The fatal hill. The battle of La Albuera told by the British participants

Charles J. Esdaile
Department of History
University of Liverpool

Published: 21/12/2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/ahi.2024.3.4

ABSTRACT: Fought on the 16th of May 1811, in the depths of Extremadura, the battle of Albuera was one of the bloodiest encounters of the Spanish Peninsular War: in less than eight hours, around 12,000 British, French, Spanish and Portuguese soldiers were killed or wounded, the vast majority of them in an area measuring no more than three square kilometres. Personal accounts from the last three of these national groups are almost non-existent. Still a significant number of British soldiers described the day in vivid terms in diaries, letters and memoirs, the result being a mass of evidence that is here used to reconstruct the events of the day in minute detail and at the same time provide a graphic insight into the nature of combat in the age of Napoleon. Concerning the significance of the battle, meanwhile, it is suggested that so traumatic was the French experience that it led many imperial commanders to conclude that launching frontal attacks on the Anglo-Portuguese troops of General Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington’s army was futile, the result being that significant curbs were placed on the ability of the French forces in the Iberian peninsula to seize and, still more importantly, maintain the strategic initiative.

KEYWORDS: Spanish War of Independence (Peninsular War), battle of La Albuera, Duke of Wellington, Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Francisco Ballesteros, Francisco Javier Castaños, Extremadura.