By 1713, the thunder of cannons from the War of the Spanish Succession, which had ravaged Europe for over a decade, had almost faded. The Treaty of Utrecht brought an end to the global rivalry between the Bourbons and the Habsburgs, securing the Spanish throne for Philip V. The great powers withdrew their troops, leaving the Principality of Catalonia alone to wage its desperate struggle for autonomy against the combined forces of the Spanish and French monarchies.
Left without allied support, the Catalans were forced to urgently assemble their own military forces. The new army, a mix of regular regiments and local militias, was divided into two parts. One, under the command of Antonio de Villarroel, took on the defense of besieged Barcelona. The other, led by the Marquis del Poal, was tasked with operating behind enemy lines throughout the principality.
This resistance was not an act of desperation. The Catalan leadership harbored hopes that the Austrians, once the international situation stabilized, would re-enter the conflict—as indeed happened a few years later in Italy. The strategy was simple: Villarroel was to tie down the enemy’s main forces at the capital’s walls for as long as possible, buying time while del Poal’s mobile detachments exhausted the enemy with guerrilla tactics and disrupted their supply lines.
Everything changed in the summer of 1714. The arrival of a massive French army led by the Duke of Berwick, a seasoned commander, dramatically tipped the fragile balance of power. Barcelona found itself surrounded by a tight ring of siege batteries and trenches. In this critical situation, the Marquis del Poal received an almost impossible order: with his modest forces, he was to attempt to break the blockade. He positioned his troops at the crossroads near Talamanca, waiting for the right moment to strike.
It was there, on August 13, that the Bourbon vanguard found him. The column pursuing the Catalans was commanded by the Count de Montemar. This marked the beginning of a battle between approximately 3,750 supporters of Philip V and about 4,000 supporters of the Habsburgs. This day would go down in history as the last victory of Catalan arms before the tragic fall of Barcelona.
The opposing sides took positions on opposite slopes of a small river valley, overlooked by the villages of Talamanca and Mussarra. Montemar attempted to seize the initiative by positioning detachments of miquelets—Catalan light infantry serving the Bourbons—along the stream separating the armies. However, his formation proved too stretched and deep, giving a tactical advantage to del Poal’s forces, which were arranged in a single, unified line.
The rugged terrain, abundant with forests and ravines, was advantageous for the Catalans, who had almost a thousand of their own miquelets in the ranks, and seriously hampered the movements of the enemy cavalry. Thus, when the advance began, del Poal’s troops moved forward through the thickets without much difficulty, scattered the enemy skirmishers, and crossed the water barrier.
Following this success, del Poal sent his right flank in a sweeping maneuver to strike the Bourbon forces from the rear at Mossarra. Meanwhile, the main units attacked the Spanish infantry regiments positioned in the second line. A fierce firefight ensued, in which the regular Spanish troops suffered heavy losses from the accurate fire of the Catalan irregular marksmen. The only thing that saved Philip V’s supporters from complete defeat was that the attackers began to run out of powder and bullets. As del Poal himself later noted in his report, his miquelets, ‘finding themselves without ammunition and forced to withdraw, did so in perfect order, threatening with volleys from their muskets and defending themselves with stones.’
Formally, the confrontation ended with both sides returning to their initial positions. However, this was clearly a tactical defeat for the Bourbon forces. Their casualties were enormous—around 650 men—while the Catalans lost only 35. A demoralized Montemar gave the order to retreat. The Catalans pursued the withdrawing enemy, who, according to eyewitnesses, despite attempts to organize a defense, did not stop until they reached Sabadell.
Unfortunately, this success had no strategic consequences. Del Poal did not dare to use the victory to attack the siege corps near Barcelona, understanding the enormous imbalance of forces. He continued his tactic of exhausting raids, and after the fall of the capital on September 11, emigrated to Naples. The last stronghold of resistance, the fortress of Cardona, surrendered a week later. This marked the beginning of long years of exile for Catalan leaders and a new historical period for Catalonia itself.
