Siege of Xàtiva (1707)

Portrait of Phillip V of Spain, exhibited upside-down in the Museum of Almodí, for having burned the city after the siege

The siege of Xàtiva was a blockade of the town of Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia. It took place between 8 May and 6 June 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Between 9,000 and 11,000 Castilian and French troops under Philip of Bourbon commanded by Claude François Bidal d'Asfeld and José Antonio de Chaves Osorio faced an Aragonese and British force of about 2,000 under Miguel Purroi and Josep Marco.

The Franco-Castilian forces were victorious, and the city's defenders were massacred as an exemplary punishment. Most of the rest of the town's inhabitants were deported to the Manche region and the city was burned down and renamed 'San Felipe'. In reference to this episode in their history, Xàtiva's inhabitants are nicknamed 'socarrats' ('grilled people').

Bibliography

• Pascual i Beltran, Ventura (1925). Datos para la historia del exterminio de Játiva en la Guerra de Sucesión (in Spanish). Associació d'Amics de la Costera, Institut d'Estudis Comarcals. p. 177. ISBN 9788461128235.
• Ramírez Aldedon, Germà; Blesa Duet, Isaïes (2007). La destrucció de Xàtiva en 1707 i el govern de la ciutat en l'exili (in Catalan). Ulleye, Xàtiva.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)