Siege of Figueras (1811)

Siege of Figueres

Sant Ferran Fortress is located on a hill near Figueres.

Date	10 April to 19 August 1811
Location	Figueres, Spain
Result	Pyrrhic French victory

Belligerents

First French Empire

Kingdom of Spain

Commanders and leaders

Jacques MacDonald

L. Baraguey d'Hilliers

Juan Martínez

Units involved

Army of Catalonia

Strength

Rovira's coup: 900
Relief: over 7,000
Siege: 15,000

Rovira's coup: 2,000
Relief: over 10,800
Siege: 4,500

Casualties and losses

Rovira's coup: 900
Relief: 400
Siege: 4,000

Rovira's coup: 25
Relief: 1,000
Siege: 4,500

The Siege of Figueras, which lasted from 10 April to 19 August 1811, saw the Spanish garrison of Sant Ferran Castle (San Fernando Fortress) led by Brigadier General Juan Antonio Martínez defend against an Imperial French force commanded by Marshal Jacques MacDonald and his deputy Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers. Martínez and his men held out much longer than expected but were eventually starved into surrendering the fortress, which was near Figueres. The action occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

On the night of 9 and 10 April 1811, a Spanish guerrilla force led by the priest Francesc Rovira i Sala seized the Sant Ferran Castle from its Italian garrison in a well-executed coup de main. Within a few days, the fortress was manned by 3,000 Catalan miquelets and 1,500 Spanish regulars and placed under the command of Martínez. A furious Emperor Napoleon demanded that the strategic fort be retaken and 15,000 Imperial troops were amassed for the purpose. MacDonald pleaded with Louis Gabriel Suchet for reinforcements, but that general refused to send a single soldier and went ahead with his intended Siege of Tarragona. When Suchet invested Tarragona, Luis González Torres de Navarra, Marquess of Campoverde leading the Army of Catalonia immediately withdrew the divisions of Pedro Sarsfield and Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas y de Valonga, Baron de Eroles from the vicinity of Figueres and moved to defend Tarragona.

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