In 1650, during the Fronde, King Philip IV of Spain allied with the Duchess of Longueville and Vicomte de Turenne, offering them warships, soldiers and money to fight his enemy Louis XIV of France. Most of the Spanish fleet, however, was occupied in the blockade of Barcelona, and only three frigates commanded by José de Osorio could be sent to Girdonde estuary. Archduke Leopold Wilhem succeeded in attacking the French fleet at Dunkirk and defeated it with great loss, while the Grand AdmiralDuke of Vendôme captured the fortress of Bourg-sur-Gironde from the Spanish on 4 July 1653, investing Bordeaux shortly after. King Philip IV then ordered a fleet composed of eight galleons, eight fireships and all the frigates and pinnaces available to sail with urgency to relieve Bordeaux from the port of Pasaia. In addition, Marquis of Santa Cruz and Admiral Manuel de Buñuelos were urged to sail from Cádiz in command of the Armada del Mar Océano with the same purpose. Despite all the efforts, when the Spanish fleet arrived, Bordeaux, due to lack of supplies, had capitulated to the French Royal Army. Santa Cruz was, however, ordered then attack the French fleet of the Grand Admiral Duke of Vendôme.
Battle
As the position of the French warships remained unknown to the Spanish, Santa Cruz spent some time searching them along the estuary. I was not until 14 October when a French squadron of 3 galleys and 8 brigantines was sighted entering the Blaye's channel. Santa Cruz immediately dispatched 4 frigates and 2 fireships to block the mouth of the channel and sent Lieutenant General Luis de Guzmán to explore the area. It proved to be a gut inaccessible for the biggest ships, as during the low tide the water level was extremely low, so it was planned attack the French squadron by land. By 20 October the preparations were ready. At 3:00 AM. of that day Melchor de la Cueva's, Duke of Veragua's and Francisco de Meneses' tercios landed on both shores of the channel and moved towards the French vessel's concentration, located in front of a castle garrisoned by a French and a Scottish regiments. These troops, along with a cavalry corps coming from a nearby village, skirmished with the Spanish tercios until 5:00 PM., when the high tide allowed the Spanish seamen to sail 3 galleys and 7 brigantines out of the channel. 2 frigates, 2 brigantines and 15 barges were set on fire due the impossibility of refloat them, as well as the houses of the bourg after being sacked. The whole operation was carried out with no casualty.
Aftermath
The day following the battle, the Spanish ships shelled the village of Montagne, after which 1,600 soldiers were landed and looted it, capturing large amounts of cattle, wine, wheat and other provisions. Royan and several other nearby places were also plundered. Few days later, a surprise attack on the Island of Ré failed due to the errors of Santa Cruz and Buñuelos. After that Santa Cruz returned to Spain. His fleet anchored in the port Pasaia, near Donostia, despite he had no orders to do it. For this reason or for his failure against Ré, he was imprisoned in the Castle of San Torcaz. Admiral Manuel de Buñuelos was also punished, being recluded in the Castle of Vélez.
