This isn't a battle painting as such, but rather a recreation I made of a famous battle painting using model soldiers. Who recognises the battle and the painting?!

The capture of the double English convoy of 1780, the action of August 9, 1780 or the Battle of Cape Santa Maria (1780) took place within the framework of the American War of Independence, and more specifically, in the Anglo-Spanish War (1779-1783) when, based on information provided by the Spanish intelligence services, a combined Spanish-French fleet under the command of the director general of the Spanish Navy, Don Luis de Córdova, managed to capture - with hardly any resistance and when they had not yet separated - two English convoys, one bound for India and the other for America, which were loaded with troops, supplies and weapons and were heading to support the British colonial wars overseas.

The losses represented for the United Kingdom the greatest logistical disaster in its naval history, even surpassing that suffered by the PQ 17 convoy, lost to German forces more than a century and a half later, during the Second World War. The number of captured ships and men, as well as the amount of more than a million pounds sterling in gold bullion and coins that passed into Spanish hands, caused heavy losses on the London Stock Exchange (whose index plummeted by 18 percentage points), which seriously damaged the important finances that the Kingdom of Great Britain maintained to be able to sustain the distant wars it was fighting.

This successful interception demonstrated that the English fleet, dispersed in too many theatres of operations, had lost control of the Atlantic routes in 1780, which in 1781 favoured the Franco-American victory at Yorktown and the successful recovery by the Spanish of Menorca in 1782.

George III suffered a fainting spell when he received the news, not only because of the blow to the State coffers, but because he had just lost a significant sum of his own assets that, on the advice of his secretary, he had invested in three securities on the London Stock Exchange. The insurance company Lloyd's, one of the sovereign's investments, went into the red the week after news of the naval action, having to face insurance policies worth more than half of its assets and losing 60 percent of its stock market value. This Spanish victory, added to the serious losses caused by the storms in the Caribbean, caused a financial crisis among marine insurers throughout Europe.

Until November 1865, Chile had been the only country firm in its declaration of war against Spain, which desired to recapture its lost South American colonies. Through the efforts of its president, Mariano Ignacio Prado, Peru was subsequently galvanized into action against Spain.

The Battle of San Mateo was a serie of battles in the Valleys of Aragua in what is now Venezuela, during the Venezuelan War of Independence between 28 February and 25 March 1814.

I bought this print several years ago at auction for $10.