The
Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was an indecisive battle during the
Peninsular War. A mixed
British,
Spanish, and
Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French
Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small
Spanish village of
Albuera, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the frontier fortress-town of
Badajoz,
Spain.
From October 1810
Marshal Masséna's Army of Portugal had been tied down in an increasingly hopeless stand-off against
Wellington's Allied forces, safely entrenched in and behind the
Lines of Torres Vedras. Acting on
Napoleon's orders, in early 1811
Marshal Soult led a French expedition from
Andalusia into
Extremadura in a bid to draw Allied forces away from the Lines and ease Masséna's plight. Napoleon's information was outdated and Soult's intervention came too late; starving and understrength, Masséna's army was already withdrawing to Spain. Soult was able to capture the fortress at Badajoz from the Spanish, but was forced to return to Andalusia following
Marshal Victor's defeat in March at the
Battle of Barrosa. However, Soult left Badajoz strongly garrisoned. In April, following news of Masséna's complete withdrawal from Portugal, Wellington sent a powerful Anglo-Portuguese corps commanded by
Sir William Beresford to retake the border town. The Allies drove most of the French from the surrounding area, and laid siege to the remainder in Badajoz.
Soult rapidly gathered a new army from the French forces in Andalusia and, joining with the troops retreating before Beresford, he marched to relieve the siege. With
intelligence of another approaching force—a Spanish army under
General Joaquín Blake—he planned to turn Beresford's flank and interpose his army between the two. However, Soult was again acting on outdated information; unknown to the Marshal, the Spaniards had already linked up with the Anglo-Portuguese corps, and his 24,000 troops now faced a combined Allied army 35,000 strong.
The opposing armies met at the village of Albuera. Both sides suffered heavily in the ensuing struggle, but the French were eventually forced to retreat. Beresford's army was too battered and exhausted to pursue, but was able to resume the
investment of Badajoz. Despite Soult's failure to relieve the town, the battle had little strategic effect on the on-going war—just one month later, in June 1811, the Allies were forced to abandon their siege by the approach of the reconstituted French Armies of Portugal and Andalusia.