Siege of Cádiz 1810
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 5 February 1810 – 24 August 1812 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1810 | 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 | First French Empire, Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Spain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.5317, -6.3019 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The French army besieged the large Spanish naval base of Cádiz from 5 February 1810 to 24 August 1812 during the Peninsular War. Following the occupation of Seville, Cádiz became the Spanish seat of power, and was targeted by 70,000 French troops under the command of the Marshals Claude Victor and Jean-de-Dieu Soult for one of the most important sieges of the war. Defending the city were 2,000 Spanish troops who, as the siege progressed, received aid from 10,000 Spanish reinforcements as well as British and Portuguese troops.
During the siege, which lasted two and a half years, the Cortes of Cádiz – which served as a parliamentary Regency after Ferdinand VII was deposed – drew up a new constitution to reduce the strength of the monarchy, which was eventually revoked by Fernando VII when he returned. In October 1810, a mixed Anglo-Spanish relief force embarked on a disastrous landing at Fuengirola.
A second relief attempt was made at Tarifa in 1811. However, despite defeating a detached French force of 15,000–20,000 under Marshal Victor at the Battle of Barrosa, the siege was not lifted. In 1812, the Battle of Salamanca eventually forced the French troops to retreat from Andalusia, for fear of being cut off by the Coalition armies.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Cádiz (revision 1370740530), 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.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Cádiz (1656) 1656 · 2 km
- Cádiz expedition (1625) 1625 · 2 km
- Capture of Cádiz (1596) 1596 · 3 km
- Assault on Cádiz (1797) 1797 · 4 km
- Battle of Cádiz (1702) 1702 · 5 km
- Battle of Trocadero 1823 · 7 km
Other battles of the Peninsular War
- Battle of the Monterrey Valley 1809
- First Battle of Porto 1809
- Second Battle of Porto 1809
- Siege of Chaves 1809
- Third siege of Girona (Peninsular War) 1809
- Battle of Baza 1810
- Battle of Bussaco 1810
- Battle of Fuengirola 1810
- Battle of La Bisbal 1810
- Battle of Manresa (1810) 1810
All 124 battles of the Peninsular War →
Browse more: battles in Spain · Europe · 19th century battles