3-098-955 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Defence of the Convent of Santa Engracia in Zaragoza, 1809, (1890). Depiction of an episode during the second siege (21-12-1808 / 21-2-1809) to which the city of Zaragoza was subjected by the French Marshal Jean Lannes (1769-1809) in the War of Independence (1808-1814). Women fight on the front line alongside the men. Extract from Modesto Lafuente's General History of Spain: "Lannes had to forbid his officers from advancing in the open, and to save blood, he ordered them to only use sapping and the same for blowing up buildings. Let us hear how this illustrious marshal expressed himself in his dispatch of the 28th (January 1809) to the Emperor: 'Never have I seen, sir, such ferocity as that shown by our enemies [ie the Spanish] in the defence of this stronghold; I have seen women let themselves be killed before the breach, each house requires a new assault.' He said this after having sent a messenger, who brought back the reply that they were prepared to defend themselves to the last wall. After having fought deadly and useless battles to take the convents of San Agustín and Santa Mónica, after having disputed the position of an outpost of houses adjoining Santa Engracia, not only house by house, but floor by floor and room by room."