14 August in military history: the Battle of Aljubarrota, 1385

On 14 August 1385, on the plateau of São Jorge near Aljubarrota in Portugal. The foundation that runs the battlefield dates it to a Monday; the chronicler Froissart puts it on a Saturday, the feast of Our Lady, in August 1385.

The estimates differ. The Aljubarrota Battle Foundation gives 31,000 to 44,000 Castilians, support personnel included, against about 7,000 Portuguese combatants, and thinks only about 10,000 Castilians actually fought. The historian João Gouveia Monteiro estimates perhaps 20,000 Castilians against fewer than 10,000 Portuguese, non-combatants included.

They waited on a narrow plateau covered by streams, ditches, hidden pits and abatis, so that the Castilians could attack only on a narrow front. According to Froissart, the English archers shot down the attackers' horses; the foundation writes that the French vanguard attacked before the whole Castilian army was in position.

The foundation estimates about 4,000 Castilian dead and 5,000 prisoners, and Portuguese losses on the field at no more than 300 to 400 combatants, which its panel elsewhere gives as 400 to 500. It adds that the Portuguese population killed more than 5,500 fleeing Castilians in the following days.

Joseon Korea. Yi Sun-sin, with Yi Eok-gi and Won Gyun, lured Wakisaka Yasuharu's squadron out of the Gyeonnaeryang strait and surrounded it in the crane-wing formation on the 8th day of the 7th lunar month of 1592, 14 August by the KASI converter.