Battle of Mas Deu

Battle of Mas Deu
Part of the War of the Pyrenees
Chapel at the Commandery of Mas Deu
Date 17–19 May 1793 Location Trouillas, Pyrénées-Orientales, France Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
French First Republic	Bourbon Spain
Commanders and leaders
Louis-Charles de Flers	Antonio Ricardos
Strength
5,300	7,000–15,000
Casualties and losses
430	over 34

The Battle of Mas Deu or Battle of Mas d'Eu on 19 May 1793 saw the French Revolutionary Army of the Eastern Pyrenees under Louis-Charles de Flers fighting Bourbon Spain's army of Catalonia led by Antonio Ricardos.

The Spanish drove the outnumbered French soldiers out of their camp near Mas Deu and compelled them to retreat to Perpignan. The victory enabled the Spanish forces to lay siege to the Fort de Bellegarde, which dominated the best road through the Pyrenees from Barcelona into France. For the next month, Ricardos was preoccupied by the Siege of Bellegarde. Mas Deu is a former Knights Templar establishment east of the town of Trouillas in Pyrénées-Orientales. The action was fought during the War of the Pyrenees, part of the War of the First Coalition.

On April 17, 1793, Captain General Antonio Ricardos began the invasion of France when he descended on Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans in the French Cerdagne with 4500 Spanish troops. The six battalions and eight grenadier companies led by Ricardos chased 400 French soldiers out of the village. The Spanish next headed for Céret on the Tech where they encountered one French regular battalion, 1000 volunteers, and four artillery pieces on 20 April. The clash ended disastrously for the 1800 French, who quickly took fright and ran away. Between 100 and 200 Frenchmen were casualties while another 200 drowned trying to swim across the Tech. Ricardos admitted losing only 17 men wounded in the skirmish. The Captain General left a force at Le Perthus to watch the garrison of the Fort de Bellegarde and keep it from interfering with his supply convoys.

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