Battle of Alcantara, Lisbon, 1580
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Topic: Battle of Alcantara, Lisbon, 1580
Posted By: Sikander
Subject: Battle of Alcantara, Lisbon, 1580
Date Posted: 31-Aug-2007 at 08:34
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Replies:
Posted By: Sikander
Date Posted: 31-Aug-2007 at 08:48
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In 1580, at the death of the old, childless Cardinal-King D. Henrique, the Portuguese trone became vacant. King D. Felipe II of Spain, seeing this oportunity, decided to invande Portugal to claim his rights, through marriage, of the Portuguese crown.
The invading forces were composed of Spanish, Italian and German soldiers, lead by the Duque of Alva and the Admiral D Alvaro de Bazán, the foremost military leaders of the time.
In only two places was there effective resistance: at the fortress of S Julião da Barra and at Alcântara, at the doors of Lisbon.
The weak Portuguese forces, under the leadership of the new elected king D. antónio, Prior (Master) of Crato (the Hospitaliers in Portugal) were concentrated at the left banks of the Alcantara stream, especially in the Alcantara bridge near the river Tejo (Tagus).
The Duque of Alva made an all-out attack and the Portuguese rushed to the bridge, only to become under artillery fire (the battery was placed in a hill, probably near the entrance of the moder bridge 25 de Abril). At the same time the Spanish crossed the river upstream and started to envelop the Portuguese.
The Portuguese cavalry tried to stop the invaders at the bridge but was reppeled by both artillery and musquet shots. D António also rushed to the defence "in order to win or be killed" but, badly wounded, was forced to flee. Next day he fled the country and, except for the Azores islands, Portugal became under the Spanish domination.
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Posted By: Ikki
Date Posted: 15-Sep-2007 at 11:32
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Excellent Sikander, there are many time that i'm searching this type of material (what the hell, jinete type of cavalry!, so many details...); here you have more info about the battle:
http://www.geocities.com/aow1617/alcantarauk.html - http://www.geocities.com/aow1617/alcantarauk.html ------------- |
Posted By: Anthropologus
Date Posted: 24-Sep-2007 at 01:35
| what happened with the brave "in order to win or be killed"? |
Posted By: Sikander
Date Posted: 26-Sep-2007 at 12:31
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Beautifull link! Thanks Ikki! one mistake, though: it's "Count of Vimioso", not "Bimioso" ("Bimioso" is how the guys from Northern Portugal would pronounciate - they say "b" instead of "v", but it's not writen that way)
As for the "brave guy", he was wounded twice (one in the head by a Portuguese double-crosser!) and left the field. Then he fled to France, got French and English help and started a war against Felipe II of Spain. After the fall of the Azores to the Spanish D. Antonio lived in exile for a couple of years more and then he died.
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