Citadel of Madrid
The citadel of Madrid was a star fort with three fortified enceintes constructed by the French Army during the Peninsular War, in the grounds of the Palacio del Buen Retiro, on the Retiro heights, outside the eastern gate of the city of Madrid.
Origins
Napoleon, on approaching Madrid, considered the vantage-ground of the heights of the Retiro key to taking the capital of Spain. He therefore set up, under cover of darkness, thirty guns opposite the earthworks which the Spanish troops had built there and other, smaller artillery in front of the other gates of the city, to distract the attention of the garrison. Before dawn, the Emperor sent another summons to surrender.The Captain-General of New Castile, the Marquis of Castelar, however, used the time to abandon the city, taking some five thousand troops and sixteen cannon with him to Talavera de la Reina. Considerable damage was done to Madrid's other defences, but the real assault was delivered against the Retiro heights and, once breaches had been made, Villatte's division of Victor's corps stormed the position with ease. The Spanish garrison of this section of Madrid's defences consisted of a single battalion of new levies—the Regiment of Mazzaredo—and a mass of armed citizens.
Joaquín Murat, the commander of the French Army in Spain, occupied Madrid in March 1808 with more than 40,000 veteran troops. While he was lodged at Chamartín, his chief of staff, Augustin Daniel Belliard, was commissioned to prepare Madrid's headquarters for 25,000 men by "taking charge of the Retiro and considering it a citadel of Madrid, under the orders of Grouchy, marquis de Grouchy|Grouchy]".
The palace at the Retiro was converted into the French Army's headquarters. The gardens and trees were removed to build the enceintes and several buildings were demolished or converted into arsenals.
Apart from the artillery and Moncey's brigade of dragoons stationed at the Retiro, the rest of the French troops based in and around Madrid were stationed at the convent of San Bernardino, located where the current Ciudad Universitaria was built, in the streets of Leganitos and Fuencarral, and the districts of El Pardo and Carabanchel.
Prior to the Battle of Talavera, King Joseph left Madrid 23 July, at the head of some 5,800 troops, to meet up with Victor's 23,000 troops, and Sebastiani's 17,500, to take the offensive against Cuesta at Torrijos, rather than letting him advance on Madrid.
Left behind was only one brigade of Dessolles's division, with a few Spanish levies, with which Belliard, the governor of the city, was expected to hold the capital; some 4,000 men, in all. Belliard had to be prepared to retreat into the Retiro fort, with his troops and the whole body of the Afrancesados and their families, if there was an insurrection, or if Venegas managed to reach the city from the east, or possibly Wilson (British [Army officer">Robert Wilson (British Army officer, born 1777)">Wilson (British [Army officer, born 1777)|Wilson], whose column was at Escalona, just thirty-eight miles from Madrid, with a force that was believed to be much larger than it actually was.