Chapter 45. The civil war (1628-1635) -1-
After the proclamations of the Aragonese Parliaments, Trastámara decided to quell the rebellion with a risky move: he would take a small elite force to storm Zaragoza by surprise and to arrest all the members of the Parliaments gathered there. Thus, on July 22, 1628 his force was ambushed by Eduardo de Toledo himself when Trastámara was crossing the village of Paniza, 52 kilometres to the south of Zaragoza. While Trastámara had 3,000 men with him, Toledo led a force of around 8,000 troops and had the element of surprise. The men of Trastámara, in spite of their elite status, broke when they were fired from all sides and fled. Their commander attempted to organize a last stand but when Manuel de Guzmán y Silva, 8th Duke of Medina Sidonia (1579-1628), was mortally wounded, Trastámara lost his temper and joined the rout. Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, Duke of Olivares (1587-1628), was killed when he was trying to form a rearguard to cover the retreat. A struggle that had lasted less than half an hour and which resulted in fewer than 160 casualties combined began the war.
In this situation, a man held the keys of the Empire: Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, 5th Duke of Alba, who had the command of the Hispanic largest
standing army. Even worse, as Alba was one of the richest men in the Empire, he could afford to pay the salaries of the bulk of the army. However, Alba was more a poet and a philosopher than a condottiero, and, for the moment, he was happy enough when the King chose him to replace Trastámara as the de facto
valido (the king's favourite) and as first minister. However, all the attempts to reconcile both sides failed and Trastámara replaced Alba and recovered his position on October 25, 1628.
Neither side had not been idle during this time and had been actively recruiting armed support for their cause, but it seemed as neither Toledo nor Trastámara were willing to be the one to fire the first shot. Meanwhile, Toledo, still the uncrowned king of Aragon, had the Parliaments to pass a new ordinance that increased the religious rights of the Reformed and other religious (Christians, of course) minorities in the Crown of Aragon. In the end. Trastámara moved first and attempted to win to his side the Navarrese kingdom. Even though Navarre was one of the domains of the king of Aragon, Pamplona had remained silent during the crisis. Thus, the king's favourite dispatched Carlos Coloma (1566-1637) with 10,000 men to Pamplona to secure the city and thus the kingdom. On the way, they were ambushed at Valdejunquera (April 15, 1629) by Ranuccio Farnesio, Duke of Parma, who was moving in the same direction and with the same mission. Even if he had just 5,000 men with him, Farnesio launched a daring attack against the superior enemy force, Coloma, a veteran soldier, took up a defensive position; however, the commander of his cavalry launched his horses in a mad dash against the enemy formation; they were throwback with heavy losses, but the cavalry charged again. Against his best instincts, Coloma attacked with the bulk of his army, starting a confusing melée during which the Loyalist commander was cut down; this caused his complete left flank to flee with the parts of his army that had not yet committed themselves. At this point, all remaining Loyalist resistance collapsed, and the Aragonese soldiers had only to advance to complete the
rout, which continued through the night, with the Aragonese soldiers pursuing the fleeing enemy for miles across the countryside. At least 1,000 Loyalists were killed with the Aragonese losing nearly 400. Unopposed, Farnesio entered Pamplona, where he was acknowledged as the lieutenant of Eduardo of Toledo in that kingdom.
Then, suddenly, Eduardo of Toledo suddenly fell ill. His doctors attributed his illness to a cold, while his closest friends mentioned a stroke. In other words, no one had a name for the illness that sent Eduardo to his grave. Rumours abound of death by poisoning while some people ascribed it as the result of eating a salad after he had become overcome by heat which caused a chill, others said it was an apoplexy brought on by the stubborn Aragonese Parliaments, and even a bout malaria was suggested. In any case, on April 24, 1629, Eduardo of Toledo was dead. Hardly a week later his son Pere, who was 34 years old, was crowned as Pedro V of Aragon and II of Castile. His first campaign, though, was to take him North, not West. During his time in Toulouse he had learnt during their talks with the Occitan nobility about the French weaknesses; this knowledge had been reinforced by a small web of spies that he had created in France when he was in Barcelona.
The dire situation of Ferdinand II had prompted Louis XIII of France to dispatch Henri II de Montmorency with 16,000 men to Bohemia to support their king. There he joined hands with the Bohemian Generalísimo, Count Jindřich Matyáš of Thurn-Valsassina, who led the united army north, crossing into Polish Prussia in May 1632 and seized the port town of Danzig
. The Swedes were furious, as this moved put their control of the Baltic in jeopardy and, thus, dispatched Crown Prince Gustav with an army of 25,000 to recapture the city. This marked the beginning of the Bohemian-Swedish War (1632-1635). As the Swedes dominated the Baltic Sea they were able to easily shipp men and supplies to Germany, something that spelled troubles to no end for Bohemia and his allies. To the south, Ferdinand II could not believe his luck.
In Barcelona Pedro V could not believe his eyes. Thus, as the Franco-Bohemian and Swedish armies clashed in the battle of Rain (September, 15, 1632), Pedro invaded France while his brother Jaime protected the Aragonese border. Surprised by this move, Louis XIII redirected the reinforcements destined to Bohemia under the command of Charles, Duke of Nevers. One month later, Nevers was crushed in the battle of Guéret (October 9, 1632) and Louis XIII quickly offered peace terms. In fact, the French king bought peace for his realm; he was to pay 125,000 crowns to Pedro, who then rushed south to fight for his crown.
He was in a hurry, indeed, as King Jaime and the Duke of Trastámara were advancing towards Zaragoza with 75,000 men.