On the thirteenth day of March the army was assembled at Caudela, to the number of sixteen thousand men; under the auspices of the marquis das Minas, to whom the earl of Galway was second in command.

They marched towards Yecla, and undertook the siege of Vilena; but having received intelligence that the duke of Berwick was in the neighbourhood, they advanced on the fourteenth day of April in four columns towards the town of Almanza, where the enemy were drawn up in order of battle, their number being considerably superior to that of the confederates.

The battle began about two in the afternoon, and the whole front of each army was fully engaged.

The English and Dutch squadrons on the left, sustained by the Portuguese horse of the second line, were overpowered after a gallant resistance.

The centre, consisting chiefly of battalions from Great Britain and Holland, obliged the enemy to give way, and drove their first upon their second line; but the Portuguese cavalry on the right being broken at the first charge, the foot betook themselves to flight; so that the English and Dutch troops being left naked on the flanks, were surrounded and attacked on every side.