Battle of Toro

Not to be confused with Battle of El Toro.

41°31′32″N 5°23′28″W / 41.52556°N 5.39111°W / 41.52556; -5.39111

Battle of Toro
Part of the War of the Castilian Succession
Date1 March 1476
Location
Peleagonzalo, near Toro, Castile
Result Indecisive
Belligerents

Kingdom of Portugal

Castilian Juanistas

Castilian Isabelistas

Crown of Aragon
Commanders and leaders
Afonso V of Portugal
Prince John of Portugal
Bishop of Évora
Archbishop of Toledo		 Ferdinand II of Aragon
Cardinal Mendoza
Duke of Alba
Álvaro de Mendoza
Count of Alba de Aliste (POW)
Strength

About 8,500 men:

About 8,000 men:

  • 5,000 footmen[1]
  • 2,500[1] or 3,000 horsemen[2]
Casualties and losses
Near 1,000 (dead, prisoners and drowned)[3] Many hundreds (dead and prisoners)[4]

The Battle of Toro was part of the War of the Castilian Succession, fought on 1 March 1476, near the city of Toro, between the Castilian-Aragonese troops of the Catholic Monarchs and the Portuguese-Castilian forces of Afonso V and Prince John of Portugal.

The battle was militarily inconclusive,[5][6][7][8][9] as both sides claimed victory: the Castilian right wing was defeated by the forces under Prince John who possessed the battlefield, but the troops of Afonso V were beaten by the Castilian left-centre led by the Duke of Alba and Cardinal Mendoza.[10][11]

However, it was a major political victory for the Catholic Monarchs by assuring to Isabella the throne of Castile:[12][13] The remnants of the nobles loyal to Juana de Trastámara adhered to Isabella. With great political vision, Isabella took advantage of the moment and summoned the 'Cortes' at Madrigal-Segovia (April–October 1476).[14] There her daughter was proclaimed heiress of Castile's crown, which was equivalent to legitimising her own throne.

As noted by Spanish academic António Serrano: "From all of this it can be deduced that the battle [of Toro] was inconclusive, but Isabella and Ferdinand made it fly with wings of victory. (...) Actually, since this battle transformed in victory; since 1 March 1476, Isabella and Ferdinand started to rule the Spanish throne. (...) The inconclusive wings of the battle became the secure and powerful wings of San Juan's eagle [the commemorative temple of the battle of Toro] ".[15]

The war continued until the peace of Alcáçovas (1479), and the official propaganda transformed the Battle of Toro into a victory which avenged Aljubarrota.[16][17][18][19]

  1. ^ a b c d Bernaldez, chapter XXIII.
  2. ^ a b Zurita, volume VIII, book XIX, chapter XLIV.
  3. ^ According to Valera chapters XX and XXI, the Luso-Castilians had 800 dead, while to Bernaldez chapter XXIII, p.61, they suffered 1,200 dead. These figures are possibly inflated since Mariana wrote that the Portuguese losses – both dead and prisoners – were low: "The killing was small...and also the number of prisoners was not large; ..." Book XXIV, chapter X, p. 300). Zurita can only list 3 names of Portuguese noblemen killed in the battle (Volume VIII, book XIX, chapter XLIV) and the partial casualties reported in the courts of 1476 by the procurators of Évora point to very low numbers (Pereira, pp. 9–10.).
  4. ^ The casualties were similarly "high" in both armies (as stated by Pulgar in chapter XLV, p. 88, and by chronicler Chaves). However, the Isabelistas losses were probably lower than the Juanistas losses due to the (Portuguese) drowned in the Duero River. This last number was close to the number of Portuguese killed in combat (Pulgar, chapter XLV, p. 88.). Even the Cardinal Mendoza was wounded by a spear and several members from the Castilian royal council who met 10 days after the battle of Toro lost relatives there (Pulgar, chapter XLVII, p. 91). Chronicler Palencia wrote that when Afonso V returned to Toro in the days immediately after the battle, there were 500 Castilian prisoners inside the city, adding that this King had wasted "an opportunity of stabbing or drowning in the river 500 enemies both infantry and chivalry [certainly as a revenge on men who had contributed for his defeat in Toro]". See Palencia, Década III, book XXV, chapter IX.
  5. ^ Desormeaux p. 25: "...The result of the battle was very uncertain; Ferdinand defeated the enemy's right wing led by Alfonso, but the Prince had the same advantage over the Castilians".
  6. ^ Marlés: "...the infant [Prince John] and the duke [of Alba, the main Castilian commander] remained masters, each on his side, of the battlefield. The latter withdrew during the night...", p. 190.
  7. ^ Schaeffer pp. 554–555: "The two Kings had left the battlefield before the action was decided... In the end, the prince stood alone on the field as a winner after the defeat of the main [Portuguese] body. Until that defeat, [Prince] John chased the six divisions beaten by him..."
  8. ^ McMurdo, p. 515: "...the battle of Toro in which both adversaries proclaimed themselves conquerors, (...) it was no more than a success of war sufficiently doubtful for either party, ...were it not that the cause of D. Alfonso V was already virtually lost by the successive defection of his partisans..."
  9. ^ Damas, p. 35: "But Alfonso failed to defeat the supporters of Isabella and Ferdinand, and the battle of Toro (1476) resulted indecisive."
  10. ^ Bury, p. 523: "After nine months, occupied with frontier raids and fruitless negotiations, the Castilian and Portuguese armies met at Toro...and fought an indecisive battle, for while Afonso was beaten and fled, his son john destroyed the forces opposed to him."
  11. ^ Dumont, p. 49: "In the centre, leading the popular milicia, Ferdinand achieves victory taking the standards of the King of Portugal and causing his troops to flee. In the [Portuguese] right wing, the forces of Cardinal [Mendoza] and Duke of Alba and the nobles do the same. But in the [Portuguese] left Wing, in front of the Asturians and Galician, the reinforcement army of the Prince heir of Portugal, well provided with artillery, could leave the battlefield with its head high. The battle resulted this way, inconclusive. But its global result stays after that decided by the withdrawal of the Portugal's King [not as its direct consequence since this only happened three months and a half later, on 13 June 1476, after several military operations], the surrender of the Zamora's fortress on Mars 19, and the multiple adhesions of the nobles to the young princes."
  12. ^ Rubio, p. 34: "The solution of this conflict is also similar to the previous one. The indecisive battle of Toro, which was certainly not in its results and consequences, puts an end to the indubitable "Portuguese danger" to Castile".
  13. ^ Castell, p. 132: "The King of Portugal simply remained on the defensive; the first March 1476, he was attacked by Ferdinand of Aragon in front of the town of Toro. The battle was indecisive, but [with] the supporters of the Catholic Monarchs asserting their superiority, the Portuguese King withdrew".
  14. ^ Lunenfeld, p. 27: "In 1476, immediately after the indecisive battle of Peleagonzalo, Ferdinand and Isabella hailed the result as a great victory and called the 'Cortes' at Madrigal. The newly created prestige was used to gain municipal support from their allies...". See also p. 29.
  15. ^ Serrano, pp. 55–70.
  16. ^ Torres p. 303: "...later... were those [attempts] of Alfonso V to the Castilian crown [that] also finished by tiredness and not by the indecisive battle of Toro, which was transformed by the Spanish in another Aljubarrota..."
  17. ^ Lozoya, p. 85: "This famous Franciscan convent [San Juan de los Reyes] intended to be a replica of the Batalha [the Portuguese monastery built after Aljubarrota], and was built to commemorate the indecisive battle of Toro."
  18. ^ Spanish historian Beretta, p. 56: "His moment is the inconclusive Battle of Toro.(...) both sides attributed themselves the victory (...) The letters written by the King [Ferdinand] to the main cities (...) are a model of skill. (...) what a powerful description of the battle! The nebulous transforms into light, the doubtful acquires the profile of a certain triumph. The politic [Ferdinand] achieved the fruits of a discussed victory."
  19. ^ Palenzuela: "That is the battle of Toro. The Portuguese army had not been exactly defeated, however, the sensation was that D. Juana's cause had completely sunk. It made sense that for the Castilians Toro was considered as the divine retribution, the compensation desired by God to compensate the terrible disaster of Aljubarrota, still alive in the Castilian memory". (Electronic version).