el rey que reinó dos veces. Ediciones Temas de Hoy S.A. Colección: Historia. Madrid (2000)(in Spanish)
• Albi, Julio.La Caballería española, un eco de clarines. Tabapress S.A. Madrid (1992)(in Spanish)
• Frey, Linda and Marsha (1995).The Treaties of the War of the Spanish Succession: an Historical and Critical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group.ISBN 978-0-313-27884-6.
• Tucker, Spencer C., ed. (2011).A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. Vol. II. ABC-CLIO.
• Stanhope, Philip Henry.History of the War of the Succession in Spain. London, John Murray (1832).
• Cust, Edward (Sir).Annals of the wars of the eighteenth century: compiled from the most authentic histories of the period, Volume 1. London, Mitchell's military library (1858).

• Description of the Battles of Zaragoza (Spanish)

41°36′31″N00°53′23″W / 41.60861°N 0.88972°W /41.60861; -0.88972

• Conflicts in 1710
• Battles involving Great Britain
• Battles involving Spain
• Battles involving Austria
• Battles involving the Dutch Republic
• Battles involving Portugal
• Battles of the War of the Spanish Succession
• Military history of Aragon
• 1710 in Spain
• Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
• Philip V of Spain
• Military history of Zaragoza

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