Battle of Évora ( 1808 ) The Battle of Évora ( 29 July 1808 ) saw an Imperial French division under Louis Henri Loison attack a combined Portuguese - Spanish force led by Francisco de Paula Leite de Sousa . Encountering Leite ' s smaller body of soldiers outside Évora , the French easily brushed them aside and went on to storm the town , which was held by poorly - armed townsmen and militia . The French butchered the Portuguese defenders and brutally sacked the town . For savage actions like that at Évora , the hated Loison became known in Portugal as " Maneta " ( One - Hand ) . The clash occurred during the Peninsular War , part of the Napoleonic Wars . Évora is located about east of Lisbon . In November 1807 , a French army led by Jean - Andoche Junot mounted a successful Invasion of Portugal supported by allied Spanish troops . For several months the French were able to maintain themselves . However , the Spanish Dos de Mayo Uprising against the French in May 1808 was quickly followed by a Portuguese revolt . Abandoning the north and south of the country , the French concentrated their forces to hold central Portugal . Junot sent Loison east to relieve the garrison of Elvas Fortress . After defeating the Portuguese - Spanish force at Évora , Loison reached Elvas . But he was soon recalled to help repel a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley that landed on the coast north of Lisbon . Background . Emperor Napoleon concluded the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807 , ending the War of the Fourth Coalition . While the Kingdom of Prussia was humiliated , the Russian Empire became an ally of France . After his triumph , the emperor looked to the west where Portugal was the oldest continental ally of the United Kingdom . Portugal ' s Prince Regent John of Braganza had declined to join the Continental System against British trade . Furthermore , Napoleon resented Britain ' s trade with Portugal ' s colony in Brazil , wished to seize Portugal ' s shipping , and wanted to deny the Royal Navy the use of Lisbon ' s major port . Events moved rapidly . On 19 July , the French ambassador delivered an ultimatum to the Portuguese government . On 2 August , the 1st Corps of the Gironde Observation Army was established with General of Division Jean - Andoche Junot in command . At first the Prince Regent did not comply with all of Napoleon ' s terms . But as the menace of Junot ' s army increased , John caved in to nearly all of the emperor ' s demands . But by this time , Junot ' s 25 , 000 - man army was on the march across Spain . Napoleon informed his lieutenant that the Portuguese had declared war on the United Kingdom , but that it was too late . The emperor wanted Junot in Lisbon by 1 December . Despite horrible weather , Junot fulfilled his master ' s instructions to the letter . The French Invasion of Portugal encountered no armed Portuguese resistance and Junot entered Lisbon with a flying column of 1 , 500 weary men on 30 November . Escorted by Admiral Sir Sidney Smith ' s Royal Navy squadron , Prince Regent and his entourage escaped with the fleet to Brazil shortly before the French arrived . While Junot ' s soldiers saw no formal resistance , numbers of them had died from exposure during the march , while others had been lynched by angry Portuguese peasants . The first riot occurred in Lisbon on 13 December , but it was easily put down . Junot first disbanded the Portuguese Army , then ordered the imposition of heavy taxes , which angered the population . Rebellion . By the spring of 1808 , Junot ' s position in Portugal was relatively secure . He had been reinforced by 4 , 000 troops which more than replaced the men who died during the hard marches of the invasion . Of the three French - allied Spanish divisions that had supported Junot ' s invasion , General Solano ' s troops had returned to Andalusia . However , General Caraffa stayed in the Lisbon area with 7 , 000 Spaniards and General Belesta occupied Porto ( Oporto ) with 6 , 000 more . Portugal remained quiet because her army was disbanded or sent away , her ruling classes had mostly fled to Brazil , and her civil authorities submitted too readily to the French yoke . Because Portugal ' s ports were closed by the British blockade , her wines could no longer be sold to England nor could her goods be traded to Brazil . The French put 10 , 000 persons to work in the arsenal and shipyard , but Lisbon soon filled with large numbers of unemployed people who thronged the streets begging for alms . A message from Napoleon arrived in May ordering Junot to send 4 , 000 troops to Ciudad Rodrigo to support Marshal Jean - Baptiste Bessières in the north of Spain and 8 , 000 more to link up with General of Division Pierre Dupont de l ' Étang in Andalusia . These were the last instructions to reach Portugal from Paris . The Spanish Dos de Mayo Uprising against the French completely altered the situation . When news of the revolt reached Porto on 6 June , Belesta seized as prisoners the governor of the city General of Division François Jean Baptiste Quesnel , his staff , and his 30 - man escort . The Spanish general assembled Porto ' s leaders and urged them to form a government to resist the French . Loyally obeying the orders of the Galician Junta , Belesta marched his troops away to join the Spanish armies . For over a week after the Spanish troops left , Porto ' s leaders did nothing . Some even sent secret letters to Junot , professing their loyalty , and the military governor took down the national flag from the citadel . But , finding the occupation forces gone , Trás - os - Montes Province rose in revolt between 9 and 12 June . At Bragança retired General Manoel Jorge Gomes de Sepúlveda was selected as the commander while Colonel Francisco Silveira was chosen to lead at Vila Real . After hearing of Belesta ' s defection on 9 June , Junot plotted to disarm Caraffa ' s division . Ordered to Junot ' s headquarters , the Spanish general was placed in custody . Caraffa ' s troops were either directed to appear at military reviews or to shift positions . While the Spanish units were carrying out these orders , they were suddenly encircled by French troops and made prisoners . The only unit that escaped intact was the " Reina " Light Cavalry Regiment Nr . 2 when its colonel disregarded his instructions and escaped to Porto . Elements of the " Murcia " and " Valencia " Infantry Regiments also got away , fleeing to Badajoz . But Junot caught 6 , 000 of Caraffa ' s soldiers and put them aboard prison hulks in Lisbon ' s harbor . The French officers in charge of the forts had orders to sink the vessels if the prisoners tried to escape . The Spaniards were only released after the Convention of Cintra . On 16 June , the rebellion spread to the south when the Portuguese town of Olhão in Algarve Province rose against the French . On the 18th , the citizens of Faro followed suit . The French governor of Algarve , General of Brigade Antoine Maurin was seized in his sick bed and , together with 70 French soldiers , bundled on board a British warship as prisoners . Colonel Jean - Pierre Maransin gathered the one battalion each of the " Légion du Midi " and the 26th Line Infantry Regiment that served as the garrison of Algarve . With these 1 , 200 men , Maransin withdrew to Mértola . The insurgents did not pursue . Countermeasures . One advantage that Junot had over the Portuguese was that he occupied the nation ' s only major city and military arsenal . Among the country ' s cities , only Lisbon was capable of equipping an army . Junot ' s position was complicated by the presence of a French - allied Russian naval squadron under Admiral Dmitry Senyavin in Lisbon harbor . The Russian admiral vowed to defend himself if the British fleet tried to enter the port , but he refused to land his marines to assist the French on land . Senyavin pointed out that his nation was not at war with Portugal . Meanwhile , his sailors consumed large amounts of Junot ' s limited stocks of food . Trying to follow Napoleon ' s last orders , Junot dispatched General of Brigade Jean - Jacques Avril and 3 , 000 troops toward Badajoz . Avril reached the frontier to find his force faced by a body of artillery - armed Spanish militia behind the Guadiana River . Hearing that Dupont never got beyond Córdoba and that Badajoz was held large numbers of Spanish troops , the French general backtracked to Estremoz in Alentejo Province . On 12 June , General of Division Louis Henri Loison marched east from Almeida in Beira Province with a brigade . He cleared the Spanish garrison from Fort Concepcion and reached the environs of Ciudad Rodrigo . At this time he received intelligence that the city held a considerable garrison , Spain was in revolt , and Bessières was far away . Returning to Almeida on the 15th , he heard that Porto was teetering on the edge of rebellion . Taking 2 , 000 men and a few cannons , he set out for Porto but on 21 June stumbled into a hornet ' s nest of guerillas who sniped at him and rolled boulders down from the heights . Loison decided that his small force was overmatched and withdrew to Almeida . Meanwhile , trouble broke out in Lisbon at the annual celebration of the Feast of " Corpus Christi " on 16 June . Junot permitted the festival to take place , but concentrated 15 , 000 soldiers in the city to prevent a riot . Nevertheless , as the religious procession made its way through the streets , a panic broke out among the people who surged through the lines of soldiers . Just as the artillery was ready to fire on the mob , Junot coolly rode into the crowd and ordered his men to refrain from firing . He managed to clear the streets , calmed the people , and insisted that the procession continue . Though Junot ' s level - headed action averted a massacre , Lisbon remained rife with wild rumors . On top of this , a British expedition under General Brent Spencer hovered off the coast . Spencer had only 5 , 000 troops but Junot had no way of knowing this . On 18 June , a popular riot broke out in Porto which forced the authorities to declare in favor of the rebellion . A Supreme Junta was set up and the Bishop of Porto , Antonio de São José de Castro was selected as its chief . The lesser Juntas at Bragança and Vila Real deferred to the Porto Junta ' s authority . The Junta re - established the 2nd , 12th , 21st , and 24th Infantry , the 6th Caçadores , and the 6th , 11th , and 12th Cavalry Regiments . The Junta was only able to find weapons for 5 , 000 regular soldiers that were assigned to Bernardim Freire de Andrade to command . In addition , 12 , 000 to 15 , 000 ill - armed militia flocked to join the cause . In a 25 June 1808 council of war , Junot and his generals decided to abandon the northern and southern provinces and defend central Portugal . They rejected as too risky the alternative of evacuating Portugal and retreating across Spain . The generals concluded to hold the fortresses of Almeida , Elvas , and Peniche and concentrate the army around Lisbon . Orders went out to Loison at Almeida , Avril at Estremoz , Maransin at Mértola , and General of Division François Étienne de Kellermann at Elvas . Even before receiving the new directive , Maransin was on the move for Lisbon . On 26 June he arrived before Beja and found it defended by its townspeople . His troops easily chased off the amateur soldiers and thoroughly looted the town . A number of messengers were killed or captured by the Portuguese guerillas , but eventually all the outlying forces received their orders . According to one report , only one out of 20 couriers got through to Loison . On 22 June , Avril marched on Vila Viçosa where one company of the 86th Line was besieged by the townspeople . The French routed the Portuguese , killing many , and plundered the town . Kellermann left one battalion of the 2nd Swiss Regiment and four companies of the 86th Line , a total of 1 , 400 men , in garrison at Elvas and returned west to Lisbon . On the way , he was joined by Avril ' s force at Estremoz and Maransin ' s force at Évora . He dropped off a brigade led by General of Brigade Jean François Graindorge at Setúbal and reached Lisbon without incident . After receiving his orders , Loison made up a 1 , 200 - man garrison for Almeida by culling all the soldiers who were not fit for campaigning . With the rest , he left Almeida on 4 July and reached Abrantes a week later . His troops were harassed on the entire route . At Guarda , the citizens resisted , so the place was pillaged and put to the torch . About 200 French soldiers became casualties , including stragglers who were done to death by the peasants . Because his troops ' path was marked by a line of wrecked villages , Loison acquired the name " Maneta " ( One - Hand ) and he was cursed for years afterward by the Portuguese . By the last week of June , the insurrection spread to Coimbra . A student , Bernardo Zagalo led a force to Figueira da Foz where it captured a small French garrison . Soon after , Freire brought his 5 , 000 troops south to the line of the Mondego River . Junot sent a 3 , 000 - man force under General of Brigade Pierre Margaron that stamped out the rebellion south of the Mondego on 5 July . Junot had 24 , 000 troops concentrated near Lisbon by the second week of July . Battle . In mid - July 1808 there was a lull in which neither side made a move . At the end of the month , Junot decided to send Loison to clear a path to Elvas . He provided Loison with a force that included the 4th and 5th Provisional Dragoons ( 1 , 248 ) , two battalions of converged grenadiers ( 1 , 100 ) , 12 companies from the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 86th Line ( 1 , 667 ) , 1st Battalion of the Hanoverian Legion ( 804 ) , and the 3rd Battalions of the 12th Light ( 1 , 253 ) , 15th Light ( 1 , 305 ) , and 58th Line ( 1 , 428 ) . Though the numbers add up to 8 , 805 , historian Charles Oman wrote that 1 , 200 men need to be subtracted from the total to account for the detached grenadier companies . The force counted at least 7 , 000 men and was supported by eight artillery pieces . Loison set out from Lisbon on 25 July . The Junta for Alentejo Province made its headquarters at Évora . The Junta named General Francisco de Paula Leite de Sousa as its commander , but he had difficulty arming more than a small force . On 29 July 1808 , Loison ' s troops reached the outskirts of Évora to find a Portuguese - Spanish force arrayed across their path . Leite led one and a half battalions of Portuguese infantry and 120 cavalrymen . From Badajoz , Colonel Moretti brought an additional one and a half battalions of Spanish infantry , the " Maria Luisa " Hussar Regiment Nr . 5 , and seven field guns . Behind them , manning the ancient walls of Évora was a motley collection of townsmen and peasants armed with bird guns and pikes . The allied regulars totalled about 2 , 900 men . Leite and Moretti would have been better advised to put their soldiers behind Évora ' s crumbling walls . Their battle line buckled under the impact of Loison ' s opening charge . The Spanish hussars fled at once and Leite galloped off with unseemly haste . Most of the infantry were more resolute and rallied behind the town wall . However , the pursuing French burst into the town in several places and massacred the badly - armed defenders . Many non - combatants were probably killed as well . Having disposed of the armed opposition , the French subjected the unfortunate town to a brutal sack . According to Maximilien Sebastien Foy the Portuguese and Spanish lost 2 , 000 men . Paul Thiébault claimed that the defenders suffered 8 , 000 casualties , which Oman found unlikely . French losses were 90 killed and 200 wounded . On 1 August , Loison continued his march to Elvas where he drove off a large number of militia that were besieging the place . At Elvas he received a message from Junot directing him to return at once . A British expedition under Sir Arthur Wellesley landed on the coast on 1 August . Loison immediately turned around and headed back to Lisbon . On the way , he dropped off the Hanoverian Legion to hold Santarém . The next action was the Battle of Roliça on 17 August 1808 .