Capture of Cádiz

Capture of Cádiz
	Part of the Anglo–Spanish War (1585)
	; The English storm the city
Date	30 June – 15 July 1596
Location	Bay of Cádiz36.5333°N 6.28333°W
Result	Anglo-Dutch victory
Belligerents
Spain	England ; United Provinces
Commanders and leaders
Alonso Pérez; Alonso de Bazán	Charles Howard ; Robert Devereux; Jacob van Duivenvoorde ; Walter Raleigh ; Francis Vere
Strength
40 ships and 5,000 men	150 ships and 14,000 men
Casualties and losses
32 ships scuttled or sunk	3 galleons sunk or burnt,; 2 other ships sunk,; 5 other ships captured,; ~2,000 killed

The Capture of Cádiz in 1596 was an event during the Anglo-Spanish War, when English and Dutch troops under Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and a large Anglo-Dutch fleet under Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, with support from the Dutch United Provinces, raided the Spanish city of Cádiz.

Due to the Spanish commander's lack of foresight and organisation, the Anglo-Dutch forces met little resistance. In order to deny the raiders their prize, the Spanish set fire to the treasure fleet anchored in the Bay of Cádiz; the attacking forces disembarked, captured, sacked, and burned the city and took hostage several of the city's prominent citizens, who were taken back to England to await payment of their ransom.

The economic losses caused during the sacking were numerous: the city was burned, as was the fleet, in what was one of the principal English victories in the course of the war. Despite its failure in its primary objective of seizing the Spanish treasure fleet's silver, the raid contributed to Spain's declaration of bankruptcy the following year.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.