" how good was the Spanish Cavalry?" Topic

I was wondering just how good was the Spanish Cavalry? How well did they fair with the French Cavalry? I have read accounts of how Wellington was not please with the British Cavalry. He stated they charge off any where at any thing and get too far ahead of the other supporting arms of service. Makes me wonder about the Spanish Cavalry units. I look forward to your replies.

Apparently not very good at all. Most wargame rules reflect this. They did have their moments a few times. I read that one big problem they had was mounts – they never had enough or of good enough quality.

Saying that – I have four regiments of Spanish cavalry to paint for my 1808 army. Oh joy.

Concur with Brian – is not good.

But then then the yellow dragoons do look nice and even poor cavalry at the right time and place can do all sorts of damage.

They had significant problems with horseflesh as well, did they not? They sure are pretty.

Green beanie -poor leadership and a general shortage of horses meant that pretty much every time the Spanish horse met their French counterparts they got thrashed. What this meant was that in retreat the Spanish infantry and artillery (which also had a lack of horsepower) just got swept up. The problem affected Wellington as well because he could find draught horses for his wagons and artillery.

The classic example of Spanish failure is at Ocana where the French Dragoons swept aside the Spanish cavalry facing them and then proceeded to roll up the Spanish line creating Spain's worst defeat of the war.

But they do look very pretty. If you are playing Spanish to win wargames then clearly you haven't done your research! But they are very nice looking troops who kept on coming back every time they got a pasting.

Thrashed on the battlefield most times but their great strength was persistence, indeed this is true of the Spaniards in general – they just hung in there. Eventually, with the huge assistance of the Anglo-Portuguese they outlasted the French and freed their country.

It could be successful though:

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Regards

I think, like the British, French and Portuguese armies over the eight+ years of war, not all infantry and cavalry were a uniform quality, either in leadership or experience.

And while it was generally difficult to obtain mounts in Spain, and the country was very hard on horseflesh, the Spanish were able to field sizable forces through the war, such as Ocana, Talavera, Vittoria and the 1813-14 campaigns.

So when the question is, "How good was the Spanish Cavalry?", the answering question has to be "Which units and when?"

They look pretty flash.

From what I've read the spanish cavalry were likely to run away in great disorder even if it was only the sound of their own infantry delivering a volley that frightened them….

Poor mounts, etc. as mentioned above. At Albuera the Spanish cavalry charged after Colborne's brigade was ridden down by the Vistula Lancers. The attack was seen off by the Poles but Colborne escaped during the confusion. It seems the Spanish closed with the Poles even though they did not prevail.

Many rules assume the Spanish were just terrible. They were often poorly led, usually poorly supplied and in a state of confusion since the Peninsular War began with the French taking out the central Spanish government. But they could fight with bravery and tenacity, like Zayas' division at Albuera and Saguntum.