Siege of Badajoz (1658)

38°52′44″N 6°58′01″W / 38.879°N 6.967°W / 38.879; -6.967

Siege of Badajoz
Part of the Portuguese Restoration War
Map of the Siege of Badajoz by João Nunes Tinoco
Date July – October 1658 Location Badajoz, Spain Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Portugal	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Joanne Mendes de Vasconcelos	Francisco de Tuttavilla Rodrigo de Múgica Luis de Haro
Strength
14,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 20 cannons, 2 mortars[1]	4,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry (garrison)[2] 12,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry (relief army)[2]
Casualties and losses
6,200: dead (by the plague and combat) or deserters [3]	Unknown

The fourth siege of Badajoz took place from July to October 1658 during the Portuguese Restoration War. It was an attempt by a huge Portuguese army under the command of Joanne Mendes de Vasconcelos, governor of Alentejo, to capture the Spanish city of Badajoz, which was the headquarters of the Spanish Army of Extremadura. The fortifications of Badajoz were essentially medieval and considered vulnerable by the Portuguese, and had already been attacked by them three times during this war.^[4]

So in 1658, Mendes de Vasconcelos gathered an army at Elvas and advanced on Badajoz. The city was poorly defended and the Spanish troops under the command of Francisco de Tuttavilla, Duke of San Germán, looked principally to their own survival until a Spanish relief expedition could be mounted. The Portuguese forces launched a direct assault on the town, hoping initially to capture a key fort, San Cristóbal, but after 22 days of unsuccessful attack, the Portuguese abandoned this plan and began to build a circumvallation wall around Badajoz instead, to try to isolate the city. These plans received a boost when they captured a large Spanish defensive installation outside Badajoz, the Fort of San Miguel, but were unable to use this platform successfully against Badajoz itself.

The siege lasted for four months, during which time one-third of the Portuguese troops either died (mainly from the plague) or deserted.^[3] The arrival of a relief army, under King Philip IV of Spain's favorite don Luis de Haro in October, lifted the siege. Mendes de Vasconcelos, the Portuguese commander, was stripped of his rank and imprisoned for his failure.

Taking advantage of this failure, D. Luis de Haro, invaded Portugal and besieged Elvas, the main defensive system of Portugal - where the Portuguese army that had besieged Badajoz took refuge and was suffering a second catastrophic plague. A small relief army was improvised by the Portuguese which inflicted a crushing defeat to the Spanish army at the decisive battle of the Lines of Elvas (14 January 1659).^[5] This way, the Portuguese independence was granted while the Spanish reached military advantage in the secondary front of war, Minho and Galicia.