Siege of Valencia (1812)
1811–1812 siege during the Peninsular War
The siege of Valencia from 3 November 1811 to 9 January 1812, saw Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet's French Army of Aragon besiege Captain General Joaquín Blake y Joyes's forces in the city of Valencia, Spain, during the Peninsular War. The 20,000 to 30,000 French troops compelled 16,000 Spanish soldiers to surrender at the conclusion of the siege, although another 7,000 Spaniards escaped from the trap. Suchet quickly converted Valencia into an important base of operations after this Napoleonic Wars action. Valencia, modern-day capital of the Valencian Community, is located on the east coast of Spain.
Background
On July 8, 1811, Marshal Suchet received his baton, making him the only French general to be appointed Marshal of France for winning victories in Spain. He won this honor specifically for his victory in the siege of Tarragona. The port of Tarragona fell to the French on 29 June 1811 as a British naval squadron stood helplessly offshore. Suchet pressed the siege ruthlessly and lost 4,300 troops during the operation, but Spanish losses were far heavier. The loss of the port involved most of the Army of Catalonia and therefore left Spanish forces in the area gravely weakened.
Emperor Napoleon I of France ordered his newly minted marshal to capture Valencia.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Siege of Valencia (1812)” as 1811–1812 siege during the Peninsular War. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as 1811–1812 siege during the Peninsular War. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3486050. Authority coordinates are 39.470, -0.377. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811 and 1812.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Siege of Valencia (1812)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Siege of Valencia (1812) primary sources, Siege of Valencia (1812) archive and Siege research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Siege of Valencia (1812)”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Siege of Valencia (1812)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.