Battle of Brihuega The Battle of Brihuega took place on 8 December 1710 in the War of the Spanish Succession , during the allied retreat from Madrid to Barcelona . The British rearguard under Lord Stanhope was cut off within the town of Brihuega and overwhelmed by a Franco - Spanish army under the duc de Vendôme . Prelude . In 1710 , victories at the Battle of Almenara ( July 27 ) and the Battle of Saragossa ( August 20 ) allowed the Grand Alliance army supporting Archduke Charles to occupy Madrid for the second time . On 21 September the Archduke — Charles III of Spain , according to the Allies — entered his prospective capital . But the invasion of 1710 proved to be a repetition of the invasion of 1706 : The Alliance ' s 23 , 000 men , reduced by a loss of 2 , 000 in the actions at Almenara and Saragossa , by constant skirmishes with the " guerrilleros " , and by disease , were unequal to the task of holding their conquests and occupying the two Castiles . The Portuguese were unable to offer help . The Bourbon army was rapidly refitted and reorganized by French general the duc de Vendôme , who was lent to Philip V ' s service by the latter ' s grandfather , the Sun King . Spanish volunteers and regular units were joined by the Irish brigade and by French troops secretly directed to enter Spanish service . Madrid emptied , deserted by all except the poorest of its inhabitants , and the Grand Alliance ' s position became untenable . On 9 November the Alliance evacuated the city and embarked on a retreat to Catalonia . Leaving behind the main body of the army , the Archduke advanced with a guard of 2 , 000 cavalry , hurrying back to Barcelona . The rest of the army marched in two detachments , the division being imposed on them by difficulty of foraging . General Guido Starhemberg marched ahead with the main body of 12 , 000 men , a day ' s march ahead of the British troops , 5 , 000 men under Lord Stanhope . This division of forces invited disaster in the presence of the duc de Vendôme , a capable and resourceful leader . The battle . Vendôme set out from Talavera with his troops , and pursued the retreating British army with a speed perhaps never equalled in such a season and in such a country . The middle aged Frenchman led his Franco - Spanish army day and night . In typical Vendôme style , he swam , at the head of his cavalry , the flooded Henares and in a few days overtook Stanhope , who was at Brihuega with the left wing of the Grand Alliance army . " Nobody with me , " said the British general , " imagined that they had any foot within some days ' march of us and our misfortune is owing to the incredible diligence which their army made . " Stanhope had barely enough time to send off a messenger to the centre of the army , which was some leagues from Brihuega , before Vendôme was upon him on the evening of 8 December . The next morning the town was invested on every side . Blasting the walls of Brihuega with heavy cannon , a mine was sprung under one of the gates . The British kept up a terrible fire till their powder was spent . They then fought desperately against overwhelming odds as Vendôme ' s men stormed the city with bayonet s fixed and began to take the town by bloody close quarters fighting , street by street . The British set fire to the buildings which their assailants had taken but in vain . The British general saw that further resistance would produce only a useless carnage . He concluded a capitulation and his army became prisoners of war on honourable terms . Aftermath . Scarcely had Vendôme signed the capitulation , when he learned that Staremberg was marching to the relief of Stanhope . On December 10 the two met in the bloody battle of Villaviciosa , after which Starhemberg continued the allied retreat . The British troops did not remain in captivity for long before they were exchanged and sent home in October 1711 .