Capture of Porto
1580 battle
The Capture of Porto took place in October 1580 by the Spanish forces commanded by Don Sancho d'Avila during the War of the Portuguese Succession. The city was captured easily by the Spanish troops, thereby finishing off the Prior of Crato's army and its final defeat in Mainland Portugal, thus assuring the personal union of Portugal and Spain for 60 years under the Iberian Union.
Background
Following the victory accomplished by the Spanish troops led by Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba at the Battle of Alcântara on 25 August 1580, near Lisbon, the decimated Portuguese army under the command of Dom António, Prior of Crato, fled towards Coimbra and Porto with the intention of reassembling his troops.
The Duke of Alba, noticing the remote but possible threat, ordered his General Don Sancho d'Avila to pursue across the sea and completely destroy them in order to wrap up any opposition to Philip II of Portugal.
Porto
The Spanish troops commanded by Don Sancho d'Avila, transported by sea, arrived and disembarked in Porto on 24 October 1580. The city was captured easily by the Spanish army, thereby finishing off Portuguese army and the invasion of their neighbouring country. Don Sancho d'Avila obtained a victory, it would be his last great military accomplishment.
After the end of the war, the Spanish General returned to Lisbon. In Lisbon he received a wound from a horse which he did not attend to properly and as a consequence he died in May 1583.
Aftermath
With the Spanish capture of Porto, the Kingdom of Portugal was controlled by the Spanish armies.
“Capture of Porto” enters the record as 1580 battle. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Capture, Porto and battle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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