The Battle of Cabrita Point, usually referred to as the Battle of Marbella, was a naval battle that took place while a combined Spanish-French force besieged Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 on 10 March 1705 (21 March 1705 in the New Calendar) during the War of Spanish Succession.

The battle was an allied victory (English, Dutch and Portuguese) which effectively ended the Franco-Spanish siege of Gibraltar.

Prelude

The allies had conquered Gibraltar on behalf of the Archduke Charles of Habsburg

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...

 on 1 August 1704. The Spanish besieged the city by land, and in that year, the French had made a first failed attempt to attack from the sea in the Battle of Vélez-Málaga.

In January 1705 Philip V of Spain

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...

 was determined to reconquer the city and had Villadarias

Francisco Castillo Fajardo, Marquis of Villadarias

Francisco Castillo Fajardo, 2nd Marquis of Villadarias , was a Spanish general.- Service Record :...

 replaced by Marshal de Tessé

René de Froulay de Tessé

René de Froulay, comte de Tessé was a French Marshal and diplomat.- Military career :Tessé was born at Le Mans...

. Tessé realized that Gibraltar would never be retaken as long as the allies could access it from the sea. He therefore ordered Admiral Pointis

Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis

Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis was a French admiral and privateer.He took part in naval operations in the 1680s under Duquesne, like the bombardment of Algiers and the punitive action against Genoa...

 to block up the place by sea with his squadron of 18 ships of the line. Some of these ships were Spanish under José Fernández de Santillán. Gibraltar was not a permanent harbour yet for the English fleet, which was anchored in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 at the time.

The commander of Gibraltar, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt

Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt

Prince George Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt was a Field Marshal in the Austrian army. He is known for his career in Habsburg Spain, as Viceroy of Catalonia , head of the Austrian army in the War of Spanish Succession and governor of Gibraltar in 1704...

, despatched an express to Lisbon, desiring Sir John Leake

John Leake

Sir John Leake was an English Admiral in the Royal Navy and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1715.Leake was born at Rotherhithe, the second son of Richard Leake, Master Gunner of England....

 to sail to his assistance. This admiral set sail immediately with five sail of the line and a body of troops. By the morning of 10 March, he had a squadron of 23 English, eight Portuguese ships of various sizes, and four Dutch.

The battle

Arriving at Gibraltar, he found five French ships hauling out of the bay. Admiral Leake had every advantage and he pressed home his attack with speed and vigour. In a swift and skilful action near Cabrita Point, 9 miles south-west of Marbella

Marbella

Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....

, the Dutch took two of the French ships, Leake a third. Pointis had no other option than to run the two remaining ships ashore and burn them to avoid capture.

The remaining part of the French squadron had been blown from their anchors by a gale, and taken shelter in the bay of Malaga

Málaga

Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...

; but now they slipped their cables and made the best of their way to Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

.

Aftermath

The Marshal de Tessé, in consequence of this disaster, turned the siege of Gibraltar into a blockade, and withdrew the greater part of his forces on March 31. Pointis retired from active service after this battle.

Leake had not only scored a remarkable victory, but had saved Gibraltar from attack and had enhanced his already high reputation.