Battle of Mallavelly

Battle of Mallavelly
Part of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War
Date 27 March 1799 Location Malavalli, Karnataka, India 2°20′50″N 77°03′52″E / 2.347139°N 77.064333°E / 2.347139; 77.064333Coordinates: 2°20′50″N 77°03′52″E / 2.347139°N 77.064333°E / 2.347139; 77.064333 Result British victory
Belligerents
British East India Company	Mysore
Commanders and leaders
George Harris Arthur Wellesley	Tipu Sultan
Casualties and losses
66–69 men,	1,000–2,000

The Battle of Mallavelly (also spelled Malvilly or Malavalli) was fought on 27 March 1799 between forces of the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The British forces, led by General George Harris and Colonel Arthur Wellesley, drove the Mysorean force of Tipu Sultan from a defensive position designed to impede the British force's progress toward Mysore's capital, Seringapatam.

Although the reduction of the power and resources of Tipu Sultan, effected by the Treaty of Seringapatam, which terminated the Third Anglo-Mysore War of 1792, had weakened his influence, yet he remained a perceived threat to the British East India Company. The Sultan had entered into a negotiation with the Governor of the Isle of France (Mauritius), in 1798, and sent an embassy to Zaman Shah, ruler of Kabul, for the purpose of inducing him to attack the possessions of the East India Company. Having also derived encouragement from the successes of Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, from which France intended to act against the British dominions in India, Tipu commenced augmenting his military force, and his hostile designs against the British became every day more apparent. Governor-General Richard, Earl of Mornington (afterwards Marquess of Wellesley) perceiving a rupture inevitable, resolved to launch a preemptive strike, and ordered the army to take the field and march into the heart of the Tipu's Mysore territory.

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