The May 2nd Uprising in Madrid (1808)

Dos de Mayo
Part of the Peninsular War
The Second of May 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes, by Francisco de Goya (1814).
Date 2 May 1808 Location Madrid, Spain Result Uprising suppressed but insurrection spreads throughout Spain Mass executions in reprisal Outbreak of the Peninsular War
Belligerents
Spain	First French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Pedro Velarde y Santillán  † Luís Daoíz de Torres  † Jacinto Ruiz y Mendoza	Joachim Murat
Casualties and losses
200–500 dead, including 113 prisoners executed	31–150 dead

The Dos de Mayo of 1808, was a rebellion by the people of Madrid against the occupation of the city by French troops, provoking the repression by the French Imperial forces and triggering the Peninsular War.

The city had been under the occupation of Napoleon's army since 23 March of the same year. King Charles IV had been forced to abdicate in favour of his son Ferdinand VII, and at the time of the uprising both were in the French city of Bayonne at the insistence of Napoleon. An attempt by the French general Joachim Murat to move the daughter and youngest son of Charles IV to Bayonne led to a popular rebellion that was harshly suppressed by French troops after hours of fierce street fighting. The uprising in Madrid, together with the subsequent proclamation as king of Napoleon's brother Joseph, provoked resistance across Spain to French rule.

The spark that provoked the rebellion was the move by the French Marshal in command of Madrid, Joachim Murat, to send the daughter of Charles IV and the Infante Francisco de Paula to the French city of Bayonne. Murat was the brother-in-law of Napoleon, and would later become king of Naples. Initially the governing council of the city refused the request from Murat, but eventually gave way after receiving a message from Ferdinand VII who was also in Bayonne at this time.

On 2 May a crowd began to gather in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid. Those gathered entered the palace grounds in an attempt to prevent the removal of Francisco de Paula. Marshal Murat sent a battalion of grenadiers from the Imperial Guard to the palace along with artillery detachments. The latter opened fire on the assembled crowd, and the rebellion began to spread to other parts of the city.

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