Albuera or Albuhera is a small village in the Spanish province of Badajoz. Just 13km to the south is the site of a famous victory won there on 16 May 1811, by the British and their Portuguese and Spanish allies, under General Beresford, over a French Army commanded by Marshall Soult.
In 1811 Wellington's forces were laying siege to the fortress of Badajoz on the frontier of Portugal and Spain. Marshal Soult, the French Commander in Southern Spain, brought a force of 24,000 men to relieve the garrison. The allied force of 15,000 Spaniards, 12,000 Portuguese and 10,000 British soldiers took up a position at Albuhera to meet the French.
On 16 May 1811, the French attacked to the surprise of the Spaniards. The remaining British Regiments stood firm, but were now greatly outnumbered by the French. The only British reserve was the Fusilier Brigade, commanded by Sir William Myers of the Royal Fusiliers, and composed of the 1st and 2nd Battalions Royal Fusiliers and 1st Battalion the 23rd, or Royal Welsh Fusiliers.