loading

ENCYCLOPAEDIA of Rebellions

Type a location (e.g. Barcelona), or a year (e.g. 1638) or a category of event (e.g. uprising) to filter the corresponding results.

Anti-French riots in Valencia 1808

Synopsis
The riots of Valencia follow the script of the anti-Napoleonic uprisings in Spain in late May 1808: elites supporting Ferdinand VII gain power in the seats of the regional ‘capitanias generales’, relying on popular mobilization. In Valencia, a crowd made up of urban artisans and peasants from the surrounding ‘Huerta’ mobilized from May 23 onward. Led by figures such as captain Vicente González Moreno or the friar Juan Rico, organized into militias armed by the Bertran de Lis merchant family, they besieged the highest political court, the ‘Audiencia’, and forced its captain general to resign in favour of a ‘Ferdinandist’ lieutenant general, the Count of Cervellon, and to appoint a patriotic ‘Junta’ that declared war on Napoleon and ordered general enlistment. The lynching on May 27 of the Baron of Albalat, whose body was riddled with stab wounds and whose head was displayed on a pike, made Valencia a pioneer of a wave of exemplary lynching sweeping across the Iberian Peninsula. Aggrieved as they were by economic crisis, taking advantage of the disintegration of public order, the armed popular militias led by new leaders such as canon Baltasar Calvo became radicalized, and stormed on June 5 the Citadel where French civilians had been confined for their protection: almost all of them, between 300 and 400, were beaten and stabbed to death, the worst patriotic massacre of the Peninsular War. The local elites would regain control: disarmament of civilians, militarization of public order, and the formation of a Security Tribunal that ordered dozens of exemplary executions, which for three months stained the city and the settlements of its Huerta.
Additional info

Starting date: . Ending: . Duration: 3 weeks. Name in sources: Alzamiento de Valencia contra Napoléon. Location: Valencia Country (current): Spain. Monarchy: Spanish. Main participants: Artisans, Local elites, Peasants. Number of participants: >500. Main reasons & motivations: Economic, Political, Resistance to conquest. Leadership: Conde de Cervelló, Vicente Bertran de Lis, Frai Juan Rico, Baltasar Calvo. Relevance: high.

Further reading
CARDESÍN DÍAZ, José María (2024). “Sublevación popular y linchamiento ‘patriótico’ en la Guerra de la Independencia”, in J.M. Cardesín (coord). Revuelta popular y violencia colectiva en la Guerra de la Independencia. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, pp. 237-276. PIQUERAS, José Antonio (2024). “El furor de una multitud anónima: La masacre de franceses de 1808 en Valencia”, in J.M. Cardesín (coord). Revuelta popular… pp. 87-112. RICO, Fray Juan (1811). Memorias históricas de la Revolución de Valencia. Cádiz: Imprenta Manuel Santiago de Quintana.
Cite this entry

Cardesín, José María (2026). "Anti-French riots in Valencia 1808", in J. V. Serrão and M. S. Cunha (coord), Encyclopaedia of Rebellions in the Early Modern Iberian World. https://mappingrebellions.com/revolt/anti-french-riots-in-valencia-1808/ (accessed on 26 October 2026).