Sieges of Zaragoza (1808-1809): Spain's Heroic Resistance

The Sieges of Zaragoza were two French attempts, in 1808 and 1808–1809, to capture the capital of Aragon in north-eastern Spain during the Peninsular War. The first siege failed; the second ended in surrender only after weeks of savage fighting from house to house and a devastating epidemic. Zaragoza’s resistance became a symbol of Spanish defiance of Napoleon throughout Europe.

Background

After the Dos de Mayo uprising in Madrid and the forced abdications of the Spanish royal family at Bayonne, revolts broke out across Spain in late May 1808. In Zaragoza, a crowd forced the authorities aside and proclaimed José de Palafox, a 32-year-old officer of the royal guard, captain-general of Aragon.

Zaragoza had about 55,000 inhabitants and only old medieval walls, with no modern fortifications and few regular troops. The French expected it to fall quickly. What the city did have was a large, determined population, many stout stone convents and churches that could be turned into strongpoints, and the river Ebro, which divided the attackers and protected one side of the town.

The first siege (June–August 1808)

A French force under General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes arrived in mid-June 1808 and attacked on 15 June, but was driven back by improvised defences. General Jean-Antoine Verdier later took over and began a regular bombardment.

During a major assault on 2 July, the defenders at the Portillo gate were nearly all killed or wounded. A young woman, Agustina Zaragoza Doménech, is said to have taken up a linstock and fired a cannon at point-blank range into the advancing French, rallying the defenders. She became famous as Agustina de Aragón.

On 4 August the French broke into the city and seized part of it, but the defenders fought on in the streets. News then arrived of the French surrender at Bailén in Andalusia, and of King Joseph’s withdrawal from Madrid. The French lifted the siege on 14 August 1808.

The second siege (December 1808–February 1809)

Napoleon entered Spain himself in November 1808 with a large army. After defeating the Spanish at Tudela on 23 November, French troops returned to Zaragoza and opened a new siege on 20 December 1808 under Marshal Moncey, joined by Marshal Mortier’s corps. Marshal Jean Lannes took command in late January 1809.

This time the city was better prepared, with a garrison of roughly 30,000 regular troops and armed civilians, and with houses fortified and connected. The French, numbering around 40,000–45,000, used heavy artillery and engineers. After the walls were breached in late January, the struggle became a slow war of mines and close-quarter combat. French sappers blew up buildings one by one, while the defenders fought from cellars, rooftops and convents, including the monastery of Santa Engracia.

Disease proved even deadlier than the fighting. Typhus and other epidemics spread through the crowded, starving city, killing soldiers and civilians in their thousands. Palafox himself fell seriously ill. On 20 February 1809 a junta acting in his name agreed to capitulate, and the surviving garrison marched out the next day.

Key people

• José de Palafox (1775–1847) – commander of the defence, later held as a prisoner at Vincennes in France until the end of 1813.
• Agustina de Aragón (1786–1857) – heroine of the first siege, who later served with Spanish forces and was decorated.
• Jean Lannes (1769–1809) – the French marshal who directed the final stage of the second siege; he was mortally wounded at Aspern-Essling a few months later.

By the numbers

Legacy

Zaragoza was left in ruins, and large parts of the city had to be rebuilt. Yet the sieges became a powerful story of patriotic sacrifice. Lord Byron celebrated the “Maid of Saragoza” in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the Scottish painter David Wilkie painted The Defence of Saragossa in 1828, and Benito Pérez Galdós made the second siege the subject of one of his Episodios nacionales novels in 1874.

The sieges also showed military observers how difficult it was to capture a determined city defended street by street, a lesson that would return in later wars.

Timeline

• 1808, 25 May: Palafox proclaimed captain-general of Aragon in Zaragoza.
• 1808, 15 June: First French assault on the city.
• 1808, 2 July: Agustina de Aragón fires a cannon at the Portillo gate.
• 1808, 14 August: French lift the first siege after news of Bailén.
• 1808, 20 December: Second siege begins.
• 1809, 27 January: French break through the walls; street fighting begins.
• 1809, 20 February: Zaragoza capitulates.

Why it matters

The Sieges of Zaragoza showed that Napoleon’s armies could be held at bay by a city with weak walls but a determined population. Although the city eventually fell, the cost to France was high, and Zaragoza’s endurance inspired resistance elsewhere in Spain and admiration across Europe.