Spanish invasion of Portugal (1762)
The Spanish invasion of Portugal between 5 May and 24 November, was a military episode in the wider Fantastic War in which Spain and France were defeated by the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance with broad popular resistance. It involved at first the forces of Spain and Portugal until France and Great Britain intervened in the conflict on the side of their respective allies. The war was also strongly marked by guerrilla warfare in the mountainous country, which cut off supplies from Spain, and a hostile peasantry, which enforced a scorched earth policy as the invading armies approached that left the invaders starving and short of military supplies and forced them to retreat with heavy losses, mostly from starvation, disease, and desertion.
During the first invasion, 22,000 Spaniards commanded by Nicolás de Carvajal, Marquis of Sarria, entered the Province of Alto Trás-os-Montes, in the northeast of Portugal, with Porto their ultimate goal. After occupying some fortresses they were confronted with a national uprising. Taking advantage of the mountainous terrain, the guerrilla bands inflicted heavy losses on the invaders and practically cut off their communication lines with Spain, causing a shortage of essential supplies. Near starvation, the Spaniards tried to conquer Porto quickly but were defeated in the Battle of Douro and the Battle of Montalegre before they retreated to Spain. After that failure, the Spanish commander was replaced by Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count of Aranda.
Meanwhile, 7,104 British troops landed in Lisbon, leading a massive reorganization of the Portuguese army under Wilhelm, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe, the supreme commander-in-chief of the allies.
During the second invasion of Portugal, an army of 42,000 French and Spanish soldiers under Aranda took Almeida and several other strongholds, and the Anglo-Portuguese army stopped another Spanish invasion of Portugal by the province of Alentejo and won the Battle of Valencia de Alcántara, where a third Spanish corps was assembling for an invasion.
The allies managed to stop the invading army in the mountains east of Abrantes, where the slope of the heights facing the Franco-Spanish army was abrupt but very soft on the side of the allies, which facilitated the supply and movements of the allies but acted as a barrier for the Franco-Spaniards. The Anglo-Portuguese also prevented the invaders from crossing the river Tagus and defeated them at the Battle of Vila Velha.
The Franco-Spanish army was virtually destroyed by a deadly scorched earth strategy. Peasants abandoned all nearby villages and took with them or destroyed the crops, food and all else that could be used by the invaders, including the roads and houses. The Portuguese government also encouraged desertion among the invaders by offering large sums to all deserters and defectors. The invaders had to choose between stay and starve or withdraw. The outcome was the disintegration of the Franco-Spanish army, which was compelled to retreat to Castelo Branco, closer to the frontier, when a Portuguese force under Townshend made an encircling movement towards its rearguard. According to a report sent to London by the British ambassador in Portugal, Edward Hay, the invaders suffered 30,000 losses, almost three-quarters of the original army, mainly caused by starvation, desertion and capture during the chase of the Franco-Spanish remnants by the Anglo-Portuguese army and peasantry.
Finally, the allies took the Spanish headquarters, Castelo Branco, capturing a large number of Spaniards, wounded and sick, who had been abandoned by Aranda when he fled to Spain, after a second allied encircling movement.
During the third invasion of Portugal, the Spaniards attacked Marvão and Ouguela but were defeated with casualties. The allies left their winter quarters and chased the retreating Spaniards. They took some prisoners, and a Portuguese corps entered Spain took more prisoners at La Codosera.
On 24 November, Aranda asked for a truce which was accepted and signed by Lippe on 1 December 1762.
Overview
The 1762 Bourbon invasion of Portugal was actually a succession of three military campaigns in different places and times with similar results:Background
Portuguese and Spanish neutrality in the Seven Years' War
During the Seven Years' War, a British fleet under Admiral Boscawen defeated a French fleet in Portuguese waters in front of Lagos, Algarve, in 1759. Three French ships of the line were captured and two were destroyed. Portugal, though an old ally of Britain, had stated her neutrality in this war and accordingly, the Portuguese prime minister Pombal demanded satisfaction from Great Britain. The British government apologized to the Portuguese king, José I, by sending a special delegation to Lisbon, yet the captured vessels were not returned, as demanded by France. The Portuguese government materially assisted the French garrisons that had taken refuge in Lagos after the battle. The French king, Louis XV, thanked José I for all the assistance given to the French sailors, although claiming for the navies. The case seemed settled, but Spain and France would use it as a pretext to invade Portugal four years later.Portugal was having increasing difficulties in maintaining its neutrality in the Seven Years' War because of outbreaks of minor incidents between British and French: on one occasion, the British consul in Faro instructed British frigates to enter the city's harbour and prevent a French warship from unloading; and in Viana do Minho, British businessmen armed themselves and boarded a boat, recapturing a captured British merchant ship from a French corsair. Despite these incidents, the king and government of Portugal were strongly committed to keep the country out of the war.
On their part, the French were pressuring a reluctant Spain to enter the war on their side. Both countries eventually signed the third Family Compact, a "continental system" mainly designed to isolate Britain in Europe. However, British ships intercepted official correspondence from Spain to France and learned that there was a secret clause providing that Spain should declare war on Britain on 1 May 1762.
The British anticipated Spain, declaring war first on 2 January 1762.
The Franco-Spanish Ultimatum
Both Bourbon powers decided to force Portugal to join their Family Compact. Spain and France sent an ultimatum to Lisbon stating that Portugal had to:- Terminate the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance replacing it with a new alliance with France and Spain.
- Close her ports to British ships and to interrupt all commerce with Great Britain both in Europe and within the Portuguese empire.
- Declare war on Great Britain
- Accept the occupation of Portuguese ports by a Spanish army. Thus Portugal would be both "protected" and "liberated" from its British "oppressors".
The Portuguese situation was desperate. The great Lisbon earthquake, tsunami and fire of 1755 had completely destroyed the Portuguese capital, killing tens of thousands and damaging most of the Portuguese fortresses. Rebuilding a new Lisbon left no money to sustain an army or navy; and even the military cadres who had died in the earthquake were not replaced by 1762. From 1750 onward the Brazilian gold supply started its irreversible decline, and the price of Brazilian sugar also fell as British and Dutch demand reduced.
The Portuguese navy – which had been powerful during the 15th century, was reduced to only three ships of the line and some frigates. The general picture of the Portuguese "army" was calamitous: The regiments were incomplete, the military warehouses were empty, and there were no military hospitals. By November 1761, the troops had not been paid for a year and a half, and many soldiers lived from robbery, or "assassinating for a livelihood". Military discipline was a distant memory and the greater part of the troops was "without uniforms and without arms". When French Ambassador O'Dunne delivered the ultimatum to the Portuguese government, a party of sergeants with a captain knocked on the door, begging for alms. Recruitment often included trapping vagrants and transients during popular gatherings. The Count of Saint-Priest, French ambassador in Portugal, reported: "It was impossible to find an army in greater disorder than in Portugal. When the Count of Lippe arrived, the army had as Field Marshal the Marquis de Alvito, who had never learned to shoot a rifle or command a regiment, even in peacetime. The colonels, mostly great Lords, placed as officers in their regiments their valets. It was very common to see soldiers, mostly ragged, begging for alms . This state of disorder had just finished shortly before I arrived. We need to be fair. The Count of Lippe established discipline, forced officials to choose between the position in the regiment or his previous condition as valets..With the aid of some foreign officials, military bodies were disciplined and when I arrived, were already trained."
To reinforce their ultimatum and press the Portuguese government, Spanish and French troops started gathering on the Portuguese northern frontiers since 16 March 1762, alleging it was merely a "preventive army". The Portuguese government declared its intention of defending to the last. As soon as news of the entry of Spanish troops into the North of the kingdom reached the Court, Portugal declared war both on Spain and France, asking for British financial and military assistance. Spain and France declared war on 15 and 20 June, respectively.
Invasions
First invasion of Portugal (Trás-os-Montes)
On 30 April 1762 a Spanish force penetrated into Portugal through the province of Trás-os-Montes and posted a proclamation entitled "reasons for entering Portugal", in which the Spaniards declared that they were coming not as enemies, but as friends and liberators who came to free the Portuguese people from the "heavy shackles of England", the "tyrant of the seas".On 5 May, the Marquis of Sarria, leading an army of 22,000 men started the real invasion. Portugal declared war on both Spain and France.
Miranda, the only fortified and provisioned fortress of the province, was besieged on 6 May 1762, but an accidental and huge powder explosion killed four hundred and opened two breaches in the ramparts, forcing the surrender on 9 May 1762. Bragança, Chaves, and Torre de Moncorvo were open cities without soldiers, and were occupied without firing a gun. There were neither fortresses with intact walls nor regular troops inside the entire province of Trás-os-Montes. The Spanish general joked about the complete absence of Portuguese soldiers across the province: "I can not discover where these insects are."
At first, the relationship of the invaders with the civil population was apparently excellent. The Spaniards paid double for the provisions they acquired, and there wasn't a single shotgun. But Madrid had committed a double error: since the Spaniards believed that the simple show of power would be enough to induce Portugal to submission, they entered the country almost without provisions, which would undermine the entire campaign. They also assumed that the country could provide them all the necessary food. When this proved an illusion, the Spanish army imposed forced requisitions of provisions to the populations. These were the trigger for a popular revolt, with war for food feeding war.