Battle of Talavera 1809
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 27 July 1809 – 28 July 1809 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1809 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Spain | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Peninsular War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Duchy of Warsaw, First French Empire, Kingdom of Spain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 39.9667, -4.8333 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Talavera (27–28 July 1809) was fought just outside the town of Talavera de la Reina, Spain some 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Madrid, during the Peninsular War. At Talavera, a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley combined with a Spanish army under General Gregorio García de la Cuesta fought in operations against French-occupied Madrid. At nightfall, the French army withdrew a short distance after several of its attacks had been repulsed; the allies, having suffered comparable casualties to the French, made no attempt to pursue.
After Marshal Soult's French army had retreated from Portugal, General Wellesley's 20,000 British troops advanced into Spain to join 33,000 Spanish troops under General Cuesta. They marched up the Tagus valley to Talavera, some 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Madrid. There they encountered 46,000 French in the corps of Marshal Claude Victor and Major-General Horace Sébastiani, the cavalry reserve, and the Madrid garrison; with the French king of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte in nominal command and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in actual command.
The French crossed the Alberche in the middle of the afternoon on 27 July. A few hours later, the French attacked the right of the Spaniards and the British left.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Talavera (revision 1381129989), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Peninsular War
- First Siege of Girona (Peninsular War) 1808
- Second Siege of Girona (Peninsular War) 1808
- Siege of Roses (1808) 1808
- Siege of Zaragoza (1808) 1808
- Siege of Zaragoza (1809) 1808
- Battle of Alba de Tormes 1809
- Battle of Alcañiz 1809
- Battle of Alcántara (1809) 1809
- Battle of Almonacid 1809
- Battle of Arzobispo 1809
All 124 battles of the Peninsular War →
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