Battle of Santo Domingo (1586)

Sir Francis Drake in Santo Domingo 1585, hand-colored engraving, by Baptista Boazio, 1589

Date	1 January 1586
Location	Santo Domingo, Hispaniola (Present day Dominican Republic)
Result	English victory

Belligerents

Spain

England

Commanders and leaders

Cristóbal de Ovalle

Francis Drake
Christopher Carleill

Strength

1,400 soldiers and militia
100 Cavalry
30 Diverse Warships, 1 Galley

23 ships
2,300 soldiers & sailors

Casualties and losses

200 killed, wounded or captured,
1 galley sunk,
20 ships burned,
3 ships captured

20 casualties
3 ships scuttled

The Battle of Santo Domingo (1586) or the Capture of Santo Domingo was a military and naval action fought on 1 January 1586, of the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War that resulted in the assault and capture by English soldiers and sailors of the Spanish city of Santo Domingo governed by Cristóbal de Ovalle on the Spanish island of Hispaniola. The English were led by Francis Drake and was part of his Great Expedition to the raid the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. The English soldiers then occupied the city for over a month and captured much booty along with a 25,000 ducat ransom before departing on 1 February.

War had already been unofficially declared by Philip II of Spain after the Treaty of Nonsuch in which Elizabeth I had offered her support to the rebellious Protestant Dutch rebels. The Queen through Francis Walsingham ordered Sir Francis Drake to lead an expedition to attack the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. Sailing from Plymouth, England, he first attacked Vigo in Spain and held the place for two weeks ransoming supplies, after which he struck at Santiago in November 1585 in the Cape Verde Islands plundering the place, then sailed for the Americas.

Drake arrived in the Caribbean in December to the uninhabited island of Saint Kitts, where he landed his sick and sought supplies. Whilst there he sent a small reconnaissance squadron to the Spanish city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola. Santo Domingo was the capital of Spain's New World Empire and it was fortified on its landward side by a city wall built in the early 1500s known as the Fortaleza Ozama in which stood the Torre de Homenaje (tower of Homage). The governor, Cristóbal de Ovalle, was well provided with artillery batteries covering both land and sea and had nearly 1,500 men of which 100 were cavalry. The naval defenses of the city consisted of one galley and although it was largely unseaworthy was still capable of posing a threat.

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