Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1586)

Part of the Anglo–Spanish War

Sir Francis Drake in Cartagena de Indias 1585.
From a hand-colored engraving, by Baptista Boazio, 1589

Date

9–11 February 1586.

Location

Cartagena de Indias, New Kingdom of Granada
(Present day Colombia)

Result

English victory

Two month English occupation of Cartagena de Indias

Belligerents

Spain

England

Commanders and leaders

Gov Pedro de Bustos
Pedro Vique Manrique

Francis Drake
Christopher Carleill

Strength

900 soldiers & militia,
400 Indian allies,
2 Galleys
1 Galleass
300 sailors
Various Forts

30 Ships
2,300 Soldiers & Sailors

Casualties and losses

300 killed wounded or captured,
2 Galleys sunk
1 Galleass captured
6 ships captured

28 killed and 50 wounded
1 Prize sunk

₮

English victory

The Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1586) or the Capture of Cartagena de Indias was a military and naval action fought on 9–11 February 1586, of the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War that resulted in the assault and capture by English soldiers and sailors of the Spanish city of Cartagena de Indias governed by Pedro de Bustos on the Spanish Main. The English were led by Francis Drake. The raid was part of his Great Expedition to the Spanish New World. The English soldiers then occupied the city for over two months and captured much booty along with a ransom before departing on 12 April.

War had already been unofficially declared by Philip II of Spain after the Treaty of Nonsuch in which Elizabeth I had offered her support to the rebellious Protestant Dutch rebels. The Queen through Francis Walsingham ordered Sir Francis Drake to lead an expedition to attack the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. Sailing from Plymouth, England, he struck first at Santiago in November 1585 then sailed across the Atlantic on New Years Day 1586 to the Spanish New world city of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, which was captured, plundered, and a 25,000-ducat ransom extorted. Drake, having raided Cartagena harbor a decade before, decided this important place was the next target.

Governor Don Pedro Fernandez de Busto had been warned from a vessel that had sailed fast from the recently sacked city of Santo Domingo that his city would be next. He decided that all value was to be transported inland, while the city itself was evacuated of all non-combatants. Don Pedro Fernandez called for reinforcements from other nearby settlements and the militia of Cartagena was mustered and defences were prepared. The English fleet after leaving Santo Domingo sailed parallel along the New Granadan coast towards Cartagena. Drake knew that the coast was a treacherous one and a dangerous place to land sailors let alone soldiers.

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Wikipedia