Battle of La Gudina

Battle of La Gudiña
Part of the War of the Spanish Succession
Date 7 May 1709 Location Near Arronches and Campo Maior, on the frontier between Portugal and Spain Result Tactical Spanish victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Portugal  Great Britain	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Marquis of Fronteira Earl of Galway	Marquis de Bay
Strength
18,000 infantry 5,000 cavalry	16,000 infantry and cavalry
Casualties and losses
4,000 dead, wounded or captured 17 cannons taken	400 dead or wounded

The Battle of La Gudina, Battle of Val Gudina, or Battle of Campo Maior (Spanish: Batalla de La Gudiña) (Portuguese: Batalha de Caia) was fought on 7 May 1709 near Arronches between the Spanish Bourbon army of Extremadura, under the Marquis de Bay, and the Portuguese and British, under the Huguenot Earl of Galway and the Marquis of Fronteira. This battle resulted in a crushing defeat for the Anglo-Portuguese army, 4,000-5,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured, while the Spanish had only 400 soldiers dead or wounded.

Advancing from Elvas and passing the river Caya (Caia in Portuguese) the Anglo-Portuguese army had in front the Spaniards commanded by the Marquis de Bay. On 17 May and on the plain of La Gudina the two armies met. The Portuguese cavalry was routed with but slight resistance, and it left exposed two battalions of English foot, which were thus cut off and compelled to lay down their arms. Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway, who had a horse shot from under him, narrowly escaped being taken prisoner with them. The rest of the Anglo-Portuguese army made an orderly retreat to Elvas, maintaining their position there during the rest of the campaign, the danger of an allied invasion from the Portuguese frontier was staved off for the moment.

After the defeat at the Battle of Almansa, the British situation was desperate, they were no longer present in the south-eastern territory of Spain and had minimum or no influence in the course of the war. Henri de Massue formally pressed London to send more reinforcements, and Britain responded sending 25,000 men. About 8,000 British troops were sent to Portugal under the orders of the Earl of Galway, and the rest to Catalonia.

In Portugal, Galway met with the Marquis of Fronteira to prepare a combined attack against the Bourbon allies of Spain and advance toward Madrid. But for this, first they had to capture the city of Badajoz, a Spanish stronghold near the Portuguese frontier. In the past, Henri de Massue had already tried twice to capture the city without success. This time he did not take the risk. Knowing that France had withdrawn some troops as a consequence of defeats of Louis XIV in Flanders, his Anglo-Portuguese army crossed the border near the fortress of Campo Mayor, composed of maximum 20,000 Portuguese and 8,000 English, towards Badajoz. While his enormous supply train crosses the river Caya, the Anglo-Portuguese made contact with the vanguards of the Spanish cavalry in the fields of Gudiña.

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Wikipedia