Siege of Badajoz (1658)

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Siege of Badajoz
Part of the Portuguese Restoration War

Map of the Siege of Badajoz by João Nunes Tinoco
DateJuly – October 1658
Location
Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Portugal Portugal Spain Spain
Commanders and leaders
Joanne Mendes de Vasconcelos Francisco de Tuttavilla
Rodrigo de Múgica
Luis de Haro
Strength
14,000 infantry,
3,000 cavalry,
20 cannons,
2 mortars[1]
4,000 infantry,
2,000 cavalry
(garrison)[2]
12,000 infantry,
4,000 cavalry
(relief army)[2]
Casualties and losses
6,200: dead (by the plague and combat) or deserters [3] Unknown

The fourth siege of Badajoz took place from July to October 1658 during the Portuguese Restoration War. It was an attempt by a huge Portuguese army under the command of Joanne Mendes de Vasconcelos, governor of Alentejo, to capture the Spanish city of Badajoz, which was the headquarters of the Spanish Army of Extremadura. The fortifications of Badajoz were essentially medieval and considered vulnerable by the Portuguese, and had already been attacked by them three times during this war.[4]

So in 1658, Mendes de Vasconcelos gathered an army at Elvas and advanced on Badajoz. The city was poorly defended and the Spanish troops under the command of Francisco de Tuttavilla, Duke of San Germán, looked principally to their own survival until a Spanish relief expedition could be mounted. The Portuguese forces launched a direct assault on the town, hoping initially to capture a key fort, San Cristóbal, but after 22 days of unsuccessful attack, the Portuguese abandoned this plan and began to build a circumvallation wall around Badajoz instead, to try to isolate the city. These plans received a boost when they captured a large Spanish defensive installation outside Badajoz, the Fort of San Miguel, but were unable to use this platform successfully against Badajoz itself.

The siege lasted for four months, during which time one-third of the Portuguese troops either died (mainly from the plague) or deserted.[3] The arrival of a relief army, under King Philip IV of Spain's favorite don Luis de Haro in October, lifted the siege. Mendes de Vasconcelos, the Portuguese commander, was stripped of his rank and imprisoned for his failure.

Taking advantage of this failure, D. Luis de Haro, invaded Portugal and besieged Elvas, the main defensive system of Portugal - where the Portuguese army that had besieged Badajoz took refuge and was suffering a second catastrophic plague. A small relief army was improvised by the Portuguese which inflicted a crushing defeat to the Spanish army at the decisive battle of the Lines of Elvas (14 January 1659).[5] This way, the Portuguese independence was granted while the Spanish reached military advantage in the secondary front of war, Minho and Galicia.

  1. ^ Ericeira, p. 97
  2. ^ a b Madoz, p. 259
  3. ^ a b The Count of Ericeira – simultaneously a contemporaneous chronicler and a top military leader who participated on the Badajoz siege – wrote that the initial Portuguese army besieging Badajoz had 17,000 men (História de Portugal Restaurado, 1657-1662, pages 97-98 in the 1751 edition, or page 90 in the 1698 edition) and he adds that, after the siege, the returning army had 9,000 men of infantry plus 1,800 horsemen (p. 135 in the 1751 edition, or page 133 in the 1946 edition). The difference is 6,200 missing men (dead by the plague, dead in combat and deserters). Most of the dead were not killed in combat, but by disease (plague): …the army defeated by the power of sickness…, in Ericeira, História de Portugal Restaurado, (1657-1662), page 133 in the 1751 edition, or page 124 in the 1698 edition. Usually, sick men are not considered "losses" since it is impossible to determine the number of those who did survive and those who didn’t.
  4. ^ White, p. 68
  5. ^ Facing the imminent arrival of an army led by D. Luis de Haro, the Portuguese troops opted by withdrawing to Elvas and waiting for the Spanish.The confrontation occurred in January 1659, and was a thunderous disaster to D. Luis…the military setback, which added to the disastrous situation of the Netherlands, forced Madrid to seek peace with France. in Valladares, Rafael- La Rebelión de Portugal 1640-1680, Junta de Castilla Y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 1998, page 163