Naval Battle of Tarragona (July 1641)

Battle of Tarragona
Part of the Reaper's War, Franco-Spanish War (1635)
Date 4 to 6 July 1641 Location Off Tarragona, then the Principality of Catalonia Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
France	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis	García Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Fernandina
Strength
19 sailing ships, 5 fireships, 11 galleys	41 galleys, 7 brigantines
Casualties and losses
50 killed	12 galleys and 2,000 men

The Naval Battle of Tarragona fought between 4 and 6 July 1641, was a naval engagement of the Reapers' War in which a Spanish galley fleet led by the Duke of Fernandina attempted to break the French naval blockade over Tarragona, at that time besieged by land by the French and Catalan armies under the French Viceroy of Catalonia. The French blockading fleet was under command of Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, and consisted both of sailing and rowing vessels. On 4 July it was engaged by the Spanish galleys, of which some managed to enter the port of the town during a fierce action. In the end, a large number of Spanish galleys were abandoned when their crews panicked and fled to the beaches. On the night of 6 July Abraham Duquesne escorted 5 fireships to the mole of the harbor, where the Spanish galleys were abandoned, and set fire to them.

The worsening of the situation inside Tarragona after the battle, caused largely because the vessels that had entered the port remained blocked, adding hundreds of mouths to feed, compelled Philip IV of Spain to order the assembling of a second relief fleet. This time, the number of vessels gathered was much larger, after the joining of Fernandina's squadron with another one commanded by the Duke of Maqueda. Sourdis offered battle to them on 20 August, but was defeated and the blockade was lifted. Viceroy Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt had to face simultaneously a land relief, and was forced to abandon the siege, retreating to Valls. Even if the siege and the 2nd Battle were two clear setbacks for the French, some Spanish authors also claim that Fernandina won the first battle.

After the decisive Catalan and French victory over the Spanish army at the Battle of Montjuïc on 26 January 1641, the Franco-Catalan armies took the initiative in the war and began to recover their lost ground. Marshal Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt, the newly appointed Viceroy of Catalonia by Louis XIII of France, decided to lay siege to the port city of Tarragona, one of the major towns of the Principality still in Spanish hands where through the defeated force under the Marquis de Los Vélez had passed after his defeat. The preparations began in March with the concentration of soldiers and supplies at the town of Valls. Meanwhile, the main Spanish army, then led by Federico Colonna, Prince of Butera, had received reinforcements and moved from Tortosa to Constantí, a village near Tarragona where a small garrison was left. The Prince entrenched his army into Tarragona and prepared the defense. In April the Franco-Catalan offensive was launched, and on 4 May, La Mothe was in front of Tarragona ahead a force of 10.000 foot and 2.000 horse soldiers, and the siege began.

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