Siege of Figueras (1811) 1811
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 10 April 1811 – 19 August 1811 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1811 | 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 Spain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 42.2667, 2.9667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Figueras (1811) (revision 1370741142), 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
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Other battles of the Peninsular War
- Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1810) 1810
- Siege of Cádiz 1810
- Siege of Lérida 1810
- Siege of Mequinenza 1810
- Siege of Tortosa (1810–1811) 1810
- Battle of Albuera 1811
- Battle of Arlabán (1811) 1811
- Battle of Barrosa 1811
- Battle of Bornos (1811) 1811
- Battle of Campo Maior 1811
All 124 battles of the Peninsular War →
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